Angelina Jolie Taylor Hill/WireImage/Getty Images
Angelina Jolie’s sons saw a whole new side of her while working as production assistants on her new film, Maria.
“They’ve seen me go through a lot of things, but they hadn’t experienced me expressing a lot of the pain that usually a parent hides from a child,” Jolie, 49, told BBC News of 23-year-old Maddox and 21-year-old Pax in an interview published on Wednesday, December 18. “So, they were there to witness some of that, but then we would hug or they would bring me cups of tea.”
Jolie portrays renowned opera singer Maria Callas in the biopic, which was released in select theaters on November 27 and is now streaming on Netflix. Callas, who died at age 53 in 1977, faced her share of struggles and scandals over the course of her career, including vision problems, vocal decline and a highly publicized affair with shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.
Jolie, whose contentious split from ex-husband Brad Pitt has played out in the public eye, explained how she related to Callas during an August press conference promoting the film.
Angelina Jolie doesn’t think her children with ex Brad Pitt will be following in mom and dad’s acting footsteps. “No, I think they’re especially shy, very private people,” Jolie, 49, told E! News at the AFI premiere of her new film Maria on Saturday, October 26, “and they want to be private.” The Oscar winner […]
“Well, there’s a lot I won’t say in this room, that you probably know or assume,” the actress said. “I think the way I related to her may be a surprise — [it 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, and as emotionally open as she truly was. I share her vulnerability more than anything.”
Angelina Jolie with Maddox Jolie-Pitt and Pax Pitt. Patricia Schlein/Star Max/GC Images/Getty Images
Jolie told BBC News that letting her sons see that vulnerability allowed her to connect and be honest with her children “in an even greater way.”
In addition to Maddox and Pax, Jolie shares Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 16, with Pitt, 61. Jolie has collaborated with her children before; Maddox and Pax have worked on a number of her films, including Without Blood, and Vivienne worked as a producer’s assistant on the Broadway musical The Outsiders, which Jolie coproduced.
Angelina Jolie and three of her children lit up the New York Film Festival’s red carpet over the weekend. Jolie, 49, was joined by her children, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, and Maddox, 23, as she attended the festival’s premiere of her film Maria on Sunday, September 29. Stepping out at New York’s Alice Tully Hall, […]
Maria director Pablo Larraín told BBC News that Pax and Maddox were “very busy” and “good professionals” on set. Jolie shared that Pax recorded some of her vocal training sessions for Maria, hearing her “early horrible days.” She trained for about seven months to sing for the film, which features Jolie’s voice blended with original recordings of Callas.
“[I’m] actually quite shy about singing,” Jolie admitted. “It was probably one of the areas in my life that I was hesitant.”
The Oscar winner noted that she’s glad her sons got to watch her struggle with something outside of her comfort zone.
“It’s always good for your children to watch your mum not do something easily, but swear and fight and fail and have to try again,” she said. “One of the greatest privileges of being an actor is you often are supported by a crew to try something and explore something you’ve never done, and this certainly was most challenging.”
Maria is now streaming on Netflix.
