MovieChat Forums > Gia (1998) Discussion > As beautiful as Angelina is, she was all...

As beautiful as Angelina is, she was all wrong for the part...


Young Angelina Jolie is most unconvincing as a high fashion model. At that age, she had a round, soft face, no visible cheekbones. Added to that, her full lips make her look coarse, the opposite of elegant and aristocratic, as Gia Carangi was. Plus she lacked the typical model body type of tall, small-boned and naturally thin.

She's be better able to pull it off now, at 40, because of her low body weight and the way age takes the roundness out of women's faces.


You may agree or disagree...just my opinion.

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I just finished watching this movie and completely agree with you, having followed the high-end fashion industry for a number of years now. Angelina's beauty is commercial, and not unconventional as most top supermododels are (ie. whilst supermodels have unique features which allows them to be recognizable, catwalk models are tall, slim, sunken cheeks and flat-chested). I htink they should have cast someone else to be honest, however I think this was probably Angelina's best role ever as she was simply superb.

Anyway I have never heard of Gia and just looked her up - I believe she was mostly used for prints? Anyway she didn't have the dimensions for catwalk.

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[Jolie] lacked the typical model body type of tall, small-boned and naturally thin.

Gia Carangi was not a traditional model in build or type.

She was short by industry standards (5'6 1/2") and being very curvaceous, was neither thin nor small boned. Her face had a certain soft, fleshy quality that was very sensual, especially in contrast to the usual stick thin, waspy appearance of most fashion models back then.

SEE:

http://www.theplace2.ru/archive/gia_marie_garangi/img/y_0c970010.jpg

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd90/lwisconsin/n27593791448_781912_6921.jpg

.

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Agreed. It would work better for her now. At times Angelina looks almost too thin now.

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OP is 100% correct. For the era, Gia was very fresh in an extremely non-WASPy way, and it was attention grabbing without being - exactly as OP said - coarse. Jolie did well, but her looks were not Gia at all, and Jolie's mouth alone keeps her in the class of coarsened non-sophisticates. Based on acting, Jolie did well, but looks-wise it's kind of like that scene in Mommie Dearest when Joan Crawford takes over Christina's role on the soap opera...it's a cringy, smh thing. It's a shame that someone else couldn't have been found who merged the look with the acting, but Jolie did try.

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