Angelina Jolie‘s deaf former employee claims that the A-list actress stole a movie idea from her, and that she was treated ‘like a second class citizen’ during her three years of employment.
Jolie, 44, employed Antoinette Abbamonte to teach American Sign Language (ASL) to two of her six children between 2016 and 2019 in California.
Abbamonte, 53, who also works as a film producer/actress, tells DailyMailTV that the Maleficent star ‘looked down on her’ and stole her idea of creating the first ever deaf superhero for the upcoming movie Eternals, set to release November 2020.
‘I thought that [Jolie] was stealing my ideas to paint herself like she is helping the world,’ Abbamonte said.
Angelina Jolie, 44, employed Antoinette Abbamonte (right) to teach American Sign Language (ASL) to two of her six children between 2016 and 2019. Abbamonte now claims Jolie stole her creative ideas
Abbamonte, 53, who also works as a film producer/actress, says Jolie stole her idea for the first ever deaf superhero for the upcoming movie Eternals (the Eternals cast pictured at the Walt Disney Studios presentation in August)
On September 13, 2019, Abbamonte’s attorney Michael Ahmadshahi, PhD, sent an official demand letter to Jolie’s legal team, claiming intellectual property theft.
The demand letter states: ‘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 also calls for Abbamonte to be given credit as well as be compensated for her idea, which she submitted to Jolie, seen in emails obtained by DailyMailTV.
In a telephone conversation conducted through an ASL translator, Abbamonte, who now resides in California, said: ‘She [Jolie] treated me like a second class citizen.’
Eternals features the first ever deaf superhero, named Makkari, played by The Walking Dead actress Lauren Ridloff
‘That’s how I feel [and I want to] announce to the world that you can’t treat deaf people like that.
‘She completely wrote me off,’ she said.
Abbamonte, who has been deaf since birth, claims that during one of their interactions Jolie repeatedly asked her if she could hear music playing and if she could dance.
‘This was offensive and ignorant,’ she said.
‘You can’t treat deaf people like they’re worthless and look down on them.’
Abbamonte, a mother-of-four, says that Jolie became increasingly interested in her personal life story as a deaf person, which led to the two women discussing film ideas.
‘She started asking all of these questions that she never seemed interested in before, and started acting funny,’ claims Abbamonte.
She said she is now experiencing ‘emotional distress due to the negligence on the job site’.
Abbamonte said the the family tested her ‘like a lab rat’, and both Jolie and her children ‘always asked me which movies I like and discuss them.
‘Again, I felt like they were picking part out of me to aide their upcoming film with deaf character.’
She said that Jolie would even roleplay with her in order to gauge Abbamonte’s reactions and get ideas for the deaf character’s scenes.
‘I would tense every time [Jolie] tried to get more information from me’.
On September 13, 2019, Abbamonte’s attorney Michael Ahmadshahi, PhD, sent this official demand letter to Jolie’s legal team, claiming intellectual property theft
An email from May 28, 2018 from Antoinette to Angelina Jolie shows the ASL teacher pitching the idea of a deaf superhero
Jolie responded to Abbamonte’s pitch, calling it an ‘interesting idea’ and asked to Skype to discuss further
DailyMailTV obtained emails between Abbamonte and Jolie where they discuss the superhero idea and Abbamonte confronted the star about stealing the concept
Paystubs to Abbamonte’s company Mermaid Signatures Co from The Angelina Jolie Family Trust show she was paid $700 for her ASL sessions with the children in May 2017
Abbamonte claims that in May of 2018 she emailed Jolie the idea of a deaf superhero.
In July 2019, at San Diego Comic-Con, the cast for the latest superhero movie The Eternals was officially announced by Marvel Studios and Disney.
It features the first ever deaf superhero, named Makkari, played by The Walking Dead actress Lauren Ridloff.
‘I asked Angelina straight up, how did this happen?’ Abbamonte claims.
‘[I asked] did you take my idea?’
‘She responded by saying ”the universe works in mysterious ways.”
‘I felt like she was totally hypocritical and I asked her twice ”did you have this idea before or after I started with you and the kids?” And she never answered.
‘It’s not that I want personal credit, I just hate how deaf people across the board are being treated.’
Abbamonte’s lawyer claims in the demand letter that Angelina Jolie and her children ‘were not only interested in her sign language but also her own personal life story as a deaf person’
‘It’s not that I want personal credit, I just hate how deaf people across the board are being treated,’ Abbamonte said
The demand later, addressed to Jolie, states: ‘From early on, you and your kids were not only interested in her sign language but also her own personal life story as a deaf person.
‘At least on one occasion, Antoinette brought her own son to your home to meet you and your kids during her lessons. You also requested of Antoinette to keep all communications confidential.’
The letter says that Jolie ‘sought to receive as much information from Antoinette about her deafness as you could.’
‘It appears that you wanted to endear yourself to the deaf community and sought to learn as much as you could from Antoinette. More importantly, it appears that you were expressly seeking ideas from Antoinette about a potential movie role for a deaf character for compensation,’ it adds.
Jolie’s team has not responded to DailyMailTV’s request for comment.