Actress Angelina Jolie takes playing real-life personalities “very seriously”, she said at the ongoing BFI London Film Festival, speaking about the upcoming Pablo Larrain-directed biopic of opera singer Maria Callas.
“I take playing a real person very seriously,” Jolie said during her appearance at the UK film festival on October 18.
Walking the red carpet at The Royal Festival Hall, Jolie expressed how her admiration for Larraín’s storytelling and the challenge of portraying the American-born Greek soprano had motivated her to take on the role, despite her initial nervousness.
“I’ve always loved Pablo as a director and I love the way he approaches his work. And of course, at the chance to play her, I was very nervous at first...There was the challenge to sing. So, it’s for all the reasons I was nervous was the same reason I chose to take a challenge and do something that frightened me a little bit. But I really care for this woman. So, I was happy to bring her life into film,” said the 49-year-old actress.
Jolie walked the red carpet in a crisp black suit. She was accompanied by Larraín and co-star Alba Rohrwacher.
Maria explores Callas’ tumultuous and tragic life, focussing especially on her retreat to Paris in the 1970s. According to media reports, the biographical drama will also explore the singer’s long-running affair with shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
In addition to Jolie and Rohrwacher, the cast for Maria includes Valeria Golino, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Haluk Bilginer, Pierfrancesco Favino, Jeremy Wheeler and Rebecka Johnston.
Maria is penned by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight and marks Larraín’s third biographical drama about a renowned woman. In 2016, the Chilean filmmaker directed Jackie, based on the life of Jacqueline Kennedy. Later, in 2021, he made Spencer, based on the life of Princess Diana. Both the films premiered in Venice.
Maria will be released in select theatres on November 27, ahead of its December 11 premiere on Netflix. The film previously had its world premiere at the 81st Venice International Film Festival in Italy on August 29, where Jolie received an eight-minute-long standing ovation for her portrayal of the iconic opera singer.
Jolie won an Academy Award for her performance in Girl, Interrupted (1999). She has previously played real life characters in films like Michael Cristofer’s Gia (1998), based on the life of supermodel Gia Carangi, and Michael Winterbottom’s A Mighty Heart (2007). The film starred Jolie as Mariane Pearl, the wife of journalist Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan. Jolie played Christine Collins in Clint Eastwood’s Changeling (2008). The narrative revolves around a woman in 1928 Los Angeles who realises that the boy she is reunited with is not her missing son. When she tries to prove this to the police and city authorities, she is discredited, deemed mentally unstable, and confined to a psychiatric ward. The film is based on real-life events surrounding the 1928 Wineville Chicken Coop murders in Mira Loma, California.
