Transcript note: This transcript is based on the original working script. It may contain production notes, draft wording, spelling mistakes or other material that differs from the finished video - these scripts were meant to be spoken, not read.

Angelina Jolie.

She’s got quite the resume when you take a look.

Oscar winner. Action star. Tabloid headline.

But, it’s an earned résumé.

And it's fair to say, depending on who you ask, Angelina Jolie is either Hollywood royalty, a wildcard, or a full blown, well I guess headline magnet is a polite way of putting it.

But you could never say she took the easy route.

It's also fair to day, unlike most of the actors I’ve covered in this series, her rise was relatively fast

But it wasn’t nepotism as some people like to think.

In fact, I wouldn’t have included her in this series if it wasn’t so interesting

Let’s see how she got Famous, Eventually.

Her first film role?

Lookin’ to Get Out all the way back in 1982.

She was six - Just a bit at the end of the film.

The real star of the film?

Jon Voight.

Her dad.

So yeah — She had an open door, she had a name.

But, she didn’t walk through the door that opened for her.

She kicked it off the hinges, probably with that smile of hers, and then walked the other way.

And this is why I think that she deserves a mention.

Angelina, along with her brother James, didn't get a pass into an acting career. You could even argue they got into their acting careers despite their father.

They were estranged early on in life, both would claim that Jon Voight had abandoned them early in their lives and hadn't been kind to their mother.

She trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in Los Angeles, spending about two years there in her, mid‑teens.

It wasn’t a long stay but she learned method acting, did some modelling on the side. Not an unusual path.

But her first real screen time would come via music videos.

First of all she can be seen staring longing at the beach in Antonello Venditti’s "Alta Marea" music video, it’s all very dreamy and a tad confusing, or artsy if you like.

Then in a Lenny Kravitz video for "Stand by My Woman"

Well, she was supposed to be the lead, but the director wasn’t so keen at the time so you can barely see her - If at all, really.

Clearly, she wasn’t famous yet.

But she was working, learning how it all worked and came together. Everyone starts somewhere.

Her first real film role would come in 1993 in the form of Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow.

A straight-to-video sequel to the original Cyborg that came out in 1989, starring Jean Claude Van-Damme, it… It wasn't great. And nobody was asking for more,

Which is quite lucky as Cyborg 2 is pretty much a sequel in name only.

There are a few tenuous links to the original thrown in at the beginning but they're an after thought - It wasn't written as a sequel but they borrowed the name for some credibility.

And yes, Angelina is one of the leads.

She plays Casella “Cash” Reese — a prototype android designed by a megacorporation to seduce competitors and then self-destruct.

Basically, a literal robotic sex bomb.

It also stars Elias Joteas, Billy Drago and, weirdly Jack Palance - Guess he needed to pay his mortgage, or something.

Well. I say he's in it, it's mostly just his lips you actually see. Probably took a day to do his bit, you do see him eventually, and briefly.

Angelina was 17 when they shot it and in order to film some scenes she had to emancipate herself from her parents and become a legal adult. With hindsight - probably one of the first true signs of her doing things her way.

The production was cheap. The effects were dated even by standards at the time.

It's awkward, tone-deaf, and tries to be philosophical without actually understanding what it’s saying. It tries to do a lot, but punches well above its weight.

Angelina rarely speaks about the film now, she has mentioned that she actually enjoyed making the film, making special mention of her enjoying the action side of her role.

But, she’s also mentioned she tried to quit acting after seeing the final cut.

She went home in tears, it'd be a year before she auditioned for another film.

She had brief talks to reprise her role in Cyborg 3,but it didn't work out and they continued her character's story with someone else.

There's actually a whole bunch of movies related in some way that follow Cyborg 2 if you're interested.

I never got past the third personally.

I guess what matters here is that she did the work. If you manage to pay attention to it long enough, you can see the intensity that she'd carry over into later roles.

I mean - OK - Her acting left a lot to be desired in places, but, she was young, it was her first film and she wasn't exactly surrounded by talent to play off.

