Angelina Jolie is one of the most well-known actresses in the world. She has made a name for herself through her versatility, having played many different types of characters while simultaneously ruling the action genre. Considering just how talented and successful she is, it is difficult to forget just how hard she has worked to get to where she is now.
Jolie once talked about her journey to fame and, of course, it was not easy. The actress revealed that she had a very difficult few years when she was starting in Hollywood. She was rejected from more than 100 auditions and was rejected for some of the most ridiculous reasons.
Angelina Jolie Was Labeled Too Ethnic
Angelina Jolie gave an interview with Backstage where she went into great detail about her life as an actress, talking about her early years in Hollywood. Here, she also revealed that when he was in her late teens, she would often audition for specific roles of girls in high school. However, she found it quite difficult to get cast in these roles and there was a very specific reason for it.
“I think I was starting to audition around 16, 17, and would be going out for the girlfriend or the girl in high school. And I was just never that girl. I was always told that I was too dark. I went through a period, years ago, when I was told I was too ethnic. Isn’t that strange? Now I’m not ethnic enough on occasion. But there wasn’t something regular enough about me; it just didn’t fit.” said the actress.
During that time, she was often rejected from auditions for a very specific read; the producers of projects thought her to be ‘too dark’. Oddly enough, Jolie was labeled to be too ethnic for the roles that she was auditioning for.
The actress even joked about this, stating that she would have understood if they told her that she was not ethnic enough, but the other way around is surprising. She added that she simply reduced these criticisms down to something about her not fitting with them.
Angelina Jolie Went Into A Slump
What she was told about her looks was not exclusive to a specific demographic of people, as Angelina Jolie revealed that during that time, she was rejected more than a handful of times. It would seem that she and her mother took a count of the rejections and realized that she had been turned down from 100 auditions.
“I went on a hundred auditions; my mom and I actually checked off the hundredth.” said Jolie.
Soon, Jolie learned that maybe she should not be going for the all-American sort of character and rather look for some more ‘bizarre’ roles. This seemed to have worked as the actress’s first role ever, was as a crack addict. This role was followed by her playing a cyborg.
” I think my first job was as a crank addict in a film, and then my second job was, like, a cyborg. So it was clear that my career was going to be full of very bizarre, strange women—which ended up being the ones I liked anyway.” She added.
Enjoying such roles quite a bit, the young Jolie thought that her entire career would be spent playing odd characters like these. It would seem that she would not have minded if that had happened, as she enjoyed playing these types of roles. The typecasting did not last long though, as Jolie has played some of the most versatile characters in her career.
