Angelina Jolie on her legacy, family and new film Maria
Angelina Jolie says although she appreciates being an artist, she would prefer for her legacy to be “a good mother” and to be known for her “belief in equality and human rights”.
The Oscar-winning actress stars as Maria Callas in the new Pablo Larrain film about the opera singer’s life.
Pic: StudioCanal
She has called Maria “the hardest” and “most challenging” role she has had in her career and put months of preparation into immersing herself into the world of opera.
Jolie, who recently reached a divorce settlement with actor Brad Pitt, told Sky News: “To be very candid, it was the therapy I didn’t realise I needed. I had no idea how much I was holding in and not letting out.
“So, the challenge wasn’t the technical [side of opera], it was an emotional experience to find my voice, to be in my body, to express. You have to give every single part of yourself.”
The biopic combines the voice of the Maleficent actress with recordings of Maria Callas.
Jolie believes it “would be a crime to not have [Callas’] voice through this because, in many ways, she is very present in this film”.
Who was Maria Callas?
Born in New York in 1923, Maria Callas was the daughter of Greek immigrants who moved back to Athens at the age of 13 with her mother and sister.
After enrolling at the Athens Conservatory, she made her professional debut at 17 and went on to become one of the most famous faces of opera, travelling around the world and performing at Covent Garden in London, The Met in New York and La Scala in Milan.
Callas’s final operatic performance took place at Covent Garden in 1965 when she was 41 but she continued to work conducting master classes at Juilliard School, doing concert tours and starring in the 1969 film Medea.
Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, Maria focuses on the artist’s final years in the 1970s when she moved to Paris and disappeared from public view.
She died on 16 September 1977 at the age of 53.
Pic: StudioCanal
Jolie on changing motivations as an actor
Maria follows the life of an artist fully consumed by the art she creates and even remarks that “happiness never developed a beautiful melody”.
Reflecting on her own life in the spotlight, Jolie said she noticed her own career motivations change over the years.
“There’s this kind of study of being human that we do when we create, and we communicate with an audience because our work is not in isolation – it’s a connection.
“I think when I was younger, I had different questions about being human and different feelings and now as I’ve gotten older, I understand some things and now I have different questions.
“It’s a matter of life, right? And so maybe that’s interesting that this now is a character really contemplating death and really contemplating the toll of certain things in life that I, of course, couldn’t have understood in my 20s”.
Jolie at the New York Film Festival in September with three of her children (L-R) Pax, Zahara and Maddox. Pic: AP
A family affair
Two of Jolie’s children, Maddox and Pax, took on production assistant roles during the filming of Maria and witnessed their mother perform opera for the first time in public.
She says the film allowed them to create new experiences together and for her children to see her approach to playing a difficult role.
“Everyone in my home, we all give each other space to be who we are and we’re all different.
“I’m the mom, but I’m also an artist and a person and so my family has been very kind and gives me their understanding. They make fun of me, and they support me and just as you’d hope it would be.”
She adds: “When you play somebody who is dealing with so much pain, it’s very important to come home to some kindness.”
Maria is in cinemas now.
Entertainment
Cassie challenged over Diddy ‘freak off’ allegations – as explicit messages read in court
Sexually explicit messages between RnB singer Cassie and her former boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs have been read in court, with some showing her expressing apparent enthusiasm about the “freak off” sex sessions with escorts she alleges she was forced into.
The 38-year-old, whose full name is Casandra Ventura, faced a full day of cross-examination from the hip-hop mogul’s defence lawyers, who are attempting to convince the jury she consented to a “swingers lifestyle”.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution, in relation to Ms Ventura and other women. His lawyers have conceded he could be violent, but say nothing he did amounted to crimes of this nature.
Ms Ventura alleges she was physically abused and degraded for years by the powerful hip-hop star and music executive, accusing him of violence, coercion, blackmail and rape.
Prosecutors say he exploited and used his network of employees to facilitate illegal activities, which is a key part of the racketeering charge.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial: Day 4 – As it happened
Messages sent by Cassie to Diddy were read in court. Pic: Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg
But during the fourth day of the trial in Manhattan, New York, defence lawyers pushed back, focusing on texts and emails that were both romantic and sexually explicit.
“I’m always ready to freak off,” the court heard Ms Ventura wrote in one message in August 2009. In another she told him, about a freak off: “Can’t wait.” And in another, jurors were told, she described a video of one sex session with an escort as “dope”.
The pair were together, on and off, for about 11 years from 2007 to 2018.
Combs, whose mother Janice has been in court all week to support him, along with some of his children, appeared relaxed as the messages were read aloud for jurors.
