Angelina Jolie, Hollywood's biggest action star
Salt, the spy movie starring Angelina Jolie that opens next Friday in the US, will set some records for its actress.
Starting with being a movie in which Jolie received 20 million dollars, one of the highest figures ever received by an actress in Hollywood. Also, the story of this fugitive FBI spy was intended to be played by a man, originally Tom Cruise, but in view of the actress, it was totally rewritten.
"It's definitely unusual for a woman to become an action star," said Salt producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. "But it's kind of fun. She's not a female action star; she's an action star. She's the first woman to transcend gender. I don't think it's happened before," he added.
By Di Bonaventura's point, it is rare for a lead role to be rewritten from male to female.
However, based on Jolie's track record, it's not that strange. In the past 10 years, she has starred in five hit action movies averaging $ 124 million at the local box office. Worldwide, the total raised is close to $ 1.5 billion. That refers only to her action roles: Wanted (2008), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and Gone in 60 Seconds (2000).
De Salt, directed by Philip Noyce, is expected to outperform previous Jolie films, which also took advantage of the contingency of the recent Russian spy scandal discovered in the US.
Sony is also in charge of his next project, The Tourist, a remake of the French thriller Anthony Zimmer (2005), which will hit theaters in February.
In the film, he will share the screen with one of the highest grossing actors in the world, Johnny Depp. Like Elise, a femme fatale, Jolie will be able to show her sensual side as well as her action side.
Few actresses in Hollywood history have been able to contest a male-dominated genre like Jolie. In fact, her achievement is much greater than that.
Her standard settlement, which she received from Salt and The Tourist, compares only to one or two actors in the world, at $ 20 million up front, a large percentage of the profits generated plus other sizable benefits. She had already received 15 million for Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Wanted.
"The fact that she is in the entertainment industry and can demand a male salary is something anomalous," said Lori Watson, director of women's and gender studies at the University of San Diego.
And what can it not do? In fact, only one thing: romantic comedies. She once made the attempt, in 2002's Life, or Something Like It, and the $ 14.4 million at the domestic box office was a message she clearly understood.
"She is very strong, very energetic," said famed Hollywood historian David Thomson.
"And that's not just in her fictional characters, but also in her public persona. She doesn't have that kind of availability for romance. She doesn't exactly have the sentimental appeal. She needs to be doing strong things, crazy things, to work on the big screen, "he added.
