My Weekend Crush

I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Dorothy Surrenders, whose weekend crush this weekend is: Summer Glau.

The first movie I saw Angelina Jolie in was Hackers. I was probably about 12 years old and immediately had a crush on her. She looked very soft butch and played a strong character, who was not afraid of competing with the boys, no less in the world of computers. Back then, I wasn't so much into movies and actresses yet and I don't think that I used the internet at all to inform myself about these things, so I somehow lost track of Angie. That was in 1999, when she was not really famous yet.

The next movie I saw was Playing by Heart, which I also really liked and I really liked her character in it as well. Then came Girl, interrupted, which is the movie that made me fall completely in love with Angelina Jolie. Her performance was amazing and earned her an Oscar, the plot and the writing is great and the other actresses in it were pretty damn good too (Clea DuVall! Brittany Murphy! Whoopie Goldberg!). I think I've seen that movie about 10 times already and I still really enjoy watching it, because it gets me thinking every time. My parents thought that it was unhealthy that I like a movie about young women in a mental institution that much, but I could really relate to them on various levels. I feel like there are not that many movies out there that are so honest with the struggles that some women face when they have to grow up.

So, we are probably in the year 2002 right now and I am now seriously obsessed with Angelina. I have yet to see her in a cinema, because all the other movies were on TV when I saw them. But, I have to way till 2004, when Taking Lives comes out. I loved Taking Lives, because until the very end, there is always a certain suspense. Although I have to say that when she showed her belly for the first time, I turned to my dad and said: "Wanna bet that she's not really pregnant?". But still, a great movie with a strong woman who wins in the end.

Obviously, I went to see Shark Tail, mainly because they had created a fish just for her. Unfortunately, I also went and saw the train wreck that was Alexander. Again, my main reason was that Angie was in the movie, so I sat through three hours of that crap for probably around 5 scenes with her. Since Alexander, I have seen all over her movies - Mr. and Mrs. Smith, The Good Shepard, A Mighty Heart, Beowulf and Kung Fu Panda. In some, Angie was able to show what a great actress she is (A Mighty Heart), in others, not so much (Mr. and Mrs. Smith).

Picture @ PerezHilton.com

But her acting talent is not the only reason why I love Angelina Jolie so much. She is a humanitarian, a goodwill ambassador for the UNHCR and a mother of six (Maddox, Pax Thien, Zahara, Shiloh, Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline). In her interviews, she seems very real and raw and she doesn't hold back. Especially in earlier years, she would shock reporters with confessions of drug abuse and self-inflicted wounds, but she never pretended to be someone who she's not. And THAT is the main reason why I admire and love her so much.

Update: Shoot! A reader [thanks!] just alerted me to the fact that I didn't mention Gia and I can't believe that I forgot that movie! The reason why I didn't mention it before is because it doesn't fit in my timeline. When I was on vacation in Canada in 2005, I looked in every DVD store for that movie until I finally found it in Vancouver two days before the vacation ended. I took it home and figured out how to play a different regional code on my computer and and the first chance I got at being alone at home I watched the movie. And it pretty much blew my mind. Because Angelina Jolie and Elizabeth Mitchell together, in bed, make any coherent thoughts pretty impossible. I've also seen Original Sin, the two Lara Croft movies, Gone in Sixty Seconds, The Bone Collector, Pushing Tin and Foxfire on TV.