Even this early, she was committing to her roles, no matter how absurd the setup.

Of course if you want to buy the film these days you just have to look for her face on the cover, because… Yeah, it’s almost a right of passage in itself .

She survived it. Just.

After that there are two short videos listed on her iMDB page. Alice & Viril along with Angela & Viril.

Both directed by Steven Shainberg and totaling 4 minutes between them.

Not much is known about them at all, but they exist. You can find them here on YouTube.

Obviously for a reason known to someone, but I couldn’t find anything I’d like to quote here.

With all of that, she'd disappear back into the safety of music videos for a while, If you were channel-hopping in the early '90s, you might have caught her in

The music video for Widespread Panics “Wondering” video

The Lemon Heads “It’s About Time”, albeit briefly.

And a final one of the era, and probably her most commercial one Meatloafs video for “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through”

In 1995 it was time to try her luck again in film, and Hackers would be her next foray into the limelight.

Angelina played Kate “Acid Burn” Libby, A sharp-tongued, razor-smart teen hacker, with attitude

She was the foil to the lead character played by a young Jonny Lee Miller, Dade Murphy AKA Crash Override or Zero Cool, sometimes..

Acid Burn wasn't a damsel, a sidekick and not a love interest in waiting

Well maybe she was, kinda - But she made them work for it.

She was the competition, she was the best of the best defending her title from cheeky little upstarts like Dade.

The film also starred Matthew Lillard, yup - that one, Fisher Stevens as in on the action as well as a couple of other faces you may or may not recognise. Penn, for some reason.

It was fairly easy to dismiss on first glance to be honest, neon lights, rollerblades, ridiculously fast typing - All the usual computer hackery nonsense you get sold.

But what most people don’t know?

The film had done its homework.

They brought in real hackers — phreakers, sysadmins, white hats and anyone who had half a clue what they were doing

They helped shape the language, the tools, and the culture.

Sure, it looked like a music video half the time. But the actual hacks? The concepts?

They were grounded in reality.

Zero-day exploits. Password brute-forcing. Social engineering. Even corporate ransomware-style theft.

Stuff the public barely understood in ‘95, but would be everywhere ten years later.

The film didn’t land with critics. Or with box office.

But it became a cult hit in the early days of the internet.

It reached the people it was supposed to reach, those who knew, knew and they got it.

Years before meme culture, before Reddit, before people even called themselves “geeks” unironically

Hackers as a film, spoke to them.

Angelina Jolie’s casting wasn’t safe. It wasn’t polished.

But it was smart.

A young sexy woman and speaking their language? Oh yeah, that'd work.

Back then, there were even Acid Burn fansites, I remember them well — They were the typical hacked-together, neon-background, Comic Sans-coded love letters to a character who felt real in a world that didn’t.

Some might have even had flying toasters. Glorious.

You can’t find them anymore, and I did look.

They existed in that weird corner of the early internet, before everything was archived, before everything was permanent.

Geocities, Tripod, Angel fire and the rest.

Shame that stuff's gone now.

The film is far from gone though, even now, people still quote it it, you'll regularly see the rallying call “Hack the planet” in certain parts of the world wide web.

She married her co-star Johnny Lee Miller not long after, and began to cement her wild child image further by turning up to her wedding, in black leather pants with his name written in blood on the inside of her Wedding Dress.

It was safely withdrawn with a medical needle, so - You know - safety first.

The marriage wouldn’t last long, they’d separate a year and a half later.

It’d give the press something to chuckle about. All kinds of stories would start to circulate in the press about her liking for the wilder side of things. Knives, tattoos, partying, the usual.

She wouldn't do anything to defend herself in the press, she'd play up to a lot of it.

Then came the wilderness years while Hollywood tried to work out what to do with her —a blur of made-for-TV movies, oddball indies, and forgettable thrillers where she was always the most interesting thing on screen, even if the film itself wasn't.

A dip back into music video territory with The Rolling Stones and “Anybody Seen my Baby”

All one-off roles, odd scripts, nothing that stuck.

