Angelina Jolie Felt the Singer She Plays in ‘Maria’ Would’ve Hated Her at First
Angelina Jolie recently returned to the spotlight to star in the biopic Maria, where she plays a famous but haunted opera singer. Researching the part, Jolie couldn’t help but feel she bonded with the late singer overn time. However, Jolie also felt like she and Maria Callas would’ve had trouble getting along in real life.
Angelina Jolie shared how she felt Maria Callas would react to her
Jolie found a lot of common ground with the late opera singer. She was lured into doing the movie after a long hiatus by filmmaker Pablo Larraín. Jolie was the only actor Larraín could imagine channeling Callas. So to gain her faith, Larraín showed her films he’d worked on that were similar in tone to what Maria would be.
“I felt she could have that magnetism,” Larraín said in an interview with AP News. “The enigmatic diva that’s come to a point in her life where she has to take control of her life again. But the weight of her experience, of her music, of her singing, everything, is on her back. And she carries that. It’s someone who’s already loaded with a life that’s been intense.”
Throughout filming, Larraín and Jolie both noticed similarities she had with the real Maria Callas. For the director, the two shared a similar air of mystery.
“Maria, I read nine biographies of her. I saw everything,” Larraín added, “I read every interview. I made this movie. But I don’t think I would be capable of telling you who she was is. So if there’s an element in common, it’s that. They carry an enormous amount of mystery. Even if you think that you know them, you don’t.”
It was an assessment Jolie might’ve agreed with. Additionally, the Maleficent star felt she and Callas were both equally driven by their art. Although she admitted their personalities would most likely clash a bit before they truly became friends.
“There’s obvious things that people would tie our lives and see we have in common. But I think it’s more … how hard she is in herself with her work — sometimes seen as strong but actually very vulnerable and human. I certainly am,” Jolie said in an interview with Good Morning America.
“I think we would have been friends. She might have hated me at first. Think it would have grown on her,” she continued.
Angelina Jolie had to step away from ‘Maria’ after she finished filming
Playing Callas wasn’t easy for Jolie. The Tomb Raider star pushed her body to its limit when learning how to sing like Callas. But the physical toll learning opera took on the body was an experience she felt everyone should have.
“I’m making her pain personal to me, and that is certainly very private,” Jolie told The Hollywood Reporter. “It took many months of singing classes. Months of just getting the singing down and then the Italian classes and then the voice and doing all these things like her. You try to be precise. I would recommend almost every human being take an opera class. To exist and never have sung with your full body as loud as you could possibly sing — it’s something I think we should all feel.”
But the role couldn’t help but affect Jolie on an emotional level as well. Scandals and heartbreak filled Callas’ life, much like Jolie’s. Walking in the singer’s shoes meant Jolie had to take on Callas’ pain as her own. So much so that Jolie had to take a long break from anything Maria after filming.
“I kind of stepped away. It was so intense and then I stepped away and I haven’t sung or talked about her since. Which doesn’t always happen to me, but this one really kind of took me,” Jolie said.
