Angelina Jolie Spent ‘Almost Seven Months’ Training to Sing Opera in ‘Maria’: ‘I Had Not Sung in Public’ Before and ‘Was Terribly Nervous’

Angelina Jolie detailed her preparation to play opera icon Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s “Maria” at its Venice Film Festival press conference, saying she trained for “almost seven months.”

“Maria” reunites Larraín and writer Steven Knight — whose last project, “Spencer,” bowed in Venice in 2021 — and tells the “tumultuous, beautiful and tragic story of the life of the world’s greatest opera singer, relived and reimagined during her final days in 1970s Paris.”

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“Everybody here knows, I was terribly nervous,” she said of learning to sing opera. “I spent almost seven months training because when you work with Pablo you can’t do anything by half. He demands, in the most wonderful way, that you really do the work and you really learn and train.”

Jolie said she “had not sung in public” before, which added to the pressure when filming packed theater scenes at Paris’ La Scala theater.

“My first time singing I remember being so nervous. My sons were there and they helped lock the door so that nobody else was coming in, and I was shaky,” she said. “Pablo, in his decency, started me in a small room and ended me in La Scala. So he gave me time to grow.”

Asked about potential Oscar buzz for the feature, Jolie said she mainly cared about honoring Callas’ legacy and her fans.

“My fear would be to disappoint them,” she said. “If there’s a response to the work, I’m very grateful, but … I really came to care for her, so I didn’t want to do a disservice to this woman.”

For his part, Larraín said he “didn’t want to make a dark movie about a tragic situation”, but rather about a “woman who spent her life singing for others, taking care of others, worrying about her relationships — now she’s ready to take care of herself and find her own destiny.”

Jolie said she did find herself relating to Callas, but not in the way some may expect.

“There’s a lot I won’t say in this room that you probably know and assume,” Jolie said with a laugh. “I related to the part of her that is extremely soft and didn’t have room in the world to be as soft as she truly was and as emotionally open as she truly was. I think I share her vulnerability more than anything.”

Callas was often referred to as the world’s greatest diva. Ruminating on the meaning of the word, Jolie said: “I think it’s often come with a lot of negative connotations. I think I’ve relearned that word through Maria and I have a new relationship to it. I think it is often other people’s perceptions of a woman that defines who she is and what she intended.”

Alongside Jolie, “Maria” stars Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, Haluk Bilginer, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Stephen Ashfield and Valeria Golino.

Netflix nabbed U.S. distribution rights to “Maria,” on Wednesday, but a release date has yet to be announced.

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