Angelina Jolie 'lied' about singing skills to land Maria role
Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie "lied" to director Pablo Larrain about her singing ability because she was so determined to land the main role in Maria Callas biopic 'Maria'.
Angelina Jolie "lied" to director Pablo Larrain about her singing ability to land her role in 'Maria'.
The Hollywood actress - who has landed a Golden Globe nomination for her role in 'Maria' - has confessed she was determined to land to the role of opera legend Maria Callas in the biopic and didn't think twice about her answer when the moviemaker asked her if she could hold a tune.
She told Variety: "I had never sung. I had somebody once tell me I couldn’t sing or be a little dismissive when I was singing once, and it really shut me down.
"I never told anybody, but it was part of my life that I just blocked. And then when Pablo asked me to do this and asked me if I could sing, I lied.
"‘Can you ride a horse?’ ‘Yes.’ Obviously, nobody can sing like Maria. No one. But I’ll do my best."
Angelina previously admitted she was convinced she could bluff her way through 'Maria''s singing scenes until she had her first lesson with a music teacher.
According to Best magazine, she said: “I made the mistake in the beginning of thinking, when he asked me to sing a little, ‘I like movie singing.’
"I could sing a bit I guess. I very quickly realised that you can’t fake sing opera. Not that I wanted to fake sing anything, but I didn’t really think I was going to be asked to actually sing.
“Somehow, it didn’t cross my mind. I don’t know why. I didn’t completely understand until I was standing in this room and Pablo had met so many different teachers and he found one to begin.”
Angelina went on to reveal she “started crying” as soon as she had to sing during that first lesson.
She added: “The first time, he [the teacher] said, ‘OK. Plant your feet’… He took me seriously as a singer, which was very moving to be already.
“He said, ‘Take a deep breath and then start to make sounds’ – I started crying. Because I think we all hold so much in that we don’t really let out. We don’t let our full voice out."
The ‘Maleficent’ star – who is mom to Maddox, 23, Pax, 21, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 16, with ex-husband Brad Pitt – knew she was making progress with her vocals according to how her kids reacted.
She added: “I think I knew when I got better, because I think in the beginning it was more like they were proud of me for trying so hard.
"It wasn’t, ‘We like your voice’. It was like, ‘Good for you, we’re proud of you Mom. We know how hard you’re working.’
"Then there was a time when they started to say, ‘Actually, hey, you’re kind of doing it Mom.’
"So they were with me through the times when I was singing loud in the house – and everybody was probably in their rooms thinking, ‘Oh my God.’ You know, it’s like learning the violin at home.”
