Angelina Jolie's critically-acclaimed role as Maria Callas in new biopic Maria gave her a unique challenge in her career.
For the movie, the star trained to sing opera live on set with the resulting performances in Maria being a mix of her voice and archival recordings of Maria Callas.
And to be able to hit those notes, Jolie has explained that the "biggest challenge" wasn't necessarily the singing, but the "letting go".
"We hold a lot in our bodies, right? A lot of the sounds we make or sounds we can't make because we're protecting ourselves. So I think the hardest thing for me was opening up and letting go and kind of finding my voice," she told Digital Spy.
Related: Why Maria isn't available to watch on Netflix UK
"[I realised] how much I was holding in over the many years of life that we all have and affect us, and we don't realise that, maybe even I had lost my voice in one way."
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Jolie also compared the singing live on set to being her "nightmare" especially when it was going to be just her voice and no other music playing.
"Sometimes you accept something in life where it's just so crazy, it's so beyond your comfort zone that you can't even… You've gone past fear, and you have to let it go," she recalled.
"But I was very lucky because as an actor, [I had] a director who's so protective and strong and so clear on what he wants."
Related: Angelina Jolie's forgotten crime drama is now on Prime Video
Director Pablo Larraín added that having Jolie train to sing like Maria Callas was the "only way to do it" in order to truthfully portray the iconic singing.
"It's not just to create the right illusion. It's the only way to play the character, even when she is not singing. The music is the door, it's the key to anything," he explained.
Maria is released in UK cinemas on January 10, and is available to watch now on Netflix in the US.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over eight years. Based in the UK, she is a former deputy movies editor at Digital Spy, and previously worked for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas. Mireia's work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema and GamesRadar+ in the UK. She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service.
During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She's also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London. LinkedIn
