Angelina Jolie has embraced becoming an 'older woman.'The 49-year-old actress - who plays opera singer Maria Callas in the biographical drama film Maria - has explained how particular aspects of the movie chimed with her own reality.Speaking to IndieWire, Angelina said: 'I'm 49. I do feel like an older woman now and I embrace that.Jolie - who is still in a painful custody battle with ex Brad Pitt - then spoke of the importance of opera to help deal with emotions.'When I was younger, there were certain pieces of music and certain sounds that matched what I was feeling: I was falling in love, or I was curious about this, or whatever I was going through.'There is nothing that meets what you're feeling like opera,' she added.'[Some pieces] are so beautiful, so full of hope and so full of yearning,' added the Oscar-winning star.'Opera is bigger. It is bigger than we allow ourselves to feel in every moment.'Angelina wasn't very familiar with opera music before she began shooting Maria.The Tomb Raider actress admitted: 'I grew up in America. 'In other countries, they understand how essential and important it is, and it's much more a part of the culture, but not where I was raised [Los Angeles].'I had been introduced to [Maria] but it was a complete discovery of this new art form, to come in and transform my life and teach me all of the different operas.'I hope that most people however they relate to the film go into a discovery and they let themselves feel it and they try to sing it. If I can do it…'Angelina recently revealed that she spent 'months' preparing to sing in Maria.
        The actress said at the Telluride Film Festival: 'I had seven months of opera classes, great teachers and Italian classes, and a supportive team that were going to help me.'This comes after Angelina said she is actually soft.When at the Venice Film Festival she was asked by a reporter how she related to Callas.'I think the way I related to her may be a surprise — [it was] probably the part of her that's extremely soft,' said Jolie at a panel on Thursday, according to People.The star continued, 'And she doesn't have room in the world to be as soft as she truly was, and as emotionally open as she truly was.'Jolie was hinting that she has hidden her soft side due to her enormous fame. This comes after Jolie shed tears when she received an eight minute standing ovation for her film Maria.The mother of six was seen wiping away tears as the claps continued. Jolie also said during her panel that she worked very hard to star as Callas in a movie.She said she spent almost seven months training her voice so she could sing opera because she does not want to 'disappoint' Maria's fans.And she was asked about the word diva, which is what Callas was called.'I think it's often come with a lot of negative connotations,' said Jolie.'I think I've re-learned that word through Maria... and I have a new relationship to it.'I think it is often other people's perception of a woman that defines, sometimes too much, who she is and who she was, or what she intended,' she added.'And I actually think [Maria] was one of the hardest-working people, who didn't hurt anybody.'So I suppose it's everybody in this room that makes that definition sometimes, but the true definition may be [that] the great composers define it differently,' Jolie said.
        Netflix has acquired the rights to Maria, but a release date has not yet been announced. Earlier Jolie said she got her sons to block the door of her rehearsal room when she was training to sing like Maria Callas.The Maleficent actress said: 'Everybody here knows I was terribly nervous about the singing. 'I spent almost seven months training because when you work with (director) Pablo (Larrain) you can't do anything by half.'He demands in a most wonderful way that that you really do the work and really learn and train.'My first time singing I was so nervous that my sons were there and they helped to block the door so that nobody else was coming in.'And I was shaky. Pablo in his decency started me in a small room and ended me in La Scala.'So he gave me a time to grow. I was frightened to live up to her and you know I had not sung in public.'Angelina plays Maria when the singing icon was nearing death and losing her voice.The opera legend is still idolized as the greatest voice in the history of opera and died in 1977 aged 53 after a spell of illness and isolation.

source : Daily mail