Do-gooder Jolie may be worried about what her nude scene will do to her (nearly) wholesome image

By Loren Lankford

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 11/5/07 – Five years ago no one would have blinked twice at the news that Angelina Jolie would appear fully nude in a much anticipated sci-fi film. Yet now that she is bucking for Mother Teresa stripes, she is shocked that Bob Zemeckis has made her buck naked throughout the highly realistic computer animation in the film “Beowulf.”

Remember how Jolie was known as five years ago. We’re talking about the girl who was openly bisexual, made out with her brother at award shows and wore around a necklace with then-husband Billy Bob Thornton’s blood in it.

Remember now? The twice divorced actress, whom for years was in a very public feud with her father and regularly talked about her sex life, seemed to slowly disappear after she adopted son Maddox. In her place arose a mature and almost regal woman who suddenly cared to do nothing but adopt babies and save the world.

Then there was Brad, of course. Jolie met Brad Pitt on the set of their film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and although they’ve never formally married, they now have one biological and three adopted children together. Ever since, they’ve flown all over the world with their growing family to help their causes and to, yes, even film movies from time to time.

One of those films, “Beowulf,” comes out on November 14^th and has Jolie starring as a sort of Lizard Queen. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the animated film is adapted for the screen from the very famous poem of the same name. Although the film was given a PG-13 rating, it features a very naked Jolie in both the movie and on billboards and posters nationwide.

Now let’s get this straight, the film is CGI-animation, so although it isn’t live action, it also isn’t pure animation (think “Polar Express,” not “Chicken Little.”) It seems even Jolie didn’t realize how real it was going to look, telling Hollywood Today, “I got a little shy. I didn’t expect for ourselves to come out so much and for it to feel so real.”

When asked at the press conference how it felt to see her character on screen for the first time, Jolie seemed a little shaken. “I was really surprised that I felt that exposed,” she told Hollywood Today. “There were certain moments where I actually felt shy – and called home, just to explain that the fun movie that I had done that was digital animation was, in fact, a little different than we expected.”

The film, which was shot two years ago, features nudity of Jolie which she obviously didn’t expect. It is likely that while she knew she would be somewhat nude, she didn’t realize the way in which it would be shown or what it would be of. Jolie admits that part of the plus side of doing this film was that, “This was a two and a half day shoot for me. I was three months pregnant but we did the mapping of my body before,” she told Hollywood Today.

It seems that Jolie may have gotten a bit more than she bargained for, although she did say how excited she was to be working with Zemeckis. “I was excited that I got a call that I could be working with Bob,” she told Hollywood Today. “I was pretty much saying yes to anything. I thought it was great and so bizarre. And then I saw the poster and a few other things and realized I’m not just a lizard.”

When asked about her balancing work with kids and the prevalence of her private life in the news, Jolie seemed annoyed. “I’m not the only person on this panel who has kids, you know,” she replied. “I try not to think about my public life and I just focus on my private life and that’s just the best way to live.”

“Beowulf,” an epic Old English poem written anonymously, follows the story of Scandinavian hero Beowulf as he sets out protect the Danes from a beast named Grendel. Jolie plays Grendel’s mother, devastated by the loss of her son and out for revenge on the man that killed him.

The film, also starring Anthony Hopkins, Crispin Glover, John Malkovich and Robin Wright Penn, opens next Friday nationwide.