Angelina Jolie might be familiar with the world of big budget blockbusters having starred in Gone in 60 Seconds, a pair of Tomb Raiders, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Alexander, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Wanted, Salt, The Tourist, Maleficent, sequel Mistress of Evil and more, but it was still a huge coup for Marvel Studios to land her for the role of Thena in Eternals.
After all, if you discount voice roles in animated projects, the Academy Award winner has only appeared in five movies since 2010, and she directed one of those herself. Having taken a step back from on-camera life to focus on family, committing to a mega budget Marvel Cinematic Universe project must have taken some amount of deliberation.
Luckily, Jolie was a fan of director Chloé Zhao’s first feature Songs my Brothers Taught Me, and the filmmaker even ended up using pieces of candy substituted for ancient civilizations when she was explaining and pitching who the Eternals were and how they’d operated in the shadows of human history.
It turns out that even longtime A-listers like Jolie are still subject to the Marvel veil of secrecy, after she revealed that the studio wouldn’t tell her anything about the part she was wanted to play until it came time to sit down and hash it out.
“I loved her first film, and I knew that she would bring something special to this. It’s a unique experience joining the Marvel world. You are asked to come in, but they don’t tell you anything about the story or the role you are being asked to play. You walk in, past the uniforms of the characters on the walls, wondering what they have in mind for you.”
We’re just nine weeks away from the release of Eternals, and every glimpse of Jolie so far has been enough to send the internet into raptures. She’s one of the modern era’s premiere action heroines for a reason, and it’s been too long since fans have seen her kicking all sorts of ass on the big screen.