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Angelina Jolie is a force of nature. Known for bold and badass roles, the actress is a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon. From Lara Croft to Mrs. Smith to Maleficent, she has proven time and again that she was made for larger-than-life roles. Not only is she a great actress but a great human being too. Her humanitarian efforts combined with being one of the most influential people in the industry, Angelina Jolie really is something else.
Angelina Jolie’s portfolio is filled with impressive female characters and while she probably is proud of them all, there is one that she simply does not resonate with – Margaret aka Clover in Robert De Niro’sThe Good Shepherd.If you think about it, she has a pretty good reason to not love the character.
Angelina Jolie on Playing a Sad Housewife
Just before playing Clover inRobert De Niro’sThe Good Shepherd,Angelina Joliewas the beloved badass Jane Smith inMr. & Mrs. Smith.A spy like no other, Jolie was so fabulous and effortless in the role of the assassin that she redefined what it meant to be a female action star. Her alluring personality and dripping confidence make us want to watch the film over and over and over again. Can you blame us? It’s Jolie andBrad Pitt!
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The next year,The Good Shepherdwas released and we saw Jolie do a complete 180. Her character was nowhere close to being as fierce as Jane and the actress herself felt the difference to be daunting.
In an interview withIndie London, she was asked,“The spies in this film are a little different from Mr. and Mrs. Smith?”To this, she replied that while they are different, she unfortunately didn’t get to play one in the film. Instead, her role was that of a“Sad housewife.”
She revealed that not being amongst the men in the film was hard for her and so was playing a repressed woman.
Yes, sadly I don’t get to be one in this film – I’m the sad housewife. It was different and it was hard not playing with the boys. And it was hard to be that kind f a woman. There was a certain repression at that time, and playing a woman like that was hard for me.
However, she doesn’t have complete disdain for Clover. In fact, she believes that the woman was even fiery at one point in the film. But if Jolie was in her shoes, she claims she would have fought back harder.
She’s a bit proper, but she’s not the perfect cookie-cutter housewife and she’s quite fiery at the beginning. Also, she speaks up more than anyone else in the movie; she’s a bit wild. She’s stopped by her time, and held back from what she’d like to do. If I were trapped by the CIA I’m sure personally I’d fight more, and in a different way!
Jolie stars oppositeMatt Damonin the film. Damon plays the role of Edward Wilson Sr. who impregnates Clover and the two get drawn into an unhappy marriage. They have a son who also joins the CIA. At the end, Clover leaves Edward.
The One Thing Angeline Jolie Resonated with Clover On
Jolie might not have agreed with Clover’s ways in the film but she resonates with her motherhood. The actress found it difficult to relate to the character which probably posed an obstacle in her performance.
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However, Jolie decided to pay attention to Clover’s love and commitment to her son, Edward Jr. (Eddie Redmayne), and she eventually found a point to build a connection with her character.
In an interview withBlack Filmback in 2006, Jolie said,
That was the one thing that kept me grounded to her and connected to her. There was so much about her I didn’t identify with, but her love and commitment to her son and certainly having lost her own family to this world of CIA and now her husband and the fear that her son would get involved in this kind of dangerous silent world and that becoming a reality and how that would feel; so yeah, that would seem in particular, fighting for him was very personal.
While Jolie was obviously fabulous in her role, it’s clear that she had a hard time playing Clover. The film is set in the 1930s to the 1960s and needless to say, the time back then was very different to what it is today, especially when it comes to women. Jolie was well aware of this difference which made it difficult for her to truly grasp Clover’s personality, being a woman of the modern world.
The Good Shepherdis available to rent/buy from Prime Video.
Mishkaat Khan
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2256
A connoisseur of all things horror, fantasy, and the occasional chick flick, Mishkaat has been penning pieces for FandomWire since 2022. She started off as an intern and has worked her way up to a Senior Writer with over 2000 articles to her name.Outside of entertainment, she has also written well-researched medical content as a freelance writer and has experience in social media management.When not writing, you can find her relaxing with a romance novel and a tall glass of iced coffee in her hand or watching re-runs of ‘Supernatural’ and ‘The Office.’
