‘I hope to start the world’s first female spy franchise’

Mumbai, July 25, 2010
Hindustan Times

Action star Angelina Jolie talks about upcoming movie Salt, denies retirement plans.

How much of the character, Evelyn Salt, was in the script and how much did you shape and mould it?
We shaped a lot of it. The essence of it, a person in the CIA being accused of being a Russian spy, was in the original. But that is pretty much all that was in the original because he was a man. It ended very differently. And there was a wife and a child. We had to re-write most of it.

You get badly beaten up in the film. As an actor, is that harder to do, or is emotional abuse more exhausting?
Emotional abuse is more exhausting. And it’s different. Salt gets beaten up in the film, but she is by no means an abused woman, because she is so aggressive that she beats up more people. She deserves it in some way. By the end, she has killed so many people, they have to beat her up a bit! (Laughs)

Now critics have suggested that your good performances in films like A Mighty Heart or in Changeling, have been undermined by your celebrity status. Do you agree with that?
I don’t. I don’t think so... I don’t know... I suppose you just can’t pay attention to it. You just try to do the best work you can and then you hope that audiences like it.

You hinted at retirement in a recent interview. Is there any truth in that?
No, just that, in years to come, I will probably do less and less work. I’d like to do fewer films for the next few years and then maybe just less, a lot less.

Why?
I just have other things I want to do in life. You know, and as my kids get older, I think it will be good to just work less.

So you’re going to start the world’s first female spy franchise and quit?
No, I am not quitting, just less movies. Just less. I think if you do two a year, then maybe one a year, then maybe you do one every three years and then you just eventually do less. But I hope to start, as you said, the female franchise first.

What’s the most important lesson you want to impart to your children as they grow up?
To have compassion. I would like them to be compassionate and thoughtful people. To be aware of the world around them.

And is that the main reason that you are thinking of less and less work. Do you think it’s important to be there (for your children)?
No, I am there a lot. I only work a few months out of the year, and I am there all the time. I just… I don’t love movies… I’d like to do other things. I’d like to live in Africa for six months. I’d like to live in Cambodia and spend time working on my projects there. There are just other things to do.

In India too, maybe?
Yes, and in India. I would just like to open things up. But nothing drastic… you know, things are blown out of proportion. I will be working for a little while.