Angelina Jolie Almost Never Starred in Clint Eastwood’s ‘Changeling’ – Here’s Why
Angelina Jolie almost refused to lead director Clint Eastwood's "Changeling" due to a terrifying reason.
Jolie is among the top Hollywood actresses who starred in several notable and award-winning movies. One of her masterpieces includes "Changeling," which became Eastwood's gamechanger as it was different from his usual sci-fi and superhero films.
"Changeling," tells the story of Christine Collins, a single mother whose nine-year-old son suddenly disappears. When the Los Angeles Police Department finds the boy, Christine immediately notices that it is not her son. She pleads the police to continue searching for her son, but the LAPD suddenly moves against her to quiet her down and even plants false stories about her mental health.
With that, she is forced to be admitted to the Los Angeles County Hospital.
The plot itself already stirred people's attention. But for Jolie, who already had kids at that time, the film was terrifying to make.
During one of the "Changeling" press tours, she explained that the concept of the film had already made her anxious to the point that she had almost turned down the role. Jolie explained that, while the movie focuses on justice, she could not do the film for a long time as it made her overthink about her kids.
"Every day on set, I came home, and I was so clingy to my kids I think I bugged them. I was grabbing them, and I was checking them in the middle of the night. It scared me; it still scares me," she said, as quoted by Slash Film
Angelina Jolie Already Played Roles About Being Parent
Aside from "Changeling," she already served as the mother of her co-stars in several films, including "Maleficent" and "Come Away."
Despite that, Jolie revealed that "Changeling" has the most personal storyline about parenthood that it caused pain and frustration just by imagining if it happened to her.
"This is personal, but it's true, I lost my mother a few months before the film, and to me [Christine is] very much like my mother. My mother was very passive, in many ways, and very, very sweet, but when it came to her children she was a lion. But, as a woman, very shy almost with her own voice," she continued.
"Changeling" became a huge success as it garnered $113.4 million with a $55 million budget. It also received several nominations from different award-giving bodies and won some of them, including the Best Actress Award at the 2008 African American Film Critics Association Awards, Feature Films at the 60th Christopher Awards, and Adrienne Shelly Award at the 2008 Women Film Critics' Circle Awards, to name a few.