But then Gia came along in 1998

Well, a HBO biopic about Gia Carangi did, at least.

Gia was one of the first supermodels, and tragically one of the first public figures to die of AIDS, back in 1986.

Her story wasn’t pretty.

It was addiction, breakdowns, and silence.

The role reflected this, it was pretty raw and brutal watching.

A long way from anything that could be called glamorous.

Angelina didn’t hold back.

She didn’t soften it, but she would throw herself into it.

And for the first time, people stopped seeing “Jon Voight’s daughter” —

They just saw her.

She won a Golden Globe.

But it was HBO, so not everyone was watching.

Well - The tabloids were… As always.

As she went up to collect it, she shared a kiss with her brother, James, who’d come along to support her.

It raised eyebrows.

But their mother had been seriously ill at the time, and depending on who you ask, that moment was either weird or just family showing love when things were hard.

Like they tend to do.

The tabloids ran with it, turning it into something it wasn’t - Because of course they couldn't help her celebrate, just wanted to knock her back into place.

They always did.

She’d share other public displays of affection with him over the next few years, often with a cheeky twinkle in her eye just before - She knew what she was doing.

In 1999 came Girl, Interrupted

She wasn’t the lead — but it didn’t matter.

As Lisa Rowe, the charismatic sociopath, she bulldozed through the film like it belonged to her.

She was dangerous. Compelling. Unforgettable.

She literally stole the film.

Winona Ryder got top billing.

Angelina got the Oscar.

But, then, of course - The tabloids would drop their little hints about her personal life and it not being that different. It was the perfect fuel for their fires.

Also in 1999 would come Pushing Tin.

A black comedy about air traffic controllers of all things.

Jon Cusack, Cate Blanchett and Billy Bob Thornton would also star.

Angelina played Mary Bell — wild, unpredictable, and magnetic. Not a huge role, and again not a lot different from her public persona - It wouldn't be hard to make it hers.

And behind the scenes?

That’s where things really took off.

She and Billy Bob Thornton met on set.

He was older. Engaged to Laura Dern at the time.

That didn’t last.

A year later, he and Angelina were married. In Vegas. Wearing jeans.

They wore vials of each other’s blood around their necks.

And suddenly, everyone had an opinion.

Some thought it was romantic. Others thought it was nuts.

But it was peak Angelina — intense, impulsive, and unapologetic.

This was enough to feed the tabloid machine for years.

And Billy Bob?

He’d be around a little while longer.

But this was still her story.

I can’t help but think she fed it a bit, I mean - There’s more to it than I can go over here, this is just the greatest hits.

But she’d have been more than aware of what she was doing and how it would play out.

The studio system would kick into a not too metaphorical high gear with films like Gone in 60 Seconds.

She'd conquered the geek and crazy demographic, now she's become a queen of the petrol heads as well.

Followed quickly by Original Sin and Taking Lives.

They were stylised, steamy thrillers — but ultimately forgettable.

There was no denying it though, she was becoming a star.

But the critics weren’t for giving her an easy ride yet, and the press - They just wanted the chaos..

But Angelina didn’t back down, in fact she doubled down.

In 2001 she was handed a dream role Lara Croft in Tomb Raider

Lara Croft, at the time, was a true icon.

A video game character that had broken all the rules and become a success far beyond what anyone could have seen coming when the original game dropped in 1996.

All eyes were on who was going to bring the British legend to life, and there was more than a few eyebrows raised when Hollywood lined up Angelina, an American, for the role.

The accent was dodgy. The plot made no sense.

None of it mattered.

She became Lara Croft.

For those that cared about the games, they were sold.

Including me.

I saw the film at the cinema, there’s one part where her mansion is being attacked close to the start of the film, Lara is relaxing with a training cum home gymnastics bit and, well an army breaks in to steal an artifact she’s in possession of.

For just the briefest of seconds she jumps into the corner and the camera settles on her face as she’s assessing the situation.

For me, there and then - She was Lara Croft.

The film made money. A lot of it.

