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HYPE: Gael Garcia Bernal A Mexican stage and TV vet at age 23, Gael Garcia Bernal made his film breakthrough last year in the edgy critical favorite Amores Perros. The Guadalajara native nailed his performance as the quiet, angry youth wooing his sister-in-law not just with superior acting skills but with large, mournful eyes, which helped convey a betrayed idealism that crossed language boundaries. Now, after a well-received performance as Che Guevara in last winter's English-language Showtime film Fidel, Bernal is in another Mexican megahit that has made its way north--Alfonso Cuaron's raunchy sex farce Y Tu Mama Tambien. As one of two horny teens who take an impromptu road trip with a sexy older woman, Bernal costars with lifelong pal Diego Luna (Before Night Falls). Q: How was your trip to the Oscars in 2001 for Amores Perros? A: It was a surprise--it was a kind of difficult movie for best foreign-language film. But I felt proud, like, "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! We're gonna go, but we're not gonna win!" Q: You and Diego are friends with Salma Hayek, and you yell her name during one particular, ahem, masturbatory scene in Y Tu Mama. Did that make you uncomfortable? A: No, no, no. It was an honor to be able to say her name out loud. And actually, we asked her for permission. [Laughs] She said it's the best film she's ever been in. --Jillian O'Connor |
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But unlike many headline-grabbing actresses, Jolie is even more interesting on-screen than off. The dangerously screwed-up beauties she has played in George Wallace, Gia, Playing by Heart, Pushing Tin and Girl, Interrupted have all been tangible, believable creations. In her first big-budget thriller, The Bone Collector, she easily matched the skill and intensity of Denzel Washington. She's likely to stun audiences as the take-no-prisoners action heroine Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, a fantasy adventure adapted from the video game by director Simon West (see story on p. 54). And who isn't looking forward to watching her later this summer when she plays the sex-obsessed femme fatale who enraptures Antonio Banderas in Original Sin? When Angelina Jolie greets me for this interview, she strikes me as someone fully capable of doing all that she has done offscreen and all that she's expected to do on-screen as Lara Croft. She's dressed in a black T-shirt and black leather jacket, and she looks like she might throw a mean right if provoked. "Call me Angie," she says, reaching out to shake my hand. I can tell she is indeed something like her father--intense, focused. And I have little doubt that, like her father, she'll be original in her thinking. For Lawrence Grobel's interview pick up the June issus of Movieline. PAGE 1 | 2 |