Is Angelina Jolie Too Thin in Her 'Salt' Action Scenes?

By John Mitchell Posted Jul 30th 2010 05:13PM

Angelina Jolie kicks butt. Literally. Perhaps more than any other actress, Jolie exudes a kind of physicality that is primal and integral to who she is. While digital effects and camera tricks can turn just about any performer into a breathing action figure, we imagine that Jolie probably could handle herself in a real-life fight. There's something dangerous about her; its part of why we love her.

Once again, her brawling skills are front and center – this time in 'Salt,' a physical endurance test of a film that has Jolie jumping out of helicopters, bounding down city streets, scaling buildings and leaping from semi to semi in a chase scene for the ages. But sitting in the audience this time around, watching her do what she does best, I couldn't shake the thought that the actress looked uncommonly frail. How did she kick that guy off his motorcycle when it looks like she'd have trouble carrying Knox and Viv at the same time?

PopEater spoke with New York City-based personal trainer Kenville John of Hanson Fitness about the risks Jolie faced by taking on the action-packed film in such a seemingly fragile state.

According to her longtime stunt coordinator Simon Crane, Jolie performs nearly all of her own stunts and only under studio duress does she agree to use a stand-in. To prepare for the grueling fight sequences in 'Salt,' "We got her learning a combination of Muay Thai and Krav Maga," Crane told US magazine. Jolie reportedly trained for two hours a day three or four times a week to prepare for the film.

Krav Maga is a hand-to-hand combat system taught to elite special forces around the world. Developed in Israel, it is notable for it brutality, with a heavy focus on wrestling, grappling and striking. Muay Thai, meanwhile, is a kickboxing-based martial art that originated in Thailand. It is sometimes known as the "Art of Eight Limbs" or the "Science Of Eight Limbs" because it focuses on punches, kicks and elbow and knee strikes.

But John sees no evidence of her exhausting workout regimen and isn't sure she'd even be able to perform the tasks if she tried. "This is a body that's breaking down," he says. "This has gone too far. I just don't think she possesses the physical strength to perform like that."

Was Angelina's ability to perform her stunts in 'Salt' compromised by her dwindling physique – and compensated for with the odd bit of movie magic? And where exactly did those 'Tomb Raider' and 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith' muscles go?

Suspension of disbelief suspended, it's all I could think about while watching the film, a non-stop, breathlessly paced spy thriller. How could she possibly climb down an elevator shaft when her arms look like they're about to snap in two? And I know I wasn't alone in noticing the disconnect. Discussing an on-foot chase scene through the streets of Washington, D.C. with a good friend, he simply said, "Listen, she looked like she was going to break in half. I haven't seen the inside of a gym since high school and I could have caught her."

John believes Jolie to be "about 20 percent underweight," and suggests any film director – in the case of 'Salt,' Phillip Noyce – would "have to be out of his mind" to use her in an extreme action sequence because her physical condition could leave her vulnerable to injury.

Indeed, John worries Jolie may have put herself in very real danger by attempting the demanding stunts when she wasn't in an appropriate physical condition to do so. "For you to sustain something, a leap, a fall, the muscle has to be there to sustain the impact," he says. "Joints have to bend a certain way, and what supports joints? Muscle. Without it, joints would just crash into each other. It could be catastrophic – ligament tearing, broken bones, the worst."

Jolie's rail-thin frame has been the subject of media scrutiny since as early as 2007. In January of that year, she lost her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, to ovarian cancer. Jolie and her mother were very close, and she took the loss particularly hard.

At the New York premiere of her film 'A Mighty Heart' that year, Jolie told US, "I've always been lean and this year I lost my mom and I've gone through a lot ... Instead of people saying I look like a person dealing with something emotionally, they assume it's because I want to fit into skinny jeans."

The criticisms have surfaced again and again since, but now, with her once legendarily buff bod blown up on the big screen, laying the bad guys to waste, it's difficult to not again wonder if she is indeed too thin to fight. It may be flawed, but 'Salt' is, as New York magazine best puts it, "a senseless blast," and Angelina Jolie is the reason why.

All of the fast-paced fun may well have seemed more sensible if the film's leading lady didn't look like she was buckling under the weight of the fire extinguisher she fashioned into a grenade launcher.

Tags: angelina jolie

Comments

(87)

Friday 30 July

By evey

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yes she is definetly a freak who believes in her own characters
she portrays in her movies. I have no idea how such a good looking respectable actor (brad pitt) could even touch that woman nonetheless have a children with her. This shows the integrity of the actor and he had no respect for his wife
Jennifer Aniston. Jolie is a Freak go back to Billy Bob

By leo

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I liked Angelina when she did Laura Croft. However, as of lately, she looks anorexic. I don't remember who was it on ABC in the morning show that said that Angelina was athletic. LOL. She is too skinny to be athletic - in my opinion she looks unhealthy and sort of anorexic.

