:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/angelina-jolie-the-hollywood-reporter-083024-5-9c7d2cda0d1d4c3baf23b571aa515f49.jpg "Angelina Jolie Stopped Singing After an Ex Was 'Not Kind' About Her Voice: I'd 'Adapted to This Person's Opinion' (2)")
08/30/2024 04:45 PM
"I just assumed I couldn't really sing," the actress recalled of herself prior to playing an opera singer in 'Maria'
Angelina Jolie had to rediscover her confidence as a vocalist before portraying real-life opera singer Maria Callas.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporterabout her preparation for director Pablo Larraín's biopic Maria, the actress, 49, recalled that she once "had somebody in my life who was not kind to me about singing," specifying that "it was a relationship I was in."
"And so I just assumed I couldn't really sing," Jolie explained. "I'd been to theater school, so it was weird that it even had an effect on me. I just kind of adapted to this person's opinion."
She went on to reveal that "it took me getting past a lot of things to start singing" — a journey that included, to her surprise, "discovering also that I was a soprano."
"I thought I had a low voice my whole life. I was explaining [to the singing instructor] that my voice is deeper, and he said, 'No, you're actually a soprano,' " Jolie told THR. "And probably something happened. Your voice changes when you go through different things in your life. So that was a shock. That was very strange."
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Jolie told the magazine she "was very, very shy stepping through this whole process" of singing, explaining that her sons Maddox, 23, and Pax, 20, "were there [on set], but there was hardly anybody in there because the thing with singing opera is, you have to be loud."
"God knows how many lozenges I had, and I was rehearsing all night, all morning," the Oscar winner added. "I was very nervous to begin. I didn't want to disappoint the crew."
They slowly built up to Jolie being able to perform at the La Scala opera house in Milan, which "was the one everything was building toward."
"It was so beyond my comfort zone that I was giddy," she said. "There was nothing else to do except to jump, to just fully jump. The final layer on that particular performance was what I am comfortable with, the emotional performance of [Callas'] pain and her madness."
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Related: Angelina Jolie Cries During Rousing Standing Ovation for Maria at Venice Film Festival
Maria 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," according to a press release.
Jolie and the rest of Maria's cast and crew received an eight-minute standing ovation at the film's premiere on Thursday, Aug. 29, at the Sala Grande Theater during the2024 Venice Film Festival.
The actress could be seen wiping away tears, briefly turning her face away from the crowd. Jolie also hugged Larraín, 48, and her fellow castmates as they took in the audience's affection for the film.
During a press conference earlier that day, Jolie was asked how she felt about potential Oscar buzz surrounding her performance, and replied that the "bar" for her on whether she "did good enough" is more the reaction from fans of Callas "and those who love opera."
"My fear would be to disappoint them," she added. "So of course all other things, in my own business, if there'sa response to the work, I'm very grateful."
Netflix has acquired the rights toMaria,but a release date has not yet been announced.
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