Angelina Jolie has a new perspective on “Diva” after playing Maria Callas

Angelina Jolie learned a lot from playing singer Maria Callas — including lessons from the opera legend who took her by surprise.

Before the premiere of her film increase at the 81st Venice Film Festival, the Oscar winner was asked during a panel about what the word “diva” means to her in the context of her own life, considering that Callas was known by many as ” a great diva”.

“I think it often comes with a lot of negative connotations,” Jolie, 49, said at the Thursday, Aug. 29, panel. “I think I relearned this word through Mary… and I have a new relationship with it.”

“I think that often other people’s perception of a woman defines, sometimes too much, who she is and who she was or what she intended,” she added. “And I actually think (Maria) was one of the hardest working people, who didn’t hurt anybody.”

“So I guess everybody in this room makes that definition sometimes, but the real definition may be (that) great composers define it differently,” Jolie said.

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Asked by another reporter how she personally relates to Callas, the Maleficent the star said with a laugh: “Well, there’s a lot I’m not going to say in this room that you probably know or assume.”

“I think the way I related to her may be a surprise – (it was) probably the part of her that is extremely soft and has no place in the world to be as soft as she really was and also emotionally open like her. it really was,” Jolie continued.

Preparing to play Callas was no easy task, as the actress “spent almost seven months training” for the vocal part of the role.

“The first time I sang, I remember being so nervous,” Jolie said. “My sons were there and they helped block the door (so) no one else could get in, and I was shaking.”

“And (director Pablo Larraín), in his decency, started me in a small room and finished me in La Scala,” she added. “So it gave me time to grow. I was afraid to live up to (Callas).”

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Based on true accounts of Callas, Mary, written by Stephen Knight, tells “the tumultuous, beautiful and tragic story of the life of the world’s greatest opera singer, relived and reimagined in her final days in 1970s Paris,” according to a press release.

During the press conference in Venice, Jolie was asked how she felt about the potential Oscar buzz surrounding her performance and replied that the “bar” for her if she “did well enough” was more the reaction of his fans Callas “and of those who love. opera.”

“My fear would be to let them down,” she added. “So, of course, all the other things, in my own business, if there’s a response to the work, I’m very grateful.”

Netflix has acquired the rights to Mary, but no release date has been announced yet. The Venice Film Festival runs from August 28 to September 7.