Angelina Jolie is a versatile actress who has almost every film genre in her grasp; hence it’s not a surprise that she was offered a role in the popular American action comedy Charlie’s Angels alongside Cameron Diaz, but the actress respectfully denied it. The film went to star Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu in the leads. Scroll below to find out why Jolie opted out of the MCG directorial.

Jolie is one of the A-listers of Hollywood today, and when the above-mentioned movie came out, she had already been an acclaimed star with some notable works to her credit and an Oscar in the category of Supporting Role in 2000 for her film Girl, Interrupted. Hence the allure of fame and exposure to do the action comedy beside Cameron was not much fodder to get her on board for the film.

The film Charlie’s Angels, which came out in 2000, was distributed by Columbia Pictures, and Angelina Jolie, once in an interview with Premiere via 9 Types, spoke about the reasons why she turned down the role. She said, “When [Columbia Pictures] sent me the script for Charlie’s Angels, they said there were three reasons I should do it.” She continued, “They said there hadn’t been really good, strong roles for women; that it would make me a big star; and that I would have a fun time doing it.”

Angelina Jolie’s acting prowess was already making its way to the top at the time, and therefore, she did not find any extra appeal to the film. She said, “All my roles so far in Gia, Wallace, Playing By Heart and The Bone Collector have been strong female roles. The idea of being a big STAR has absolutely NO APPEAL to me.”

Sharing her opinion on the Charlie’s Angels script and the star powers of Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz at that point in time, Angelina Jolie said, “Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz are already celebrities, and they’re going to have great fun spoofing their images with Charlie’s Angels. I’m not at that point in my career, so audiences won’t have as much fun watching me run around in high heels chasing bad guys and flipping my hair.”

In another interview with Film Ink, Jolie opened up about how the scale of Charlie’s Angels was also a reason behind her turning it down, and she said, “Plus, I don’t wanna be that exposed by being in a really big movie.” Instead, she chose to do a different action film, Gone in 60 Seconds, alongside Nicholas Cage.