My sons Maddox and Pax saw my pain on the set of Maria

Angelina Jolie is notoriously private.

But in a new interview with BBC News, the Hollywood star spoke candidly about her experience working on set with her older children, saying they saw “the pain” that normally hides from them.

The actress stars in a new biopicentitled Maria, about the opera singer Maria Callas.

Two of Jolie’s six children with ex-husband Brad Pitt, Maddox and Pax, served as production assistants on the film.

“The character (Callas) has a lot of pain, and of course they’ve seen me go through a lot, but they hadn’t experienced me expressing a lot of the pain that a parent usually hides from a child,” she. he said

“So they were there to witness a little bit of that, but then we’d hug each other or they’d bring me cups of tea.”

Jolie added that it was “a new way” to figure out how to be honest with her children about their feelings, “in an even bigger way.”

Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, the film focuses on Callas’ last years in the 1970s, when he was living in Paris.

With Jolie taking on acting roles relatively infrequently in recent years, the film has provided her with something of a comeback narrative and could lead to a Best Actress Oscar nomination.

Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the best-known opera singers.

In Maria, a mixture of Jolie’s own voice and original recordings of Callas are used in the singing scenes.

The actress learned to sing opera for the role, which she describes as “very physically demanding.”

The training lasted about seven months, he said.

“We started with regular singing lessons and it was challenging in many ways, but when the opera lessons started, what it takes with your breathing and your body and just the strength of what you push yourself same, it’s just a very different physique.”

Jolie, whose previous film credits include Changeling, Maleficent, Salt and Mr & Mrs Smith, said she had not sung before and was “actually quite shy about singing”.

“It was probably one of the areas in my life where I hesitated,” he said.

But he indicated that it was also something he enjoyed.

“One of the greatest privileges of being an actor is that you often have the support of a team to try something and explore something you’ve never done before and that was definitely the hardest part,” he said.

Jolie’s sons Maddox, 23, and Pax, 21, have worked on several productions with her before, including her film Without Blood.

They both accompanied her to the premiere of Maria in New York in September, alongside her younger sister Zahara.

Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in September 2016. The couple engaged in a custody battle that resulted in Pitt being granted shared custody in 2021.

The Hollywood stars also share daughters Shiloh and Vivienne, and another son Knox.

On the set of the film, both Maddox and Pax were “very busy,” director Pablo Larraín said. “They were good professionals,” he added.

Jolie said that during filming, Pax recorded much of her singing practice “so he was with me in my first horrible days,” she laughed.

“It’s always good for your kids to see your mom not do something easily, but swear and struggle and fail and have to try again,” she said.

“This is an important and beautiful thing.”

Maria is the third in a trilogy of films about complex and high-profile women by Larraín, following his films about Jacqueline Kennedy and Princess Diana.

The film has received mixed reviews, although critics have generally praised its central performance.

“Jolie is absolutely mesmerizing as Maria Callas, bringing her grace and determination.” said AwardsWatch’s Sophia Ciminello. “She doesn’t disappear into the role, she transcends.”

Time’s Stephanie Zacharek was less keen in her performance, however, saying that Jolie “plays her subject as a brilliant, deeply insecure person, but captures none of her imperious charisma.”

Hailed as La Divina, “La Divina”, Maria Callas started singing at the age of 14.

One of her most famous performances was as Tosca at Covent Garden in 1964.

But vocal decline, possibly caused by dramatic weight loss, brought an untimely end to her career.

She spent her last years living largely in isolation and died of a heart attack at age 53.

Larraín said he hoped his film would honor Callas’ desire to popularize art.

“If this movie brings a hundred to a million opera attention, it will be a success,” he said.

“I don’t know if there is an art form as strong as opera,” added Jolie.

“The way it connects with the soul and the body, so of course it’s for everyone.”

Maria opens in UK cinemas on January 10.