Extremes are not good. However there are beautiful women like Halle Berry, Demi Moore, Jennifer Garner to name a few, who have thin, strong, healthy, athletic bodies. Jolie is extremely thin for an action/spy movie like salt. She does have an attractive face.

By Darrell

turned sideways and stick out her tongue and she would look like a zipper.

Monday 02 August

By GetOverIt

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The America public makes me sick either your too fat or too skinny make up your mind already. And as we sitr her debating Angelina's health,personal life and personal choices, she doesn't know we exist and isn't losing any sleep over what we feel or think about her. If, only we took more stock of our own backyards this would be a better world.

By sidney

She looks awful..................just awful. What ever does BP see in her. :)

By Leila

Low Ranked Vote down Vote up Report this

That's the question. lol

Nothing sexy at all about bony Chicks. Guys either for that matter. Put on a little muscle weight and some fat to smooth it up. Stop thinking being s stick is sexy. Plum Nasty looking.

By BM

Angelina athletic? Not even a little bit close! She def has a pretty face, but as she is aging and her skin is naturally thinning out, she is starting to look like a pasty, haggard, crackhead. And what is with her new wardrobe of moo-moos??

Granted I do not know her personally, and she seem to be trying to do good with her army of children and all of her volunteer work on various causes in need, but if she keeps doing whatever it is she is doing that is keeping her so frail looking, she'll probably end up dead like most of the other anorexic celebrities. Oh, and most men do prefer skinny women, but I can't name any who find a woman with the body of a malnourished adolescent boy very attractive...they prefer curves a la Halle Berry and such.

By shelly

What's sad is that her extreme thinness is aging her. I just saw Mr. & Mrs. Smith again recently, and she's noticeably curvier and healthier looking in that movie, and she looks 10 years younger in it - and the movie is only 5 years old. I saw Salt, and it was great, but she did look scary skinny. Her aura still makes her believable in action movies, but her thinness is a distraction. However, I always think of something that I read about Brad years ago - about his propensity for super thin women. Both Gwyneth and Jennifer were at their skinniest when they were with him, actually dropping weight on their already thin frames. Angelina has done the same.

By Mike

Bone thin.

By bsti

Skeletore!

By gjb

She looked like a stick-figure doing those stunts. It was laughable. I would luv to see the person they got to do the dangerous stunts. She also looked like a twig on a TV show promoting her new movie and they say the TV screen adds 10 lbs. GOOD GRIEF!

By claudia

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Guess no more fat from her a-- to inject into her lips!

By jane

i think drugs are the food of choice for many of the hollywood players.

By Roberta Hicks

She is waaaay too thin. And I don't believe she is 'naturally' that thin, either. I think she is either anorexic, or she takes Adderall Rx, or *something*.

Whatever she does to get thin, she's overdone it.

By Kara

Cutie makes a sad, but honest point. The frail girl gets the guy. When I go to a bar, the thinnest girl in the room has the hottest guy every time. Famous guys go out with models. Guess what, the models are VERY skinny. When your guy gets Playboy, the centerfold is usually skinny. His porn? Skinny girls. I am 5'9" and at my thinnest was 110-115. I got the most action of my life those years. Sad, but true. I am a healthy 135 and no one even looks anymore, and I'm healthy! Think I will skip dinner.

By .......

is this scary looking bag of bones suppose to be one of the sexiest most
beautiful women in the world??

By axidentaltourst

I just had this exact conversation! When I saw Salt I thought, and said to my boyfriend, she looks way too thin for this to be believable. She looks incredibly frail. Not to mention it really ages her. Lara Croft and Mr. and Mrs. Smith were both on TV that night and the difference was pretty astonishing. I'm surprised there hasn't been more media chatter about it, really.

By Lucky Charm

"How did she kick that guy off his motorcycle when it looks like she'd have trouble carrying Knox and Viv at the same time?"

Well, at the Tokyo airport the other day she was pictured carrying both Zahara and Shiloh at the same time, and they are each bigger than the twins. I'm 5'11 and when my kids were toddlers, I weighed 120 and looked like Angelina - no meat on my bones at all, but I did have plenty of muscle. I got quite the workout running after the kids, etc. so I never gained any weight. Looking back at pictures now, I just see bones and how skinny I was. But, I was NOT anorexic, I was NOT on drugs, and I was NOT frail. So Yes, there are real people who look like that, naturally. And I carried my kids, sometimes two at a time, something that a frail person cannot do, but if your skinny arms are all muscle then it's quite easy.

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