We've seen Angelina Jolie in many intense roles, but her turn as a street cop inducted into the search for a brutal serial killer in The Bone Collector is grueling and overpowering. The very famous daughter of Jon Voight and a big star in her own right, talked about the alarmingly lifelike ordeal of acting in The Bone Collector, and a very different kind of excitement co-starring with Denzel Washington, a paraplegic detective and her love interest in the movie.

PRAIRIE MILLER: Your character Amelia must have been totally fascinating to play.

ANGELINA JOLIE: Yeah. Well, she's a woman! I say that actually, because to me she was in many ways. They don't have a lot of strong women's roles, and they always say it's hard to find them. And a lot them are very angry or they're not feminine at all, they're not emotional. And she was all of that. And strong in her way.

But she was just a very well rounded character. And had a great arc to her. She would find her use, you know, discover that she was useful. She would find her purpose or her strength, and understand all kinds of involvements in many ways And find this man that understood her, and spoke to her.

PM: Were you a little nervous when you heard you would be co-starring with Denzel?

AJ: Yeah, yeah, very much! Obviously when he was cast and they had talked about me, they had to show him my work and he had to approve me. Then he had to meet me, to see if the chemistry was there, what kind of person I was, and if we could work together. But I was so excited that he liked my work enough to actually sit down with me. But yeah, I was very excited.

And I also thought he would be so brilliant. He was perfect. It wasn't just that he's a great actor. I could really see him as this man. And I don't think there are that many actors who could be that absolutely still, and do so much at the same time. You know, have that kind of presence.

And we never did think about the race issues. But when they have come up, I also thought, what a great thing that is as well. You know, that it's there, but it's not an issue. And it shouldn't be really. That was nice.

PM: You have said that this was one of the most intense love stories you ever played...

AJ: Oh completely. The most!

PM: ...But which seems a little strange in the love department, when he's totally immobile.

AJ: Well, in reality you could have sex with anybody. But there are very few people that can hold me in a way, to look at them and talk to me. And to make me cry, and talk to me about my life. And also to say, get out there, I believe in you. Go, go, go. And get me to go, and to get my life together. And for me to want to come back and say, look what I did. You know, nobody else could do that. But I can have sex with anybody.

PM: Anybody?

AJ: Well, I've only had a handful in my life! But that's the reality. And that relationship with Denzel in the movie even changed my view of relationships. You know, anybody in my life at that time. Or if I was seeing somebody or just talking to them. If they were just like, hi, how are you, I want to see you. If it was just about sexuality and had nothing to do with like, how is your work, what are you doing, what are you feeling, what are you thinking. You know, nobody was doing that. So they didn't have anything close to what I had when I was on the set. So...

PM: You said that you were afraid Denzel might not like your work. What is there not to like?

AJ: Oh, I just know he's very clear about what he likes. You know, about what's right or wrong for something. I didn't think that he wouldn't like me as an actress, that he would hate my work, but that in some way he wouldn't connect to it. Or if he thought I would be right for the role, or have the strength to play this woman. And there are other things. Like if I was woman enough to play opposite him. You know, just many things. But it always means so much when you meet another actor that has moved you, and that you're making sense to them. You know, that means a lot.

PM: How did you go about figuring out the sexual tension with a paralyzed male?

AJ: Oh, I didn't have any problem with him! It's like the scenes you'd have with some guy in other movies, you'd end up having these fun scenes. And then you'd have a sex scene. Denzel and I had days and days of scenes where I'd just give him juice, or something. And when we would talk, it was all in the way we had to look at each other. Because he couldn't grab me and say, stay here. He couldn't hold me. He had to really feel it.

So he was more connected with me sensually. And I mean, the slightest touch was like, you know, electric. Because you can hardly do the slightest thing. And because both characters are very internal anyway. They hardly know what the other is thinking. But no, it was just very sensual. And it doesn't hurt that he's a stunning man! And a very powerful presence. So he is mesmerizing.

PM: But there was a lot of chemistry and a lot of eroticism going on, yet not even one kiss.

AJ: It wasn't necessary. It was just lots of little, subtle things. Also, to me Amelia just couldn't be too sexy. It had to match him, if they were going to be in a relationship. I think that's more elegant, and he's a very classy man. Like, there's no reason for her to be sexy, or to see her legs with a short little dress on, with the reality of her standing next to him in his wheelchair. That's just playing on and hinting a bunch of sexuality that's not necessary, I think. I think the way it is, is beautiful.

PM: We tend to think of police women as not that vulnerable. Did you base your character on police women that you met?

AJ: Yeah, I met a lot. And they were actually stronger than I thought she should be, Amelia. I mean, they really had made a decision to be what they needed to be. Like a lot of them are tougher than the men. You know, like you'll see the men hanging out. And when the women walk into the room, they're like dead serious. They're like, what do you want? They're not playful, because they just need to keep that authority. They tended to seem that way, with some of the women I met. They were very respected, and they worked very hard.

