From the Melbourne Herald Sun
IT WAS Angelina Jolie the mother, the actor and the artist who made the
decision to take on the role of Grendel's mother in the new feature film
Beowulf.
Angelina Jolie jumped at the chance to star in the unique Beowulf .
ģI have kids and I thought, 'That's so great. That's so bizarre. I am going
to be this crazy reptilian person and creature','' she says.
ģI was very excited. She is one of those fun characters. She's evil. She's
temptation,'' Jolie says.
The movie, based on one of the oldest stories in English-language history,
includes an eight-day battle between Beowulf and the creature known only as
Grendel's mother.
The story has been changed for the movie: Grendel's mother is a little more
temptress than warrior.
The actor in Jolie wanted the opportunity to work in the unusual filmmaking
style. Director Robert Zemeckis created the film using a motion-capture
computer program.
The actors worked in an empty room wearing nothing but body suits covered
with hundreds of yellow dots. Those dots were used to record the information
needed to make the animated version of the actor's performance.
Jolie says she was excited about the opportunity to work with Zemeckis, the
man behind such films as Back to the Future and The Polar Express.
She was so excited about the opportunity, Jolie was agreeable to anything
tossed her way.
ģI was told I was going to play a lizard. Then I was brought into a room
with Bob and all these pictures. He showed me this picture of a woman
half-painted gold, then a lizard,'' Jolie says.
Who wouldn't want to play a role that at times is a green, slimy creature
who lives in the water and at other times looks like a Victoria's Secret
model who forgot to dress for work?
The character in the animated film is a lizard-like shape shifter who takes
on a revealing human form when she tries to seduce Beowulf.
Jolie worked only a few days on Beowulf, but that doesn't mean the shoot was
not demanding.
She had to wear a harness to pretend to swim and fly. Zemeckis even had the
actor learn Old English, to use when talking to Grendel.
Beowulf opens in Melbourne on November 29.
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