Why So Blu?

Comic-Con 2010: Angelina Jolie & Salt

Welcome to the first of many updates from Comic-Con’s Hall H.  Today’s first update begins with a little spy film that opened last night, Salt.  It’s not every day that you get to be in the same room as Angelina Jolie.  Angelina, joined by fellow co-star Liev Schreiber and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura took the Hall H stage at 1 PM on Thursday, July 22nd.  There really is no easy way to do this so I’m just kind of going with a free-for-all format below. I hope you can all follow along and enjoy.

• Angelina used the method for this role.
• Liev said this film was a very fun ride.  He said there are lots of twists and turns and it was fun to do as an actor.  He said he did not read too much into it and just played the scene in front of him every day.
• Angelina did all her own stunts and even got injured.  There was this one scene where she was suppose to pummel through a door and roll down as she was shooting, but instead she cracked her head open on a desk.  She has a little scar.  She did every single stunt without using a single does of CGI.
• Simon Crane, the film’s stunt director, knows Angelina’s strengths and weaknesses and feels safe with his judgments.
• Angelina picked the role because it was a combination of action and drama, her two personal favorites.
• The producers hired an ex-CIA consultant for direction on Angelina’s character.
• Angelina found the lonely life of a CIA agent interesting, most notably how they can’t share their work/life with their family.
• Live said he has admiration for CIA Agents because they don’t make a lot of money.  He said people don’t understand the level of patriotism the agents wear every day and how they are legitimately motivated by love of country.
• Lorenzo said changing the sex of the lead character was a big learning process and it affected everything.  He said Angelina’s zest for action and violence made it easy to apply her ideas to the screenplay.
• Angelina said she used just about every type of firearm in this film.  She said she also used a fire extinguisher in a way she has never used it before.  There is lots of hand-to-hand combat and dirty fighting throughout the film.
• Liev said unlike Angelina’s training, there was not much special training required of him.

Because I am out here in San Diego covering Comic-Con, I missed out this week on the press screening of Salt out in Cleveland, but after this panel, I am looking forward to this one very much.  I hope to be able to catch it this weekend.  More updates are coming soon!  Stay tuned!  The wi-fi connection here at Comic-Con is less than desirable.