Gwen Stefani Claims She Almost Got Angelina Jolie Role In ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ With Brad Pitt

Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton famously began their romance while they worked together on The Voice, while Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt jump-started their love as co-stars in Mr. & Mrs. Smith. But now Gwen has dropped a bombshell by boasting that she came close to getting Angelina’s role in the movie. Is it possible that rather than “Brangelina” for Brad and Angelina, the list of famous celebrity couple nicknames might have featured “Bren” for Brad and Gwen?

Stefani surprised listeners when she claimed that she almost landed the coveted movie role with Brad during her appearance on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show on Wednesday, July 20, reported Us Weekly.

Gwen dished on a variety of topics, ranging from her boyfriend, Blake Shelton to making musical magic. But it was the bombshell that she was almost hired to play protagonist Jane Smith that caught fans’ attention.

“I feel like I almost got it,” insisted Stefani in her chat with talk show host Howard Stern. “I went to a bunch [of auditions].”

Admitting that she faced considerable competition (including Angelina), Gwen also noted that her desire to succeed in the music industry was stronger.

“[The audition process was] very competitive and I wanted to do it, but I wanted to do music more.”

Stefani wasn’t the only famous woman who lost out on the role to Jolie. Others who sought to play opposite Pitt included Nicole Kidman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Chloë Sevigny.

Adding to the shock value of Gwen’s revelation about the movie role, the 46-year-old “Make Me Like You” singer shared that Pitt was friends with the band members of No Doubt.

“We knew Brad already,” recalled Stefani.

In her account of the audition for Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the pop singer claims that the selection process had been narrowed down to Angelina and herself.

“It was between me and Angelina Jolie.”

Stefani also revealed that she felt she had a real chance to succeed in the movie industry. She compared the potential power of performing a song to acting in a movie, noting that both involve creating memorable moments.

“I’m like, ‘Oh, great. I got a shot here’ [in getting the Angelina role in Mr. & Mrs. Smith],” Gwen recalled. “The whole acting thing really feels like something I could do,” she added. “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.”

Although Gwen missed out on the lead role opposite Pitt, Mr. & Mrs. Smith became known for uniting Brad and Angelina. It attracted viewers after its release in June 2005 with the story of a married couple who feel bored until they discover that they share something dangerous in common. Both of them have careers as assassins, and they have been assigned to kill each other.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith took in more than $478 million worldwide, but to Pitt and Jolie, it meant much more than money. However, Angelina subsequently admitted that it took time working together before they realized that they had something more than professional chemistry.

“It took until, really, the end of the shoot for us, I think, to realize that it might mean something more than we’d earlier allowed ourselves to believe,” confessed Jolie. “And both knowing that the reality of that was a big thing, something that was going to take a lot of serious consideration.”

During the filming of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Brad was married to Jennifer Aniston, according to Today.

However, Pitt and Jolie reportedly began their romance while he was still wed to Jennifer. The actor eventually left Aniston for Jolie, and Brangelina tied the knot in 2014.

[Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images]