Suddenly, she was a global name - And, she was back on the message boards and the people who’d been fantasising about Acid Burn all those years ago were updating their sites to Lara Croft fan sites.

But the tabloid sneering didn’t stop.

They were still painting her as unstable. Risky. Too much.

Her brother, James, was still around, too.

They’d always been close — especially with their mum’s health getting worse, he was often seen on set to support her so of course that's what you'd read about.

They mostly ignored that her Dad was there as well, he took on the role of her Lara’s father - Which you would have thought was more interesting for them. But, no.

But she had other things to worry about, behind the scenes were starting to shift.

Her marriage to Billy Bob Thornton was beginning to fall apart.

In 2001 he’d put out a song called “Angelina” as part of his singing side gig, obviously it gave her chance to revisit her music video routes at the same time.

But they quietly separated in 2002.

No fireworks. No press statement.

Just... over.

And, if they won’t say, then we won’t ever know why - Despite what the tabloids would have you believe.

She carried on working, Life or Something Like It would come that same year — a quirky rom-com where she played a platinum blonde news reporter questioning her life choices.

It didn’t set the box office on fire, but you could see her trying new things, going in different directions.

And after the breakup, things started to change.

The image. The press. The purpose.

She started to disappear from the tabloids and show up in refugee camps instead.

Suddenly, she wasn’t just an actress.

She was becoming something else.

She never stopped working or taking risks, earning some critical praise, at last.

More awards. More nominations.

Less tabloid attention. I guess even they knew better to try and knock her humanitarian image.

Then came Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Both a hit, and a scandal.

The birth of Brangelina.

The tabloids were, of course, ecstatic.

She didn’t get buried in it and instead rose above it and just ignored the noise.

Since then, she seems to have slowed down with her film work.

Instead of staying on the carousel, she started picking projects that meant something — sometimes small, sometimes personal. Sometimes both.

The Good Shepherd, A Mighty Heart and Changeling before donning her action star hat again.

She'd star in Wanted in 2008 — loud, slick, and unapologetically over-the-top.

Angelina wasn’t just playing the action star this time — she was the action star.

While everyone else was trying to copy The Matrix, she made something cooler just by showing up.

I mean, OK. It copied The Matrix a little bit, but it wasn't on its own.

Wanted was both violent and ridiculous, but she grounded it with a presence. The kind that makes you believe the bullets really might curve just because she wants them to.

It was a one and done film, no sequel and no franchise - Much as people wanted one. In truth, aside from Tomb Raider and the later Maleficent films, Angelina has never really been interested in sequels.

She went off radar for two years before doubling down with Salt.

Originally written for Tom Cruise, the studio retooled the entire film around her. Which kinda says it all really.

It wasn’t campy or flirtatious — it was hard-edged, straight spy thriller territory, and she carried it without a single wink to the audience.

For anyone still stuck on the tabloid image, Salt shut them up.

But, after that it’s been mostly smaller roles.

Well, if you don’t include Eternals, which was about as big as they get - That Marvel machine attracts everyone.

In 1996 when she was doing the interview rounds for Hackers she told Empire Magazine that she kept getting offered action movie roles, but they wanted her to wear her hair short and wear little tank tops. But she always wanted to be more feminine with it.

She got that wish, more than once. Lara Croft, SALT, Mrs. Smith, [Wanted]

I mean, if nothing else there isn’t anything wrong with making your wishes come true.

Right?

Sure, there’s Maleficent as well and a couple of other bits and pieces.

But for now, she seems to have accomplished what she wanted to achieve,

Angelina Jolie didn’t get here on charm, didn’t ride a name.

She paid her dues in weird films, bad press, and unfair headlines.

She didn’t burn out or fade away. Never played the PR game. Didn’t explain, didn’t argue, didn’t apologise.

And eventually, the tabloids got bored — she outlasted them.

Angelina Jolie just… stopped needing to prove anything.

Walking away on her own terms before anyone could write the ending for her.

And maybe that's the most unconventional rise of all.

Anyways...

I’ve been Paul.

And Angelina Jolie was Famous, Eventually.