Angelina Jolie details seven-month vocal training using Maria Callas recordings for ‘Maria’: “I was frightened”

Angelina Jolie said she was “terribly nervous” before singing as Maria Callas in Pablo Larrain’s Maria, training for seven months and using recordings of the late opera singer’s teaching.

“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 learn and train,” said Jolie. “My first time singing, I remember being so nervous. My sons were there, and they helped to block the door so that nobody else was coming in. I was shaky, and Pablo in his decency started me in a small room, and ended me in La Scala. He gave me time to grow. I was frightened to live up to her.”

Jolie was speaking at the press conference for Larrain’s Venice Competition title, ahead of its world premiere on the Lido this evening (August 29).

“Maria taught [singing], so there are audio recordings of her teaching,” said Jolie. “I got very lucky, because I got to be taught by Maria. She said when she approaches her work, the first thing you do – and she calls it straitjacketing - you don’t think about how you feel or what you want, you just try to understand the music and the intention of the composer, and you are disciplined and you do the work exactly as intended, and you practice and practice.

“So I did that; in approaching that way, then the final thing, you let your personal and emotion come in. Only then, and only when you’re ready.”

“It was a six-to-seven month process,” said Larrain. ”First the breathing, the posture, then getting the larynx well.” He added that Jolie learned the songs “pretty much in the order” they are sung in the film.

Diva connotations

Responding to a question from Screen about her understanding of the word ‘diva’, Jolie said “It has often come with a lot of negative connotations. I’ve relearnt the word through Maria and ‘Casta Diva’ [a song from Vincenzo Bellini’s 1831 opera Norma].”

“It is often other people’s perception of a woman that defines too much who she is and who she was or what she intended,” continued Jolie. “I actually think she was one of the hardest-working people, who didn’t hurt anybody. It’s hard to think of something she’s done that was really… [bad] It’s everybody in this room that makes that definition sometimes; but the great composers may define it differently.”

“A diva would never exist if there’s not excellence in what she does,” added Larrain. “First, you’ve got to be really good at what you’re doing; then you can reach the other thing.

“Being a perfectionist, being someone really tough and disciplined, can create the sensation in others – Maria Callas would go to a rehearsal, and if any of the other singers would miss one word, she would leave. Then she became, among other things, ‘a diva’.

“She was just tough with the work, and that’s called discipline. In opera, like in cinema, if you don’t have discipline you’re out.”

Jolie expressed her hope that “this film brings more people to opera, to explore it and let it affect them and move them.”

“When you’ve felt a certain level of despair, of pain, of love – at a certain point there’s only certain sounds that can match that feeling. To me, the immensity of the feeling encapsulated within the sounds of opera, there is nothing like it.” Jolie revealed that she herself listened to UK rockers The Clash as a youngster – “I was more of a punk [but] I’ve leaned more towards opera now.”

Karaoke

In a packed press conference, the actress also took a light-hearted question on her go-to karaoke number. “I didn’t sing before this, so I haven’t done karaoke – but now maybe? Now maybe I’ve got a few, I’m ready,” laughed Jolie. 

There were also several questions about how Maria marks a return to film for Jolie, whose last film credit was Marvel movie Eternals, three years ago.

“I needed to be home more with my family these last years,” said Jolie. “In that time I’ve become more grateful to have the opportunity to be an artist and play and be among all of you – to just be in this creative world that we’re all fortunate to be in some way a part of.”

“The bar in this that I would know if I did good enough were the Maria Callas fans and those who love opera,” said Jolie in response to a question about her chances of winning awards for her performance. “My fear would be to disappoint them… I really came to care for her, so I felt I didn’t want to do a disservice to this woman.”

Maria was acquired for US distribution by Netflix, announced yesterday. It has its world premiere tonight (August 29) on the Lido.

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