The movie role that pushed Angelina Jolie to her limits
Throughout her career, Angelina Jolie has played a variety of weird and wonderful roles. Some have been light and humorous, but in the late 1990s especially, the actor seemed to delve deep into a darker side. She’s been open about the struggles of her life as she navigated depression as a young star, then in 1998, she turned to a new project that could potentially have saved her or pushed her over the edge.
In Jolie’s early 20s, as a fast-rising name to know in the world of Hollywood, she was struggling. She’s admitted to being addicted to “just about every drug possible” as she suffered serious bouts of depression. Jolie found herself in the throes of heroin addiction as she spiralled into utter self-destruction. That’s when she signed on to do Gia.
With knowledge of Jolie’s history, the project immediately reveals itself as a strange and worrisome choice. Telling the story of a tragic figure, Gia Carangi is considered to be the first supermodel. After moving to New York to pursue modelling at only 17, Carangi became a star but also became devastatingly lonely. She spent her earnings on drugs as she was chewed up by the city’s party scene. It eventually resulted in her losing work as she became increasingly unstable and unreliable. By the age of 26, the once famed model was destitute and died tragically of AIDS.
In places, the lives of Jolie and Carangi feel like a sad mirror of one another. Jolie is a supremely beautiful talent who also got started in her industry young, having had negative experiences within modelling. Both had suffered through tumultuous family times due to infidelity. Both figures slipped into heroin use at the age of 20, and both struggled with depression and loneliness. So Jolie’s decision to step fully into Carangi’s shoes felt like it could have led her further down a dark path.
She took it almost worryingly seriously. Desperate to do a good job of portraying the figure that she felt in some way deeply connected to, Jolie went method. To fully embrace Carangi’s loneliness, she cut herself off from loved ones. “I’m alone; I’m dying; I’m gay; I’m not going to see you for weeks,” she told her then-husband Jonny Lee Miller. With the actor already having her own history with drugs and depression, people around her feared the role would land her with the same tragic fate as her character.
But to Jolie, she had higher hopes. She took a more optimistic approach to the project, hoping that it would “purge her demons”. Almost giving her a chance to act out an alternative timeline or a worst-case scenario of what could happen if Jolie did start taking active steps towards recovery and health, playing Carangi felt like exposure therapy.
Gia is regarded as one of Jolie’s finest performances, as she gave everything she had to this project, and this portrayal of the figure is close to her heart. The role won her a Golden Globe for ‘Best Actress In A Motion Picture Made For Television’. She also picked up nominations at the Emmys and SAG Awards.
Whether the role achieved its aim of healing Jolie is unknown. After the film, she took a hiatus from working, claiming she had “nothing else to give” after such an emotionally demanding project. But in 1999, she starred in Girl Interrupted, diving back into the dark topic of mental illness once again.
