Gong woman's tango with Angelina Jolie

By Michelle Hoctor
Updated November 6 2012 - 1:29am, first published December 27 2010 - 9:16am
Brooke Antonello appears in the new film The Tourist with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. Picture: DAVE TEASE
Brooke Antonello appears in the new film The Tourist with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. Picture: DAVE TEASE

It's not often that someone steals the scene from actress Angelina Jolie, but Wollongong's Brooke Antonello has been doing just that in Illawarra cinemas.The professional dancer has added a home-town link to Jolie's new movie The Tourist, which premiered on Sunday.Antonello, 30, features as a ballroom dancer in a tango scene with Jolie and screen partner Johnny Depp."Johnny comes in and asks Angelina to dance. They dance, we dance around them, and then Angelina runs through the crowd and he chases after her," she said.The scene, shot in Venice, Italy, sounds brief enough but took four days to film.But the exhausting work led Antonello to a one-to-one conversation with Jolie."I was crouched down on the floor, putting my shoes back on after we'd done a scene and she came over and said, 'Oh! You poor thing, my feet are sore too but I got to change my shoes.'"I looked up and had nothing to say to her, which was very surprising. But they were both really lovely. Johnny was quite cheeky. He always said 'hi' and was very pleasant and friendly."Antonello's life has been a whirlwind since she left St Mary Star of the Sea College in 1998.A dancer since the age of two, she has performed in theatre and stage shows, most notably The Boy from Oz with Hugh Jackman.She travelled to England where she secured a role as a back-up dancer on television, then transferred to Rome 18 months ago where she combined gigs on Italian television with a job organising tours at The Vatican.Along the way she studied psychology by correspondence through the University of New England and established her own swimwear label, Wild Dahlia.Despite her exciting film experience, Antonello, who returned to Wollongong four weeks ago, is uncertain whether to set her sights on a movie career."I've actually come home with the intention of slowing down a little bit with my dancing career, but you never know what's around the corner.''

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