Angelina Jolie Recalls First Opera Lesson forMaria: ‘I Took a Deep Breath and Just Cried’ (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Angelina Joliefaced challenges finding her singing voice for her role inMaria.

In aGood Morning Americainterview withMichael Strahanairing Thursday, Nov. 21, the Oscar-winning actress, 49, discussed her transformation into Maria Callas, the late American opera singer beloved for her iconic vocals.

Strahan, 52, asked Jolie to elaborate on describing her opera lessons as “therapy” in a clip shared exclusively with PEOPLE.

“We all don’t realize that different things that happen to us in our life — I know you’ve been through many things — we hold them in our body,” Jolie said. “Everything is just locked somewhere to help us keep going. And so to really sing, and sing very fully, you have to unlock all of that.”

She continued, “So my first lesson, I took a deep breath and just cried… and then left!”

Angelina Jolie and director Pablo Larrain on the set of “Maria”.Pax Jolie-Pitt/Netflix

Pax Jolie-Pitt/Netflix

Jolie toldVarietyin October, the singing lessons turned out to be the “best therapy I’ve ever had.” She added, “Honestly, I think I would tell a lot of people before you try therapy and spend too much time there, go to singing class.”

“It helped me a lot," the mom of six explained. “There’s something primal about finding your own voice within your own body. It brings up certain emotions that you may have not wanted to confront, and there’s no way to sing at your full voice and your full emotion without confronting your feelings and your limitations.”

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Angelina Jolie in “Maria”.Netflix

Netflix

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Jolie also revealed toThe Hollywood Reporterback in August that she had long lost her confidence in singingafter an ex of hers was “not kind” to her about how she sounded.

“So I just assumed I couldn’t really sing,” Jolie said. “I’d been to theater school, so it was weird that it even had an effect on me. I just kind of adapted to this person’s opinion.”

The star said it “took me getting past a lot of things to start singing,” and, to her surprise, she found out she is a soprano.

“I thought I had a low voice my whole life. I was explaining [to the singing instructor] that my voice is deeper, and he said, ‘No, you’re actually a soprano,’ " she toldTHR. “And probably something happened. Your voice changes when you go through different things in your life. So that was a shock. That was very strange.”

Mariais in select theaters Nov. 27, then on Netflix Dec. 11.

source: people.com