Angelina Jolie says Maria role helped her forge a new connection with her late mother

Angelina Jolie says starring in 'Maria' helped her forge a new connection with her late mother.

The 49-year-old star plays opera singer Maria Callas in the biopic and explained how she associated some of the songs her alter ego performed with her mother Marcheline Bertrand – who passed away from cancer in 2007.

Angelina told OK! magazine: "It's so deeply personal. It's still hard, because I have such a memory of my mother when I sing 'Ave Maria'.

"I was allowed so much space to do that with 'Maria', think of my mother. So I'm not quite yet listening to it again. I look forward to that day. But now (with the film), I associate some of the songs with the memory of something I shared, and a time I shared with those pieces of music.

"And I love Maria, I really love this woman. When I hear her, she's like a friend."