Angelina Jolie was seen in the first trailer for her movie Maria. The 49-year-old star is playing famed opera singer Maria Callas.
The clip starts with Maria in her older years walking onto a stage with a man seated at a piano. Jolie’s Maria looks out at the empty seats as she flashes back to her earlier years.
There is a quick montage of her looking younger and gorgeous. She is also seen on a yacht with Aristotle Onassis, her former lover. Then she is seen in Paris, crying, having a meltdown in a courtyard, and working on her voice.
She is not heard singing, however.
The film, according to a synopsis, ‘follows the American-Greek soprano as she retreats to Paris after a glamorous and tumultuous life in the public eye.’ Maria ‘reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days as the diva reckons with her identity and life.’
She died in Paris in 1977 of a heart attack at age 53.
The highly anticipated movie will come out in theaters in November then stream on Netflix in December.
Angelina Jolie was seen in the first trailer for her movie Maria. The 49-year-old star is playing famed opera singer Maria Callas
When Callas met Aristotle Onassis, it marked the start of a long romance that was the show business world’s worst-kept secret, as both parties were already married
It is a massive undertaking for the star.
Speaking at a press conference for the movie at the Venice Film Festival, she said: ‘I was terribly nervous; I spent almost seven months training.
‘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, and I was shaky.
‘And [director Pablo Larraín], in his decency, started me in a small room and ended me in La Scala. So he gave me time to grow. I was frightened to live up to [Callas].’
Angelina joked that, after making the movie, she might even get involved in karaoke nights in the future.
Asked if she has a favourite karaoke song, she quipped: ‘I didn’t sing before this [movie] so I haven’t done karaoke, but now maybe I have a few!’
Jolie revealed earlier this month that she loved to sing but stopped after an ex criticized her voice. She did not name the cruel ex.
The actress – who was previously married to Johnny Lee Miller, Billy Bob Thornton and Brad Pitt – admitted her role as opera singer Maria in Maria was challenging because she had to overcome her fears about airing her vocals in public.
She told The Hollywood Reporter: ‘It was an out-of-body experience because I don’t sing. I had somebody in my life who was not kind to me about singing. It was a relationship I was in. And so I just assumed I couldn’t really sing.
Jolie was seen this week in a new image for her movie Maria. The 49-year-old star wore her hair dark and up in a fancy hairstyle as she modeled a red dress. She was seen speaking with the director of her film
‘I’d been to theatre school, so it was weird that it even had an effect on me. I just kind of adapted to this person’s opinion. So it took me getting past a lot of things to start singing.’
She told IndieWire last week she wasn’t very familiar with opera music before she began shooting Maria.
The Oscar-winning actress confessed: ‘I grew up in America. In other countries, they understand how essential and important it is, and it’s much more a part of the culture, but not where I was raised [Los Angeles].
‘I had been introduced to [Maria] but it was a complete discovery of this new art form, to come in and transform my life and teach me all of the different operas.
‘I hope that most people however they relate to the film go into a discovery and they let themselves feel it and they try to sing it. If I can do it…’
Angelina recently revealed that she spent ‘months’ preparing to sing in Maria.
The actress said at the Telluride Film Festival: ‘I had seven months of opera classes, great teachers and Italian classes, and a supportive team that were going to help me.
The actress – who was previously married to Johnny Lee Miller, Billy Bob Thornton and Brad Pitt – admitted her role as opera singer Maria in Maria was challenging because she had to overcome her fears about airing her vocals in public
She told The Hollywood Reporter: ‘It was an out-of-body experience because I don’t sing. I had somebody in my life who was not kind to me about singing. It was a relationship I was in. And so I just assumed I couldn’t really sing’
‘When I was younger, there were certain pieces of music and certain sounds that matched what I was feeling: I was falling in love, or I was curious about this, or whatever I was going through.
‘There is nothing that meets what you’re feeling like opera,’ added the movie star.
‘[Some pieces] are so beautiful, so full of hope and so full of yearning.
‘Opera is bigger. It is bigger than we allow ourselves to feel in every moment.’
Angelina – who has Maddox, 23, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and 16-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne, with Brad – recently thanked her sons for helping ease her nerves about singing in the film.
American-born Greek opera singer, Maria Callas lying on an air mattress on Venice Lido beach, wearing a floral swimsuit and dangling earrings, reading a newspaper, Venice, 1950
Jolie at the screening of Maria during The 81st Venice International Film Festival at Palazzo del Cinema on August 29 in Venice, Italy
