Angelina Jolie’s long-spanning filmography has a lot of intriguing movies in it. A lot of them also have passionate makeout scenes. Jolie’s co-stars like Val Kilmer and Ethan Hawke for Alexander and Taking Lives respectively said that she was the best on-screen kiss they ever had. But Jolie didn’t reciprocate the feelings of every one of her co-stars.
This is because not every kiss was consensual and planned out before. One wasn’t even mentioned in the script of a film she did- Changeling (2008). However, her co-star Jason Butler Harner, in the Clint Eastwood-directed film, decided to lay one on her either way, and as a result, he got smacked by her.
Why Did Angelina Jolie Slap Jason Butler Harner?
In the movie Changeling, there are plenty of intense scenes. For one such scene, Jason Butler Harner wanted to do something different to add to the intensity of the moment. So he ran his idea of an unwanted or unplanned kiss by director Clint Eastwood first. But he didn’t include Angelina Jolie in his improvisation. During a 2008 interview with MTV, Harner said that Eastwood approved the kiss. As per the lead actor:
“I try to be selective with my improvising. I had talked to Angelina at the beginning of the day. We had a big scene, and we’re supposed to be coming out of our corners, so it was a ‘How do we do this?’ Clint approved [of the kiss]. He said he could see it happening and he said, ‘Do it and we’ll see what happens.'”
Jolie’s reaction to the kiss was perhaps expected by Harner and he might have been banking on it. The actor said that Jolie slapped him, but it was great because she understood what emotions to draw for the scene. As per Harner:
“She slapped me and she held me and she hit me and it was great. She totally went with it. She’s really smart. She’s beautiful, but she’s really smart, and she’s a great actress.”
But what was the scene that required Harner to kiss Jolie without her knowledge at all? The actor believes that the intense moment deserved to get culminated with a slap at least.
Why Did Jason Butler Harner Non-Consensually Kiss Angelina Jolie?
In the movie Changeling, Angelina Jolie’s character Christine Collins pushes Jason Butler Harner’s villain Gordon Stewart Northcott against a wall in the climactic scene. She asks him “Did you kill my son?” The entire scene happens in the prison cell Northcott is held in on the eve before his execution. As such, it is a raw and intense moment that required Jolie to give it her all so that her emotions came forth.
In the MTV interview, Harner said that his villain was demented and deserved to get hit. As per the actor:
“That guy invited the parents of the kids he killed to come the day before he was executed so he could tell them where the bodies were, or how he did it. But when they got there, he said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ He was demented and deserved a lot of things [to be done to him]. Including a slap, at the very least.”
It can be safely assumed that the actor wanted Jolie to deliver unbridled anger in this scene. So he helped Jolie by kissing her unprompted. However, it must be said that his help was very unconventional.
Changeling is available on Netflix.
Source: MTV
