Angelina Jolie is explaining why she took the role of Elise Clifton-Ward, the woman of mystery who captivates Johnny Depp in The Tourist, which opens this month. It’s because she plans things. “I was looking for a very short thing to do before Brad started filming [Moneyball],” she says. “And I said I needed something that shoots not too long, in a nice location for my family. Somebody said there’s a script that’s been around, and it shoots in Venice and Paris. And I said, ‘Is it a character I haven’t played before?’ And they said, ‘Yes, it’s a lady.’ ” She laughs: Uhhuhhuhhehhehheh.
Sitting opposite one of the world’s most notorious beauties is an experience that requires some processing. Impressions: (1) She has a seriously filthy laugh. (2) She is graceful, straight-backed, head held high. (3) Her photogenic beauty is mesmerizing in real life. Which is quite disturbing, because it makes you “gaze and gaze” (to borrow Nancy Mitford’s phrase from Love in a Cold Climate). Women who can hypnotize people just by sitting and breathing have a spooky power. Like Princess Diana (though she was not as beautiful as Angelina). I asked her producer, Graham King, at one point if he found the beauty distracting. He said, “In The Tourist?” Me: “On her face!” King: “Oh! One hundred percent.”
