The Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie, who portrays the late opera singer Maria Callas in the upcoming film Maria, recently shared at the AFI Fest premiere in Hollywood that she and Callas share a “certain loneliness.”
“I don’t want to speak too much about it because it’s too personal, but there’s definitely a loneliness and a work ethic,” Jolie told People. “I may be many things, but I’m a very hard worker, right?” At 49, Jolie added, “I’m an imperfect person, but I work very hard, and she does too.”
The mother of six reflected that she and Callas would likely connect over being “performers and workers who have a job to do.” She also noted that both are “probably very hard on themselves.”
In August, Maria premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where Jolie received an eight-minute standing ovation, moved to tears by the audience’s overwhelming response. Around this time, The Hollywood Reporter published an interview in which Jolie detailed her intense preparation for the role: “It took many months of singing classes—months of just getting the singing down, then Italian classes, and then working on the voice and everything like hers,” she explained. “You try to be precise.”
The actress also discussed channelling Callas’ “pain” to deepen her portrayal: “I’m making her pain personal to me, and that is certainly very private,” Jolie said.
While promoting the biopic in Venice, Jolie paid homage to Callas with her fashion choices, wearing a black gown adorned with a gold Cartier Panthère brooch that had belonged to the legendary soprano. “I chose not to copy [Maria’s] looks because they are hers, and her Venice carpets were stunning, so I gave a little nod to her—in a different way,” Jolie told Vogue. “You can imagine how special it was to wear a piece of jewellery that was hers.”
The Pablo Larraín-directed film Maria will debut in theatres on 27 November and will stream on Netflix from 11 December.
