Gwen Stefani took a break from talking about her relationship with Blake Shelton, albeit briefly, for the ultimate “cool story, bro” tale on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM radio show on Wednesday. The 46-year-old singer told Howard that she had an audition for the female lead in the spy thriller Mr. & Mrs. Smith. She lost out to an actress you might know named Angelina Jolie. Yes, if the stars had aligned themselves differently back in 2007, Gwen might have starred opposite Brad Pitt and he might not have had the chance to work with Angelina.
She told Howard, “I feel like I almost got it. I went to a bunch [of auditions].” She went on to say, “[It was] very competitive and I wanted to do it, but I wanted to do music more.” In a Vogue interview from 2008 when (fun fact) she had just auditioned for a role in The Black Dahila, Gwen gave props to Angie, saying:
”It was between me and Angelina Jolie, and I’m like, ‘Oh, great. I got a shot here.’ ” But then, she says, “the whole acting thing really feels like something I could do. Whenever I’ve done it, whenever I had moments where it works, it’s just like performing. You hit a moment. And that’s what movies are: a series of moments.”
“You are truly great when you can move that culture meter, when you can make the needle jump. She’s that kind of artist.”
I was going to say that the only acting Gwen ever did was in her music videos, but thanks to the internet, I know better now. I totally forgot that she played actress Jean Harlow to Leonardo DiCaprio’s Howard Hughes in 2004’s The Aviator. I never saw it, but it was just a cameo – hardly enough for her to go toe-to-toe with Angelina, right? She’s also providing a voice for the upcoming animated flick Trolls. I just can’t imagine Mr. & Mrs. Smith with anyone else but Brad and Angie.
Of course, all of this Hollywood talk wasn’t the bulk of the Stern interview. In between commiserating about life as a television talent show judge (and I do kind of miss Howard on America’s Got Talent), the discussion inevitably turned towards Gwen’s relationship with Blake Shelton.
She told Howard that they were going through their individual relationship problems at the same time, and when Blake told his Voice cast mates about the demise of his relationship with Miranda Lambert, Gwen confessed, “I think I might have went white and like shook. I was in shock, because it felt like he was exposing me.” Once Gwen told Blake about her marriage ending, the two built a friendship from there, emailing and supporting each other. She said, “I wasn’t trying to start a relationship. I was just trying to not die. There was no plan. It was an incredible gift to be able to have a friend.” And we all know where that friendship went from there, now don’t we?
Gwen’s “Blake chat” portion of the interview has been posted online and it’s not a bad listen. I have to give Gwen her props, she has a good sense of humor. Gwen joked that when she’s on The Voice, she’s “in hair and makeup for 400 hours.” I’m starting to think that Gwake might make it for the long haul.
Photo credit: WENN.com, Getty Images
Please Gwen, no more talking
aren’t she and Angelina Jolie friends? i seem to remember their children playing together.
are they still friends? or am i thinking of another person entirely…
I remember that now that you mention it. They did hang out several years ago and I vaguely remember the pap photos.
Gavin and Brad have been friends for years. I don’t know if Gwen are Angie are great friends.. but I think they and the kids hang out from time to time.. or did in the past.
I think Gwen was auditioning for MMS when it was a different movie. Brad dropped out and came back. When he did Angie was cast in the part or asked to to take the role. I don’t think Brad was on board when Gwen was auditioning.
@Lisa2
I think Gwen is fibbing a bit or misremembering.
Way I recall the casting is that Nicole Kidman had been cast in the role (she’s said jokingly in the past, that Brad and Angie should thank her), when Nicole had to drop out, Brad essentially did to. (funny the skuttle butt back then was that Jen was worried about Brad and newly single Nicole working together) lol.
He didn’t want to do it until he heard that Angelina Jolie had signed on, THEN, Brad came back. He wanted to do it with her.
Dont know where Gwen fits in here. But I figure it was more likely after Nicole and Brad got out the first time, and before Angelina signed.
The interview was two hours long, and she barely talked about Blake and it was towards the end and she didn’t really talk about their romance, more that they came into each other’s lives and developed that friendship as far as sharing the pain they were going through because they understood. She was pretty quiet and it was Howard who kept throwing out Blake’s name.
But the whole interview was about falling into her career from the age of 16, when she really had no direction but because of her brother, and covering almost the whole evolution of No Doubt as a local band for years and then becoming huge off of Tragic Kingdom and the dynamics of her split with Tony, and then into her solo career and then into the Voice. He covered most of her albums with the band and solo, and the touring with babies and how that took a toll on her after the second one.
She talked far more about her relationship with Tony in No Doubt as far as any man. I thought Howard did a great job covering her career. They were together seven years, and so he was very significant in her life since they also were in a band together.
