these women have a physical presence on a stage, in front of a camera or even just in a room, and you feel the enormous amount of humanity they carry,” Larrain said in a statement provided to press in Venice. “There was no struggle for Angie to be Maria Callas and carry that weight, as she already has it.” When asked how she most identifies with Callas, Jolie at first dodged the question: “Well, there’s a lot I won’t say in this room, which you probably know or assume,” she said, before noting “the way I related to her, maybe a surprise, was probably the part of her that’s extremely soft and doesn’t have room in the world to be as soft as she truly was — as emotionally open as she truly was…I share her vulnerability more than anything.”
Jolie spent about seven months preparing for the part. Larrain has said his star’s preparation involved multiple stages, beginning by working with opera singers and coaches to master a professional singer’s posture, breathing and movement — as well as Callas’ accent. According to the production, Jolie practiced singing a range of Italian operas or arias, with coaches recording her voice and breathing to ensure that she mastered the melodies and pitches.
Much of the singing heard in the film is Callas performing in her prime mixed with slight elements of Jolie’s singing. The work also required a phenomenal degree of courage and vulnerability from the actress, according to Larrain, because she was often required to sing exceedingly challenging opera pieces, without instrumentation, in front of as many as 500 extras and crew.
Jolie has described the process of learning to sing opera as “the therapy I didn’t realize I needed.”
“I had no idea how much I was holding in and not letting out,” she explained in a press statement. “And so the challenge wasn’t the technical, it was an emotional experience to find my voice, to be in my body, to express. You have to give every single part of yourself.”
