Angelina Jolie has opened up about how her role in Pablo Larraíns forthcoming biopic Maria helped her through one of the darkest periods of her life.
The Oscar winner, 49, stars as the famed opera singer, Maria Callas, in the Spencer director’s latest project, which follows the American-born Greek musician in the final days before her fatal 1977 heart attack.
Maria is Jolie’s first film role since she starred alongside Gemma Chan and Richard Madden as Thena in the 2021 Marvel film Eternals and Taylor Sheridan’s thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead the same year.
Speaking to Vanity Fair about her three year hiatus from Hollywood, Jolie said: “I wasn’t myself for a while, so I wasn’t able to give as much to my work for a few years.”
She added: “I went very dark for reasons I’d rather not explain, but I didn’t have a lot of light and life within me.”
Jolie explained she also “needed to be home more” so, “couldn’t commit large periods of time” to projects, meaning the choice of what she worked on became more “practical” than “creative”.
A year after the Eternals was released, Jolie’s ex-husband Brad Pitt, with whom she shares six children and separated from in 2016, sued her for “secretly” selling her shares of their French winery Château Miraval.
Jolie then countersued Pitt, claiming he was abusive to her and their children during a 2016 plane ride.
In court documents, it stated that Jolie told FBI officials that Pitt yelled at her, “grabbed her by her head”, shook her, “pushed her into the bathroom wall”, and repeatedly punched the ceiling of the plane.
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This April, in documents filed to Los Angeles County Superior Court, the actor’s lawyers claimed that Pitt had a history of physical abuse towards Jolie prior to the 2016 plane incident. Pitt has denied all claims.
“Really, I think Maria was the beginning of starting to come alive again,” Jolie reflected of her latest performance in Larraíns biopic.
“I needed a lot of kind people around me to hold my hand.”
It comes shortly after Jolie told Variety she broke down in tears while taking singing lessons to prepare for her role as Maria Callas.
“I walked into the room with the piano, and somebody said, ‘Ok, let’s see where you’re at.’ And I got really emotional. I took a big deep breath, and I let out a sound, and I started crying,” she said.
“I think we all don’t realize how much we hold inside our bodies, and how much we carry and how much that affects our sound and our voice and our ability to make sound,” she continued.
“I’ve been holding a lot for a long time, and that beginning and that sound, and then when that sound would eventually come, it was the best therapy I’ve ever had.”
Following the movie’s world premiere at the Venice Film Festival this summer, The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey praised Jolie’s performance, calling it “career-defining.”
Maria will be released in cinemas on January 10, 2025.
