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 Erich

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To all you crtics out there, I saw Angelina in France this past few month, she is not skinny she is extremely fit, do you call an athlete like Lance Armstrong skeletor? Angelina just finished Salt and for that movie she had to be fit and had to be athletic, you may not like slim and fit but maybe you cant do a quarter what she is able to do in athletic requirements so give it a rest,

Sunday 01 August

By zduck1

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Thank you for making a point. I am am 5'4 and weigh 99 # but I can pull skids weighing 1200#, throw cases of produce that average 50#, throw bags of dog food weighing 10-40# with the best of the guys I work with. Being skinny does not mean you are weak.

By lkjhgfdfghj

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im the biggest fan but i think she is really to thin...she would look soooo young if she gain some weight...

By mklaiss

In this movie Ms. Jolie's thinness, her gauntness was a major distraction. I wonder how long ago the movie was filmed because in more recent photos she seems less thin. Perhaps the movie was filmed soon after the death of her mother and the birth of the twins. Some people gain weight when under stress but some people also lose weight while under stress so her thinness is certainly understandable - I doubt it was intentional.

By kaysings

Hey, you know the old adage: "you can't be too rich or too thin." This is Hollywood in the new millennium; Jolie is an A-lister. This is what A-listers do. I'm not saying this is actually a good idea; it's just the way it is in Hollywood these days. If you don't want to look at her, don't see her films.

By Jedsil

In Hollywood, women think the anorexic look is appealing. It's not. Neither was the Heroin sheik look, or the unisexual look. If you look at movies over a span of decades, women looked the best in the 1940's. They were full figured, but wore clothes which accentuated their curves. They wore long shoulder length hair instead of the current concentration camp inmate look. Women look best when they look like women. God gave them curves and even today most men would take a Kate Winslet over a Angelina Jolie any day.

By Tajah

How about Marilyn Munroe? Everyone considers her a sex goddess and she would be considered almost obese by today's unreal standards of weight! While I love Angelina, Marilyn is... well Marilyn.

By oldfrogg

Just saw SALT. She's just fine!!!!!

By Anne

Angie is tall and naturally slim, and when she makes a strenuous film like "Salt" she burns off a lot of weight. Thin people are a lot stronger than they look. She probably gains a few pounds when she's not working. I'm the same way, when I'm too busy to eat I get real thin but I'm still strong as a horse. My mother was 100 lbs soaking wet, and she had a grip of iron!

By JB

She has the body of a 10-year-old girl and the head of a 45-year old woman.

By Sheila

She is painfuly thin. I hope she takes care of herself.

By bsti

She just wants to make sure her fake boobies stick out! She really is a bag of bones otherwise!

Saturday 31 July

By debora celupica

She is so thin I thought the movie was about a woman escaping a Nazi concentration camp. I think that would explain her starvation...she is just trying to play the part of an holocaust victim. Her look makes me sad!!!

By judy

Im sorry to her fans, but I don't see the attraction at all, if you look at her profile, she looks like someone hit her in the face with a skillet! I don't watch many of her movies, I loved Taking LIves..because of Ethan Hawke..But I have never been a fan of hers..

By Donna

Angelina is beautiful, she is a little too thin now.
I am sure she knows it, and is working on it too.

By cindy

Jolie being to thin for action scene's doesn't help but not being able to act very well really makes things worse....

By Dee

She looks way to thin. If the camera makes you look like you gained 10 lbs, then in person she must really look sick!

By dreamworld

I do think Angelina is too skinny; however, I would rather have the need to put on weight than need to lose it. I am struggling with losing weight (I get so frustrated..it can be tough) and would love to be able to wear something of the beautiful gowns we have seen her wear to the award shows....therefore, I think slimmer, yet somewhat curvy (not too curvy) is better!

By Scp

She is one homely woman. She is so thin that I believe that she is still using heroin. She looks like a druggie.

By Dawn

Maybe she went back to her old way. Once a heroin addict always a heroin.

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