And Amelia is just sickened by the world and by people, and she doesn't think she can do anything about it. But she doesn't want to go behind a desk. And of course Denzel's character doesn't feel very useful. He just feels like he should be at the end of his life, because that's it for him. And so they meet at that same time in their lives.

PM: Denzel's character is so limited physically, confined with no movement to that bed the whole time. How did his limitations tend to limit you?

AJ: Well, you see how he sent me running around the city! When we were in the room together, it was actually easy. It was kind of an acting dream. You know, you have new obstacles, new things to just react to. And I found myself just naturally not moving too much around him. Or staying in his eye line. I know if I moved a certain way, he couldn't see me. And his bed became this thing that nobody would even nudge, because it was like his body somehow. So you didn't lean on it, you didn't touch it. And you just felt him in the room all the time. So it was a very haunting kind of resonance.

PM: There was something mentioned about Amelia being a model before she became a cop.

AJ: Yeah, and I tried desperately to get it out of the script. Among other things! That did get out, though.

PM: Like what else?

AJ: The movie was supposed to open with a sex scene.

PM: And....?

AJ: Um, I don't know. I fought them for a while. I actually insisted that I be like in school. But that made it just that much more funny, because I ended up being in Catholic school clothes, and it just made it more...you know! Like we had the outtake pictures of that, with handcuffs!

PM: Are you against the whole idea of doing sex scenes?

AJ: It depends on the film. I thought when I did Gia, that it was so much who she was, that her sexuality would be free with her running down the hall naked. But I thought it was so important, I loved it. I've never done frontal nudity though, I don't think that it's necessary. But if it was in a film, I'd consider it.

But with Bone Collector, I certainly didn't feel it was. And I especially thought about her sexuality in the beginning, it needed to be more her work. I thought if she didn't enjoy sex, then it would somehow translate to her then being with somebody who was quadriplegic. If she did enjoy sex, then we would feel that she would be missing something, do you know what I mean?

So all of those things I felt needed to be introduced. It's hard enough for me to be introduced as a female cop. But to introduce me naked was just not right. And they agreed. They had to think about it, because it was in the script and they had been living with it. And I want the audience to first see me on the street. But they felt it was necessary to show a boyfriend. So we compromised. But the modeling thing, I don't know why they felt that was necessary. But they did.

PM: Those were some pretty scary and gory scenes in The Bone Collector. Did you ever have to remind yourself that it was just a movie?

AJ: Yeah. But I think I had to remind myself I wasn't a cop, that was my thing. Like I would come home to New York, and I was ready to go up to those guys and be like, hey! There was actually an accident at the side of the road, and I got out and talked to the person. I was moving traffic and thinking to myself, why aren't they blocking off the crime scene? And why aren't they protecting the evidence from the other car?

It was great though, when I had Denzel's voice on the headphones in those tunnels, even though it was all pre-recorded. His voice carried me through all those lonely days, where I had to shoot again and again in those dark places. When you hear that voice saying, I'm with you, I'm here, his voice became my strength. It was the only person I was talking to. And when I heard his voice, I forgot it was a tape. I knew he had heard me, and that I had heard him. So...

But I never got scared. I didn't think there was a false reality to it. I was scared by the reality of it. Because I went to actual forensics labs in New York, and saw pictures of a lot of things in buildings not far from where I live, things that happen every day here. And they were so brutal, things I just never knew anybody could do to another person. Like I had never seen anybody beaten to death with a tree branch, or burnt to death.

PM: How did it feel to see those things in the lab, like a cut up corpse?

AJ: There was a part of me that was fascinated by all of it, just to see it. Then you see like chipped nail polish, and you realize that a week ago this woman wanted to go out and find a boyfriend. You see her stretch marks, and you realize that this was a woman who was beaten to death by her husband, and that she had his children at some point. You see her glasses broken.

You see that, and then you see the mother and the daughter burned to death, and you see the way they seem to have been running together. And that moment where they must have been screaming together. But then you go past that, and at a certain point you start to see like with the woman who was beaten, you start to see how the blood was splattered. And you just want to get the guy. You know, you just want to find him. So that's the duality, that half of her is that death. But the other side is you as the person who has to go after that guy.

PM: Is there the possibility of losing all feeling because of those experiences?

AJ: I never did, no. I never could. And I think it's the same for those cops, I've asked a lot of them. They've said that a lot of times you have to try to forget yourself, to remind yourself that it's not my mother. But at the same time, you can't. And that's why there are so many cop suicides. But when I asked, what was the worst thing you ever saw, one of them said to me, not even a murder. They said it was when they saw a baby that had died from crib death. There were cockroaches everywhere in the apartment, and little kids eating cereal that roaches were crawling over, and just asking questions.

PM: You said in an interview that you're not going to have children. Was that just a momentary feeling or what?

AJ: I'm not having any, no. I don't think I'll give birth. There are a lot of children in the world that need homes. I don't think I want to. I'd love to be a mother. But I think they were asking me if I was pregnant. I certainly now feel that I have so much, and feel so complete in many ways. But I feel like I'm not in many ways.

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