The 1993 Sci-Fi Box Office Flop That Made Angelina Jolie Throw Up

A successful debut in a feature film is one of those important milestones in a young actor’s life, meant to be celebrated proudly. However, for the young Angelina Jolie, the debut in a feature film was a cause of acute disappointment. Before becoming the Academy Award winner and A-lister, a seventeen-year-old actress stepped onto the set of her first professional movie with great enthusiasm and optimism typical of a newcomer.

However, after seeing the movie that resulted from that experience, she realized how wrong her assumptions were and gained valuable insight into the reality of the B-movie industry. The experience was so disappointing that it even made the young actress sick with nausea, showing how much the critically panned sci-fi box-office flop could make the rising star feel ill on her first creative experience.

Angelina Jolie Faced Hardship

At the end of 1993, Angelina Jolie landed the role of Cash Reese in the low-budget science-fiction film ‘Cyborg 2.’ Playing a prototype cybernetic assassin programmed to detonate and destroy rival corporate enemies, Jolie had to perform extensive stunts and undergo rigorous physical training.

However, since the young actress was only 17 at that time, there were strict rules about the amount of working time that teenagers could have on set.

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To solve this problem, the director Michael Schroeder persuaded Jolie, who had recently graduated from high school, to officially declare herself a legal adult with her father, Jon Voight’s, consent.

After such emancipation, the movie was able to shoot very adult scenes for extended periods.

With her complete involvement in the grueling process, the teenage actress trained hard with co-star Elias Koteas to master complicated kickboxing moves, without realizing what she was doing.

“Oh, I threw up,” Jolie recalled. “I did. I saw it and threw up. Just nausea. But the kickboxing was fun. I was sent to do kickboxing.” The actress “thought I was making a real movie. I saw it and got really sick.”

From ‘Cyborg 2’ To ‘Hackers‘

After watching her performance on screen, the young actress recoiled at the movie’s poor quality. Jolie realized that the filmmakers had squandered her hard work and vulnerability to create a critical disappointment.

After spending many years regretting her eccentric debut in the movie that she considered a flop, the actress made a place in the history books as the project that marked the beginning of her career.

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Fortunately, the skills the teenager learned on the set of ‘Cyborg 2‘ proved useful later, as martial arts played a major role in shaping her reputation as an action icon in Hollywood.

Instead of letting a disastrous debut derail her, Angelina Jolie pivoted and found success two years later in Hackers, the film that truly launched her career.

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