Angelina Jolie Accused of Stealing the Idea for a Deaf Superhero for The Eternals
Angelina Jolie has been accused of stealing the idea for a deaf superhero for her film, The Eternals. The accusations have been leveled by Angelina's former employee, Antoinette Abbamonte, a deaf woman in her 50s, who taught the actress' kids sign language from 2016-2018.
Marvel Cinematic Universe wrapped up phase three with a bang. A big bang named Avengers: Endgame. Well, technically, Spider-Man: Far From Home was the last film, but we expect you to get the gist. Now, the fans of the films are looking forward to what the MCU has to offer next. 2020 will see the release of, first, Black Widow, and then, The Eternals. The trailer of Black Widow has been very well-received by the audience. Scarlett Johansson's shines in the spy-style action thriller.
The Eternals is also making enough noise with limited content at the moment. Just today, Kumail Nanjiani posted some 'thirsty shirtless' pictures on Instagram to show off his new, ripped body, for the movie. The movie will also also feature Makkari, the first-ever deaf superhero. And, in other news, Angelina Jolie, has been accused of stealing an idea for The Eternals.
A woman named Antoinette Abbamonte was employed by Angelina Jolie to teach sign language to two of her six kids, between 2016 and 2019. Abbamonte, 53, is deaf and also works as an actress and producer. Talking to DailyMail, she said, Angelina stole her idea of creating the first ever deaf superhero.
'I thought that [Jolie] was stealing my ideas to paint herself like she is helping the world,' Abbamonte said. Earlier, this year, her attorney sent an official demand letter to Jolie's legal team, claiming intellectual property theft. "It appears that you expressly solicited the idea of the Deaf Superhero from Antoinette and commercialized it together with Marvel Studios and Disney without compensating Antoinette," the letter read.
Antoinette Abbamonte spoke to DailyMail, over phone, aided by an ASL translator. She revealed that she found Angelina to be offensively ignorant when she asked her if she could hear music playing and if she can dance. "She started asking all of these questions that she never seemed interested in before, and started acting funny," and added that Jolie and her children "always asked me which movies I like and discuss them."
Antoinette added that she felt like a lab rat. "It felt like they were picking part out of me to aide their upcoming film with deaf character," she added. Further, she claimed that in May of 2018 she emailed Angelina the idea of a deaf superhero.
The Eternals was announced in July 2019 at San-Diego Comic-con. The deaf-superhero Makkari will be played by The Walking Dead actress, Lauren Ridloff. In the original comics, on which the movie is based, Makkari was a male-superhero totally able of hearing. Experts of comic books argue that she is not the first deaf-superhero. Marvel Comics have included Maya "Echo" Lopez, a deaf female superhero.
Antoinette did question Angelina as to how the idea took shape for The Eternals and if she stole her idea. To this, Angelina, allegedly, responded saying that the "universe works in mysterious ways."
She also asked Angelina if she got the idea before or after working with her. Angelina never responded to this.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 17, 2019 10:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).