Angelina Jolie and her Eternals castmates were named four of ELLE’s Women in Hollywood for 2021. The actress and her co-stars, Salma Hayek, Gemma Chan and Lauren Ridloff, each have their own ELLE cover for the honor. For Angelina’s cover, she’s nestled in a swinging hammock, with the sunlight pouring on her face. She gives the camera sultry glare for the absolutely stunning close-up shot.
The photo shoot got a bit more complicated from there, though, as Angelina showed off her trapeze skills with the help of hanging looped strings. She strikes various poses across the ropes, stretching her legs and arms far in each direction to reveal an impressive flexibility. It appears to be easy for Angie, too, as she’s casually sipping tea while stretching out in one of the shots.
In her interview for the magazine, Angelina gushed over how great it was to work with three amazing female co-stars, as well as female director, Chloe Zhao, on Eternals. “A lot of times as an actress, you’re this individual strong woman, or you have one sister,” Angelina explained. “You don’t often have this family where you really get to know women and see all the different strengths.”
She praised Gemma’s “grace and elegance,” Salma’s “motherhood and power” and Lauren’s “connection and intelligence,” while also noting that all four of the women were totally themselves on-set. “Maybe there’s something to that — that the characters weren’t as far off [from ourselves],” she admitted. “I think there’s a secret that we don’t know that our director knows, because if you look at her films, she casts a lot of real people as their roles and it shapes her films.”
Angelina also raved over how “supportive” everyone was of each other as they filmed the Marvel movie. “There was no ego,” she explained. “There was no time for it, no room for it with everyone. That’s part of who Chloe is. I was very drawn to the idea of her taking on Marvel because it didn’t seem obvious. Then you meet her and you understand her personal connection to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and her love for these types of films — how she grew up, what they mean to her — then it makes a lot of sense. I knew whatever it was going to be, she was going to bring something unique.”