Salt director Phillip Noyce: 'Angelina Jolie trains so hard for stunt scenes'

Angelina Jolie showed off her stunning slim figure and sexy legs at the L.A.
premiere of Salt July 19, 2010. (Getty Images/Jason Merritt, Kevin Winter)

Angelina Jolie can convincingly play a badass spy in Salt despite her slender frame because she trains so hard for the action scenes, says its director Phillip Noyce.

'FOCUSED AND FEARLESS'

"She trains so hard, and she does so much preparation for stunt sequences," Noyce told reporters July 19, 2010 at the L.A. premiere of Salt. "She is just absolutely focused, and she really knows how to make-believe and how to act."

In fact, Angelina, 35, is so convincing it's hard to tell she's acting when she beats a foe up on-screen.

"You really believe that she is knocking those bad guys down with such strength!" gushes Noyce, who previously directed Jolie in the 1999 thriller the Bone Collector. "She had the same fearlessness even when she was a youngster."

Despite her exotic beauty and tiny frame, Angelina is surprisingly eager to play tough physical scenes, even if it means she gets bruised and cut in the process.

'I NEVER STOP MOVING'

"I love to jump around and break things," Jolie said at the premiere. "If the actor’s having a good time, the audience feels it and you have a good time together. I love the pace. I never stop moving, so this was perfect for me."

Meanwhile, Angelina is flattered that her CIA agent character, Evelyn Salt, is being compared to superspy Jason Bourne and to her previous role, Lara Croft. "I would say [the comparison is] accurate, because Lara Croft is based in fantasy and Jason Bourne and Evelyn Salt are based in reality," she says. "But I think [Salt] is her own."

Jolie adds: "She is not just a female Jason Bourne. We worked very, very hard to make sure we weren’t copying anything that had been done before and not just doing the girl version of what the boys do. But actually finding our own language and our own new person."

Angelina, who ran around in the streets while being chased by assassins and scaled tall buildings in Salt, says the stunts were realistic, since Evelyn Salt is a real person--not a superhero with superpowers.

"It had to work because it could really happen in real life, and we adjusted the stunts accordingly," she explains." A spy would actually have to be able to do the things we do in the film."

Salt, which co-stars Liev Schreiber, opens July 23. [see slideshow below]

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