Angelina Jolie goes right over the top in
beauty, in talent, in accomplishments, in love and
in public. She just might go over the top in
stardom, too, as action heroine Lara Croft in this
summer's Tomb Raider.

     I interviewed Jon Voight
at my house in L.A. in 1978 when he was
filming The Champ. Now, 23 years later, I'm
talking to his 25-year-old daughter, Angelina
Jolie, who, having won an Oscar at an
extraordinarily young age, stands a good chance of
becoming a huge star in this summer's action
adventure Tomb Raider. I'm curious to see if she's
at all like her father, who was (and still is)
intense, focused and original in his thinking. I
already have a good idea of what Jolie might be
like based on the public image she's created in
the four years since she showed up in TNT's George
Wallace. This is a woman who admitted to reciting
her marriage vows to her Hackers costar Jonny Lee
Miller in a blood-stained shirt and rubber pants.
Who, after playing a bisexual junkie in HBO's Gia,
didn't deny rumors that she fancied women. Who
once said in an interview, "You're young, you're
drunk, you're in bed, you have knives, shit
happens." Who kissed her brother on the mouth at
the Oscars last year, and during her acceptance
speech for winning Best Supporting Actress for
Girl, Interrupted, told the world she was in love
with him. Who abruptly decided to marry Billy Bob
Thornton, her Pushing Tin costar, in a Las Vegas
chapel, much to the surprise of her family and
Thornton's girlfriend, Laura Dern.

     But unlike many headline-
grabbing actresses, Jolie is even more interesting
on-screen than off. The dangerously screwed-up
beauties she has played in George Wallace, Gia,
Playing by Heart, Pushing Tin and Girl,
Interrupted have all been tangible, believable
creations. In her first big-budget thriller, The
Bone Collector, she easily matched the skill and
intensity of Denzel Washington. She's likely to
stun audiences as the take-no-prisoners action
heroine Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, a fantasy
adventure adapted from the video game by director
Simon West (see story on p. 54). And who isn't
looking forward to watching her later this summer
when she plays the sex-obsessed femme fatale who
enraptures Antonio Banderas in Original Sin?
When Angelina Jolie greets me for this interview,
she strikes me as someone fully capable of doing
all that she has done offscreen and all that she's
expected to do on-screen as Lara Croft. She's
dressed in a black T-shirt and black leather
jacket, and she looks like she might throw a mean
right if provoked. "Call me Angie," she says,
reaching out to shake my hand. I can tell she is
indeed something like her father--intense,
focused. And I have little doubt that, like her
father, she'll be original in her thinking.