Angelina Jolie has seemingly put her all into her next role — and spent half a year in training.
The Oscar-winning actor recently wrapped filming her starring role in Pablo Larraín’s “Maria,” an upcoming biopic about soprano Maria Callas, and shared Thursday ahead of the Venice International Film Festival premiere how terrifying that process really was.
“I was terribly nervous,” Jolie told the room full of reporters. “I spent almost seven months training, because when you work with Pablo you can’t do anything by half. He demands, in a most wonderful way, that you really do the work and you really learn and train.”
“But my first time singing, I remember being so nervous,” she continued. “My sons were there and they helped to block the door [so] that nobody else was coming in, and I was shaky, and Pablo in his decency started me in a small room and ended me in La Scala.”
The iconic Milan opera house was inaugurated in 1778 with a performance from none other than Antonio Salieri, the Italian composer known best to modern audiences for his rivalry with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as chronicled in the 1984 film “Amadeus.”
“So he gave me time to grow,” joked Jolie. “But I was frightened to live up to [Callas].”
Callas was one of the most influential opera singers of the 20th century. The New York-born Greek was so beloved for her vocal range and dramatic interpretations that she was eventually hailed as “La Divina,” or “The Divine One.”
Larraín, who has already chronicled the lives of Princess Diana in “Spencer” and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in “Jackie,” was drawn to the project due to Callas’ colorful life, which involved the renunciation of her American citizenship, love affairs and a third act in Paris.
Callas lived largely in isolation at the time, and died in Paris of a heart attack in 1977. She was 53.
Left: Joel C Ryan/Invision/Associated Press; Right: Armando Trovati/Associated Press
“Maria Callas was someone that sang for multitudes over the course of her life,” Larraín told Fred Film Radio at the festival. “She sang for millions of people all over the world for nearly 20 years, and … by the very end of her life, she decides to sing for herself.”
Jolie can seemingly relate to that, and has spent much of the past few years focusing on more important things than work. When asked about the chances of winning her second Oscar for “Maria,” the actor turned that attention back to Callas and her fans.
“Honestly, for me?” Jolie said Thursday. “The bar in this, that I would know if I did good enough, are the Maria Callas fans, and those who love opera. And my fear would be to disappoint them … I didn’t want to do a disservice to this woman.”
Netflix has acquired the streaming rights to “Maria,” but has yet to announce a release date.