Angelina Jolie is having her operatic moment.
The actor graced Venice, Italy on Thursday for the world premiere of her new film, "Maria," at the Venice International Film Festival. The biopic, for which Jolie serves as the titular character, focuses on the isolated final days of the legendary Maria Callas, an American-born Greek soprano singer whose illustrious career spanned from the mid- to late 20th century. Born Maria Kalogeropoulos in Queens, New York, the singer got her start in the industry as a teenager, performing in Athens, Greece.
“I felt such a privilege to feel like I got to know this woman and got to be inside her skin a moment. I really care for her deeply,” Jolie told The Associated Press. “I think I’ll carry that like a friend.
“When I put her big glasses on and her Greek hair and I sat in my little robe as an older lady, I felt a (Maria) that felt like the private (Maria) that the world didn’t know,” she added. “And I connected to her first and, and kind of loved her.”
Directed by Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín, "Maria" is set in 1977 Paris, the time and place of Callas' untimely death by heart attack at age 53. As noted by The AP, the film's premiere in Venice fulfills Larraín's triptych of movies about iconic female figures in history. In 2016, he and actor Natalie Portman came to the festival for his "Jackie," in which Portman portrayed former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in the immediate aftermath of President John F. Kennedy's assassination. Callas notably had an affair with Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, who ultimately left her for Jackie Kennedy. Larraín returned to Venice in 2021 with "Spencer," in which Kristen Stewart starred as Princess Diana during a tumultuous period of her marriage to Charles III.
“There’s something about people like Maria Callas, but also Angelina Jolie — these women have a physical presence on a stage, in front of a camera or even just in a room, and you feel the enormous amount of humanity they carry,” Larrain said in a statement shared with the press, per The Hollywood Reporter. “There was no struggle for Angie to be Maria Callas and carry that weight, as she already has it.”
Jolie underwent monthslong training in order to prepare for the role, requiring that she work with professional opera singers and coaches to embody the essence of Callas' voice and onstage presence. The singing in the film combines Jolie's singing with Callas' at the height of her career. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor practiced a series of difficult Italian operas and arias, oftentimes in front of hundreds of crew members. “My first days, (Larraín) was very good to me in that we started in a more intimate first with very few crew members,” Jolie said, as noted by The AP. “And we ended at La Scala with everyone. So I had a little time to get my nerve. But this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I was terrified.”
Despite the intensive nature of her vocal training, Jolie called learning how to sing opera “the therapy I didn’t realize I needed.”
“I had no idea how much I was holding in and not letting out,” she said in a statement. “And so the challenge wasn’t the technical, it was an emotional experience to find my voice, to be in my body, to express. You have to give every single part of yourself.”
Regarding her familiarity with opera, Jolie shared that she never had a strong affinity for it growing up. “I was more of a punk. I loved all music, but I probably listened to The Clash more than most." Still, however, she observed that life — and all its peaks and valleys — has led her to find resonance with opera and other forms of classical music. “I think when your life is full, when you felt a certain level of despair, of pain, of love, at a certain point, there are only certain sounds that can match that feeling,” she said.
Jolie's sentiments strike a chord with the recent difficulties she has endured. She remains mired in a variety of legal battles with her ex-husband and fellow actor, Brad Pitt. In 2022, it was reported that Jolie in a 2016 FBI filing had alleged that Pitt had physically abused her and her children while in flight on a private plane. Variety reported that Pitt had "choked one of the children and struck another in the face” and “grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her." The same year, Pitt sued Jolie for acting in violation of contractual rights when she sold her portion of the former couple's French winery; Jolie subsequently hit her ex with a countersuit pertaining to the reported plane incident.
In April of this year, a new report stated, “While Pitt’s history of physical abuse of Jolie started well before the family’s September 2016 plane trip from France to Los Angeles, this flight marked the first time he turned his physical abuse on the children as well. Jolie then immediately left him.”
When asked by reporters how she most closely aligns herself with Callas, Jolie said, “Well, there’s a lot I won’t say in this room, which you probably know or assume."
“The way I related to her, may be a surprise, was probably the part of her that’s extremely soft and doesn’t have room in the world to be as soft as she truly was — as emotionally open as she truly was . . . I share her vulnerability more than anything.”
