Despite the general acclaim by critics and public alike, Angelina Jolie missed an Oscar nomination for her performance in the biopic Maria. In this interview with Jenny Davis, the two-time winner of an Academy Award speaks candidly about how much this role meant to her and how she poured her own pain into her character.
Jolie is certainly no stranger to awards. The Hollywood superstar won her first Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for playing a sociopath in the psychological thriller Girl, Interrupted (1999). The second came in 2013, for her humanitarian work and for directing the film In the Land of Blood and Honey. She also holds three Golden Globes, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Tony.
“I think she was a good
woman, who really cared
and was committed
to being an artist.”
– Angelina Jolie
Maria Callas in Amsterdam, July 1957. Photo © Joop van Bilsen/Anefo.
Maria marks a return to the limelight for mum-of-six Jolie after a tough few years on the personal front, having been embroiled in a messy divorce from Brad Pitt.
Regardless, Jolie’s performance of Maria Callas is considered by most critics as one of her strongest, and the film a spellbinding and compelling biopic. Directed by Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín (Jackie, Spencer) and written by Stephen Knight (Peaky Blinders, Dirty Pretty Things), the film depicts the tragedy of the Greek-American singer’s final days in Paris in 1977, with flashbacks to the highs of her life, such as stealing the show as a last-minute replacement for another singer in Venice in 1949.
The film has also been very well received by the public, which for Jolie meant a lot, since in the time she spent learning about Maria Callas for her role, she realised that in the last part of her career, Callas had been unfairly treated by the critics, almost suffocated, at a time when she was alone and particularly vulnerable. “I read many of her last reviews and they were terribly mean.”
Angelina Jolie in Maria. © Photo Pablo Larrain.
Jolie felt deeply touched by the sadness of Callas’s late life, by her loneliness and her failed attempts to reclaim her voice and perform again. “They were horrible to her, especially the critics, so I really wanted for people to care about her. I thought, ‘OK, we are going to have this last bow.’”
The film allows the viewer to understand more about Maria Callas as a human being, and its success is greatly due to Jolie’s Callas-like commitment. “I think she was a good woman, who really cared and was committed to being an artist,” Jolie comments, “but she was also in a lot of pain. It was important to me that my work will help others understand her life.”
Read the whole Interview with our cover star, Angelina Jolie,
in the Spring issue of I-M Inquisitive Minds. Get your copy HERE
Interview by Jenny Davis / The Interview People.
Lead image © StudioCanal.
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