Howard is friends with Gavin, so was sensitive on the questions regarding their marriage. I was kind of moved when he really expressed sadness on them breaking up and that he was really sad for them and said some very nice things, and was hard to hear Gwen choking up when he said those things. She seemed to try avoid talking directly about Gavin too much except having babies and how they met, but only talked in general about the breakup, not specifics, just the pain and trying to make sense of it.
It kind of broke your heart when she talked about it ending, and she said she didn’t understand at the time, feeling that she had so much love in her heart and why was she so unlucky in love, referring to Tony and Gavin, but that she learned a lot after the breakup about herself. She had wanted a family like her parents provided her, a long-lasting loving marriage, but now knows families can come in different shapes and sizes and still be okay.
I thought it was a good interview, and I really appreciated that Howard really took the time to be informed enough to cover her career and the albums they made and she made and the band dynamics. They really covered a lot about the early years of the band. People don’t realize how long they were out there locally in the ska scene on the circuit playing before hitting it nationally big.
I also enjoyed it when she talked about Prince calling her and when they went out to work with him and the stories around that, and talking about other people she had collaborated with, especially her enduring friendship with Pharrell.
I only heard part of it but I also liked Howard opening up about his own divorce from his first wife.
Actually, it was Nicole Kidman who was set the role, but later pulled out and the role was then offerred to Angelina.
Infact, the role wasn’t offered to Angelina until CZJ and a parcel of other actresses passed on replacing Kidman. At one point it was rumoured the role had originally been written for Aishwarya Rai who passed on it before it found it’s way to Kidman.
So Gwen lost to Aishwarya and a host of other actresses, NOT Angelina.
Here are old school articles from back in the day about it.
https://www.yahoo.com/movies/looking-back-at-mr-mrs-smith-the-movie-that-96026676222.html
Here is a comprehensive trivia list of the convoluted casting around this film before they finally got Brad and Angelina.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0356910/trivia
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0356910/news?year=2003
Thanks. That was the first thing I thought of – how could Gwen have been up against Jolie, when it was Nicole Kidman’s part originally?
Oh God no.
Gwen is one of Angelina’s longterm friends but she never had a chance getting that role.
Brad left the role and only came back after he found out that Angelina was in talks to play Jane – this was already confirmed by people who were behind the movie.
Is it not about time Jennifer Aniston’s friends stopped dragging Brangelina’s names for publicity. Ever since Howard became one of her bought show business friends, he always asks people questions about Brangelina. And if they are friends and/or co stars of them, Howard asks more questions. It’s like a pattern with Jennifer and her cronies.
Glad that Gwen didn’t say anything about Brangelina because she has been friends with them for years. One thing Brangelina has and that it loyal bunch of people around them.
PS: Gwen – I wanted to know who got Roger Federer after the divorce????
Maybe Gwen will get Roger…wouldn’t be the first time she’s been a beard.
Yes, Gwen-I’m sure the ONLY thing standing between you and movie Stardom was Angelina Jolie.
It was down to her and Angelina and she thought she had a shot? Sure, Jan…er, I mean sure, Gwen.
I remember reading that Brad wanted an A-list female actress and dropped out when Kidman did. But he got right back on board when they got Angelina. I don’t think he would have agreed to the movie had they cast Gwen. How was she even being considered when she never had any major leading role in a movie?
I have this feeling her saying she almost got it as wishful thinking. No way that would’ve happened. Also i don’t think this relationship is real and when did she become so desperate? This is too much.
I think they kept calling her back, so, in her mind, she felt she got very close because of that.
I can’t even fathom Gwen in that role – if that was, in fact, the role she was even auditioning for. Angelina Jolie played a very physical, sophisticated, almost clinically sexy Mrs. Smith. There is basically zero chance that Gwen could have even come close to that character. All I remember her from playing Jean Harlow is that she dipped and tilted her head a lot and she looked similar.
Also, does anyone else get the feeling that Gwen thinks she’s in it for the long haul with Blake, but he might not be quite as – ahem – committed? The relationship just shrieks REBOUND to me. It seems to me that she fell for her rebound guy and that almost never works out well.
If you listen to the whole interview she doesn’t come across as desperate.She was called back a few times.She and Angie and Brad have been friends for years.
But wasn’t it Nicole Kidman’s first? Angie only got it after Nicole dropped out.
Hahahahahahhahahahhahahahahahahhaha. That’s some funny shit.
That being said, I could so not picture Nicole Kidman in that role. Angelina owned that bad ass Mrs. Smith role.
Nicole is too mannered to play that role convincingly. She doesn’t have the type of body movement that makes her believable as an action star.
OH PLEASE! Advice to Angelina? Actress? What are you talking about Gwen?