ANGELINA JOLIE PRESS CONFERENCE 'MARIA' FILM FESTIVAL DI VENEZIA 81 AS MARIA CALLAS

in your journey as uh Maria kalas can you talk about how much you related to her well there's a lot I won't say in this room okay that you probably know or assume um I think in the way I related to her may be a surprise that 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 and as emot Ally open as she truly was um I think I'm I think in that in that um vulnerability I share her her vulnerability more than anything um um well everybody here knows I was I was terribly nervous I spent uh almost seven months training um because when you work with Pablo you can't you can't do anything by half um he he demands in a most wonderful way that you really do the work and you really learn and and train um but my first time singing I remember being so nervous my sons were there and they helped to block the door that nobody else was coming in and I was shaky and Pablo and his decency started me in a small room and ended me in lascala so he gave me a time to grow but it was it was uh I was frightened um to live up to her and and that I'm I had you know not sung in public uh thank you you know to be honest I I have been I've needed to be home more with my family these last years and in that time I've become maybe more grateful to have the opportunity to just be an artist and play and and and be among all of you to just be in this creative world that we are all fortunate to be in some way a part of so I'm I'm happy to be here and I'm and I'm grateful to to be able to be an artist in any way um so so that's how I'm feeling yeah um uh I honestly the for me the the the bar in this that I would know if I did good enough are the Maria Callis fans you know and those who love Opera and my fear would be to disappoint them so of course all other things and and in my own business if there's if there's a response to the work I'm very grateful but but uh in my heart to disappoint the people who love her and she means a lot to and her Legacy and I really come to came to care for her so I felt I was uh I didn't want to do a disservice to this woman I think it's often come with a lot of negative con connotations I think I think I've relearned that word through Maria and castadiva and I have a new relationship to it and I I think it is often other people's perception of a woman um that defines sometimes too much who she is and who she was or what she intended and I actually think she was one of the hardest working people um who who didn't uh hurt anybody I it's hard to think of something she's done that was really uh you know uh so so yes I I suppose it's everybody in this room that makes that definition sometimes but the true definition maybe the composer uh the great composers Define it differently Pablo I lean on my director no but