Angelina Jolie is one of the most talked-about women in the world, particularly in 2024, with the 49-year-old actress returning to the big screen with her new film, Maria.
The critically-acclaimed project, already an Academy Award frontrunner, will see Jolie star as famed opera singer Maria Callas, with the role earning the actress an eight-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival.
Jolie opened up about playing the role in a recent interview with IndieWire, with her words about ageing proving extremely powerful.
"When I was younger, there were certain pieces of music and certain sounds that matched what I was feeling: I was falling in love, or I was curious about this, or whatever I was going through," she explained.
"There is nothing that meets what you’re feeling like opera," Jolie continued. "[The music is] so beautiful, so full of hope and so full of yearning. Opera is bigger. It is bigger than we allow ourselves to feel in every moment."
"I’m 49," the actress explained earlier in the interview. "I do feel like an older woman now and I embrace that."
This is not the first time that Jolie has spoken positively about her age, with the actress explaining to British Vogue back in 2021 that she feels more comfortable as she ages.
"I do like being older," Jolie told the publication at the time. "I feel much more comfortable in my 40s than I did when I was younger."
She continued: "Maybe because my mom didn’t live very long, so there’s something about age that feels like a victory instead of a sadness for me. I’m looking forward to my 50s. I feel that I’m gonna hit my stride in my 50s."
Well, that's the inspiration we needed today.
Maria will be available to watch on Netflix soon.