Angelina: An Unauthorized Biography (58 page)

In her first starring role in the sci-fi drama
Cyborg 2
, Angie, then seventeen, was trained in martial arts by Karen Sheperd, who played an evil mutant. When she first met her, Karen thought Angie was too skinny and weak for the part, believing that “Hollywood nepotism” had triumphed over talent. By the end of the shoot she admired Angie for her quiet ambition and raw ability.
Karen Sheperd

When Angie first met Calvin Klein model Jenny Shimizu at an audition for
Foxfire
, she was attracted to her but feared that they were earmarked for the same role. Angie relaxed when she realized Jenny was there for another part. The two became lovers and eventually good friends.
Sipa Press/Rex Features

Angie first met English actor Jonny Lee Miller during the making of the high-tech thriller
Hackers
in the fall of 1994. Both highly competitive, with a mutual love of tattoos, the couple enjoyed a long-distance romance, eventually marrying in an intimate ceremony, with actor Jude Law and Marcheline Bertrand as witnesses, on March 28, 1996. In honor of the occasion Angie wrote his name in her blood on the back of her white wedding shirt.
Sven Arnstein/StayStill/Photoshot

Within months of her marriage, Angie began an affair with Timothy Hutton, her costar in
Playing God
. “He was besotted with her. Besotted,” remembers director Andy Wilson.
Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage/Getty Images

Angie relaxes with other members of the cast between takes on the set of
Playing God
. Director Andy Wilson, far right, recalls: “She was only twenty-one but sexy as all hell.”
Andy Wilson

Emotionally exhausted and depressed after filming
Gia
, Angie learned to play the drums in order to relax and in hopes of playing in Tim Hutton’s garage band. She was taught by Jefferson Airplane drummer Joey Covington, who believes the exhilarating exercise helped save her life.
Courtesy of Joey Covington

Bleary-eyed and out of sorts, Angie, who cut her hand during the filming of
Hell’s Kitchen
in 1997, meets her drug dealer Franklin Meyer for the first time at his apartment in the infamous Chelsea Hotel. She was accompanied by actor Johnny Whitworth, but there is no suggestion that he was buying or using drugs. After that first conversation, she left with sixty dollars’ worth of heroin and cocaine. “She never bought or did a lot,” Meyer recalls.
Franklin Meyer

Angie talking to her father from her new apartment on New York’s Upper West Side. She let herself be filmed by Franklin Meyer for a grungy documentary he called
Hand Job Files. Franklin Meyer

With her unruly mane of golden hair covering her face, this is an unusual shot of Angie framing her famous lips. Her dealer Franklin Meyer, who took the shot, discussed setting up an artists’ colony in upstate New York with the actress, who wanted to learn how to make masks and casts, particularly of women’s breasts.
Franklin Meyer

Angie sent this striking Polaroid shot of herself in a cowboy hat and a wide-brimmed smile to her father as a Christmas card. It was a light-hearted moment during a photo shoot when she was having the name of her lover and future husband, Billy Bob Thornton, tattooed way below her bikini line.
Author's collection