By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Angelina Jolie made waves in the ’90s when she bared it all in multiple movies, a trend that carried over into the early aughts and the height of her popularity. None of those scenes are as strange and inexplicable as the time she played Grendel’s mother in Beowulf.
Jolie admitted that it wasn’t until sitting in the theater and watching the movie that she realized the character wasn’t going to be a scaly lizard monster and, instead, would look exactly like her. It’s the strangest choice made by director Robert Zemeckis in a bizarre movie that would never get made today. It’s so unique that if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth your time.
Bringing The Classic Poem To Life
Beowulf adapted the classic Old English poem that most people know from their high school English class, and by its nature, it doesn’t lend itself well to the structure of a major Hollywood film. Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary wrote the script over the course of 10 years, intending for it to be dark and gritty. That’s fitting as Avary worked on Pulp Fiction with Quentin Tarantino. When Zemeckis took over and decided to make it an animated film instead, he instructed the pair to “go wild” and write scenes that would cost a million dollars a minute in live-action.
The shift to using cutting-edge motion capture and turning Beowulf into a live-action cartoon brought with it a budget increase from an estimated $25 million to $150 million ($228 million when adjusted for inflation today). Unlike some films where you can’t believe that much was spent, the shockingly realistic versions of the cast make it clear exactly where the money went.
Angelina Jolie wasn’t the only star stunned by her appearance in the film, as Ray Winstone, who played Beowulf, couldn’t believe how much the character looked like him if he was a six-foot six-inch Viking with eight-pack abs. Reacher star Alan Ritchson was used as the body model for the character.
Angelina Jolie thought that as Grendel’s mother, she’d more closely resemble the classic monster instead of being depicted as a succubus, but she still loved the role and enjoyed being an evil, powerful woman in a male-dominated society a decade before Maleficient. Grendel, brought to life by Crispin Glover, who worked with Robert Zemeckis for the first time since Back to the Future, looks like a giant gangly corpse. The fight between Beowulf and Grendel is far more exciting on screen than it ever was when being read out loud by bored sophomores and is still the most brutal fight Zemeckis has ever filmed.
Studios Would Never Make Beowulf Today
Beowulf benefited from having perfect timing, arriving just as 3D was taking off in theaters, and studios were willing to take a risk. “Strange” is one way to describe the movie, but “experimental” is another, as Zemeckis took a huge swing with this film, and thankfully, it worked out in the end.
The movie earned $196 million at the box office but ended up becoming profitable thanks to its DVD release. Over the years, it’s become more of a cult classic, and it is still receiving praise for its high-quality animation work, which holds up even decades later.
We’re now in an era where Hollywood studios are risk-averse, and it seems like nothing but remakes, established franchises and superhero movies are receiving huge budgets, which makes Beowulf a delightful breath of fresh air from when directors could be as creative as they wanted. If you’ve never seen Beowulf, or it’s been a while and you forget how groundbreaking it was, it’s available to stream on Max today.