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Is Angelina Jolie the new Elizabeth Taylor? 'Cleopatra' remake to tell 'a different truth'
Angelina Jolie, a Hollywood icon in her own right, will undoubtedly draw parallels to the late Elizabeth Taylor when she takes on the role of Cleopatra in the upcoming remake. While the comparisons have already begun, they aren't limited to her on-screen abilities. According to Will Lawrence of the U.K.'s Telegraph, who has interviewed the actress on several occasions over the past decade, her "The Tourist" co-star Johnny Depp recently likened her relationship with Brad Pitt to "the Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton of our era."
Jolie accepts the comparison as a compliment (as it was likely meant) and adds the Paradis-Depp and Jolie-Pitt families spent a significant amount of time together while filming.
When it comes to her big screen portrayal of the role Taylor played so memorably, Jolie insists that the new version will be more accurate.
"My performance will never be as lovely as Elizabeth's," Jolie says. "We are trying to get into a different truth about her as a pharaoh in history and not as a sex symbol, because she really wasn't."
"She has been very misunderstood," she adds. "I thought it was all about the glamor, but then I read about her and she was a very strong mother, she spoke five languages and she was a leader."
Reportedly, Taylor herself had not been pleased with the idea of a Jolie Cleopatra for the David Fincher directed remake. What do you think? Are you excited to see a more accurate portrayal, or will Taylor's sex symbol always reign supreme?
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Photo/Video credit: Twentieth Century Fox
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She can be in only that she, like Liz, is a "HUSBAND STEALER!"
Liz's beauty and talent are UNPARALLELED. PERIOD!!!
She is one of the biggest jokes on the planet!
Won't really be more accurate. Just a different interpretation, making Cleopatra whatever we feel like she should be right now.
And 20 years from now we may do it again.
Why are people calling this a remake? Ding-ding - the Liz Taylor story wasn't about an original character. This is as silly as claiming The Tudors was a remake of that Charles Laughton movie from the 1930s. Now cast Jolie in a new version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf or Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, then OK let's talk remake.
The comparison with Taylor, though, is apt. Both were widely hated and widely loved. Both led extremely controversial private lives (say what you want about Jolie, she's only tied the knot twice with a possible third with Pitt). Both went through their wild child stages. Both hooked up with acclaimed actor at some point. And both have been acclaimed for their charity work. Liz didn't go for tattoos, though. And hopefully Angelina will bypass the health problems that plagued Liz from the time she made Cleopatra onwards.
Leave Angelina alone. She'll make a wonderful Cleopatra, just like Elizabeth Taylor!
OH PLEASE. Liz Taylor had from head to toe a very voluptuous gorgeous body. Angelina Jolie is a frail skinny string-bean of woman and with the most ugliest legs (that she keeps showing off for some reason) I've ever seen. Jolie doesn't hold a candle to Elizabeth Taylor. Jolie doesn't have the sexiness that Liz had. Comparing them is a joke. Please people stop!
Hey Guys I have a Great Idea. Why not cast an actress of color in the role of Cleopatra? I mean how original and authentic would that be? There will never be another Taylor and she was gorgeous in the film, but to have Angelina as the next Cleopatra--give me a break, and the rest of the world, too. You want to do a more authentic Cleopatra then let's consider Thandie Newton, Nia Long, Kerry Washington, Sophie Okenedo--all of them beautiful women of color and excellent actresses who would do the real Cleopatra of the Nile proud.
Cleopatra was greek in real life, not egyptian. so...not much color there. Also, the 1963 film was actually rather accurate for a movie of that time. It was based on "The Life and Times of Cleopatra" by C.M. Franzero, which was based on cleopatra's tutors diaries and daily accounts of her life.
I would recommend Kerry Washington and Paula Patton as Cleopatra.