Messages from 4 March 2016 – the day before an incident at the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles, in which Combs was filmed on CCTV seeming to attack Ms Ventura in a hallway, as he was wearing just a towel and socks – were also read in court.
Footage from this incident, which was first made public in May 2024, has been a key piece of evidence during the trial. Ms Ventura has told the court it happened as she tried to leave a freak off session after being hit by Combs.
Janice Combs was in court to support her son once again. Pic: Reuters/ David ‘Dee’ Delgado
Freak off ‘felt dirty, grimy’
During cross-examination, the court heard Ms Ventura sent a sexually explicit message the day before this.
She also sent him a message saying, “Baby I want to FO so bad but I dont want to f*** myself up”.
Ms Ventura has told the court this was damage limitation and that she wanted to keep him happy, as she had a film premiere coming up a few days later.
Jurors also heard details of an email she sent in 2009, in which she expressed conflicting feelings about taking part in these sex sessions with escorts.
In the email, she told Combs she needed to trust him “beyond it just being sexual” – that in order to be more open sexually, “I need to feel safe, like home”.
She told him “the last time was a mistake but since has made me feel a little dirty, and grimy as opposed to sexual and spontaneous”.
This was the reason she was going “back and forth in my mind with wanting and not wanting to do it”, she wrote. At first, when they were “so in love… there were no questions asked, it felt right”.
She told him: “I get nervous that I’m just becoming the girlfriend that you get your fantasies off with.”
Brian Steel is one of the defence laywers on Combs’s team. Pic: Reuters/ David ‘Dee’ Delgado
Ms Ventura has told the court that she fell in love with Combs very quickly when they got together, when she was 21 and he was 37. She has said she wanted to please him, but became fearful of him.
At one point during cross-examination, she raised that she felt jurors were not hearing the full context of some of the messages being highlighted, saying: “There’s a lot we skipped over.”
Combs’s lawyers are painting his sexual preferences as part of a “swingers” lifestyle that has been mentioned previously at trial, saying people might not agree with it but it does not make him guilty of sex trafficking.
Questioned on this, Ms Ventura said they were “very different”.
She was also asked about drug use, her own and Combs’s, and at one point told the court she believed he was addicted to opiates when they were together.
She also said he was taken to hospital after overdosing on opiates at the Playboy Mansion in 2012 – something which was reported on by outlets including TMZ at the time, when it was said he had suffered a migraine.
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Cassie breaks down in tears during previous day’s evidence
Judge frustrated with Diddy’s lawyers
Away from the questioning, a notable moment in court came when Judge Arun Subramanian became frustrated with Diddy’s lawyers over how long they will spend cross-examining Ms Ventura.
He told them they should get a day and a half – the same time the prosecution had. “In what universe did you not understand this is what was going to happen?” he told them.
The judge is keen to keep the trial on time and particularly Ms Ventura’s evidence, as she is eight months pregnant with her third child with husband Alex Fine, who has been supporting her in court.
Read more:
The rise and fall of Diddy
Diddy – a timeline of allegations
Everything you need to know about the trial
She has now spent almost three days on the witness stand – tomorrow will be her fourth – and became emotional towards the end of her testimony on her second day.
The criminal case against Combs comes after Ms Ventura sued him in 2023, accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse. The suit was settled in 24 hours, for a figure that was undisclosed at the time.
Ms Ventura has confirmed during the trial that this was $20m (about £15m).
Combs, 55, has been jailed since September, and faces at least 15 years or possibly life in prison if convicted.
Singer Chris Brown has been arrested over an alleged bottle attack at a London nightclub two years ago.
The US R&B star was arrested at a hotel in Manchester in the early hours of Thursday by Metropolitan Police detectives.
The 36-year-old is being held on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm at a nightclub in Mayfair, central London, in February 2023.
He flew into Manchester Airport on a private jet on Wednesday afternoon, according to The Sun.
File pic: Invision/AP
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: “A 36-year-old man was arrested at a hotel in Manchester shortly after 02:00hrs on Thursday, 15 May on suspicion of grievous bodily harm.
“He has been taken into custody where he remains.
“The arrest relates to an incident at a venue in Hanover Square on 19 February 2023.
“The investigation is being led by detectives from the Central West Area Basic Command Unit.”
Read more from Sky News:
Ukrainian man charged over fires at properties linked to Starmer
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Police hunt for teens seen ‘carrying dismembered kittens in bag’
The singer is set to go on tour in the UK in June and July.
Sky News has approached his representatives for comment.
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