David Duchovny feels like it helped to light Angelina Jolie Oscar-winning career following their joint work on the 1997 neo-noir crime film Playing God.
Duchovny recently sat down for an episode of SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen liveand played a word association game with several of his former co-stars – including Julia Louis Dreyfus, whom he called “fantastic” and “smart”, Eddie Murphy (a “legend”), Demi Moore (“sweet “), and Halle Barry (“great”), among many others.
When host Andy Cohen mentioned Jolie, however, Duchovny couldn’t think of just one or two words and exclaimed, “I feel like I discovered Angelina Jolie.”
“Because I was casting – I was part of the cast of (Playing God). I did not do discover her, but you know, she walked in and I knew she was a movie star,” Duchovny said. “I told everyone, ‘We have to cast her!’”
In the film, Duchovny stars as Eugene Sands, a disgraced surgeon who has his medical license revoked due to drug use. He ends up saving a man’s life after a nightclub shooting, which impresses local mobster Raymond Blossom (Timothy Hutton). Blossom hires Sands to be his personal physician, and Sands becomes romantically involved with the mobster’s girlfriend, Claire (Jolie).
Although the film was largely ignored and criticized at the time, it was an early leading role for Jolie, and her performance was a point of praise for many critics. That said, she previously starred in the 1995 cult classic Hackerswhich is widely considered to be his breakout role.
Since his performance in Playing GodJolie has become one of the most famous celebrities in the world. In 2000, she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Girl, interruptedshe was nominated for Best Actress in 2009 for her role in Beast Boyand she was honored with the Academy Awards’ Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 2014.
Earlier this month, Jolie won her first Tony Award — alongside his daughter and production assistant, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt — when the Broadway musical they produced, Strangerstook home the Tony Award for Best Musical.
Jolie is a mother to six children – Maddox, 22, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 17, Vivienne and her twin brother, Knox, 15 – whom she shares with her ex-husband, Brad Pitt.
Check out the video below to see the magical moment Jolie and her daughter took the stage for their big Tony moment of glory.
SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live airs Monday through Friday at 10 a.m. ET on Radio Andy (channel 102) and anytime on the SiriusXM app.
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