Angel Has Fallen not only expands on the home life of protagonist Mike Banning (Gerard Butler), it also introduces a kickass new agent played by Jada Pinkett Smith. The seasoned actress sat down with Screen Rant to explain why she was thrilled to take the role, as well as what she learned from the real men and women that both her character and Mike are modeled after.
Jada, congratulations on the film. Amazing job; I love your character. You play this no-nonsense FBI agent. How does your character fit into the story?
Jada Pinkett Smith: Well, she is chasing Mike Banning because he has been framed for attempting to assassinate the President of the United States, played by Morgan Freeman.
Yep. Now, what was the hook that got you involved in this? First of all, there are so many great actors in this film, and so many kind of twists and turns you can kind of see.
Jada Pinkett Smith: Yeah, well, you just hit it. It's so many twists and turns, and the fact that this is a great cast to work with. And it was a great role that I got to hit and quit; you know, I got to be in and out.
There was so much action, too – off the chain action. Now, while having a black president isn't a novelty anymore, talk to me about Morgan Freeman's President Trumbull.
Jada Pinkett Smith: Well, you know, Morgan just comes with this level of prestige. You know what I'm saying? And so, it's not a far-fetched idea of Morgan being the President of the United States.
If Morgan Freeman was the President of the United States, how would the world be different?
Jada Pinkett Smith: That I don't know. That's a Morgan Freeman question, for sure. I don’t know.
Can you talk to me a little bit about the preparation that you had for this role?
Jada Pinkett Smith: Ric was great, our director, and he really had me in contact with a few FBI agents and military guys who really talked me through the mentality that people who protect our country and protect our president have to have in order to get the job done. And so that was part of my prep.
Now, a lot of this film kind of uses fake news stories in order to enhance the storytelling. Can you talk to me about how that plays a role in the film? And how important that is now?
Jada Pinkett Smith: It's the idea that that's part of our reality today, of just messaging that's kind of pumped out into the world to make things look a certain way. So, it's just part of the reality today, with all the different outlets and stuff that we have.
Now, usually, as an actor or actress, you usually learn something from a character and can take it on to any role or anything that you do in life. What is it that you learned from this experience, working on this film?
Jada Pinkett Smith: I think one of the things was… Some insight that I got, in talking to some of the men and women who do this in real life, is that oftentimes, as citizens, we only look at these people as in service. And we forget that they're actually human beings that have lives. You know, and that really put me in a different state of understanding. Even in this particular movie, where we get to see that. In the last two movies, Mike is an agent and what have you, but in this movie, we get to see him as a full man. We get to see what his home life is.
Exactly. We didn't see that in the previous films.
Jada Pinkett Smith: And we get to meet his father. So, we get to learn a lot about him, and he's humanized in a way that really heightens the stakes for us as an audience watching him go through the situation. But there are men and women who are doing that every day.
Yep. Well, congratulations on this film. I couldn't say it any better than that. Thank you so much for your time.
