Angelina Jolie has spoken out about her approach to playing Cleopatra in a big screen version of the Egyptian queen’s life.
Cleopatra has often been considered a legendary beauty – not least thanks to Elizabeth Taylor’s glamorous turn as the young queen in the Oscar-winning 1963 film.
But Jolie wants to approach the monarch from a different angle.
“She has been very misunderstood,” Jolie tells Stella Magazine . “I thought it was all about the glamour, but then I read about her and she was a very strong mother, she spoke five languages and she was a leader.
“My performance will never be as lovely as Elizabeth's. We are trying to get into a different truth about her as a pharaoh in history and not a sex symbol, because she really wasn't.
“Even this idea of her having many lovers - it was possible that it was only two. She is very interesting, but she wasn't a great beauty.”
The film will be based on the novel Queen Of the Nile: Cleopatra, A Life , and is due out in 2013. There is currently no director attached, though Jolie is keen on David Fincher.
Those who've seen Jolie in the flesh can attest that she herself is a "great beauty", so it'll be interesting to see how she plays that down as Cleopatra. Uglification, anyone?
