John Shearer/Getty ImagesFlying solo without Brad Pitt, Jolie was all smiles talking up Phillip Noyce's spy thriller Salt—even if doing her own stunts in the reality-based action flick left her with more than a few bumps and bruises:
Salt required her to jump across highway overpasses onto semi trucks, perform hand-to-hand combat, and handle all manner of weapon—and during one action scene, Jolie thought she'd had a near miss with serious injury.
"I thought I'd had a concussion," Jolie explained while recalling having hearing problems after a particularly brutal fall, "but I had forgotten that I had my earplugs in from [shooting] the gun!"
No stranger to fanboy-pleasing action roles, Jolie jumped at the chance to play a complex, dark character and to get back into the kind of physical characters she played in films like Wanted and Tomb Raider. "My style got meaner and harder and darker, it wasn't as pretty," she said. "I think this is a better action movie than the ones I've done."
And the weapons! "I got to play with just about everything," she said with a smile. "Including using a fire extinguisher in a way I'd never used it."
But her favorite kind of action in Salt? Good, old-fashioned fist fighting. "Hand-to-hand combat was our weapon of choice—to do everything down and dirty," said Jolie, who trained in Krav Maga, Muy Thai, and other forms of martial arts.
And just like that, with a generous smile for the Comic-Con fans, Angelina swept out of Hall H leaving everyone dazzled—and just a little wary of running into her in a dark alley. (Who are we kidding? That would be awesome.)
