Angelina Jolie found it easy to love Maria Callas

Angelina Jolie found it easy to “fall in love” with Maria Callas.

The 49-year-old actress was “immediately intimidated” by the idea of playing the legendary opera singer in biopic ‘Maria’ because she didn’t know a lot about her, but once she started to research the role, she quickly found a connection, though she still wasn’t convinced she could pull it off.

She recently told Best magazine: “I was immediately intimidated by the thought of it because now that I know more of her, I realised that I actually didn’t know her at all.

“I only knew her music and only what many of us knew and about her, or the power of her art.

“But I listened to her music – you study when you play a real person, you take it so seriously.

“You are going to have this privilege to breathe into that life and align with that life.

“I need to love someone to play them properly – I need to feel like I can.

“It was easy to fall in love with her and be moved by her music – it was very hard to believe that I could do it.”

But Angelina put her faith in director Pablo Larrain and knew his guidance would help her fulfil the role.

She added: “Pablo is a very, very strong director who would make sure I had the right training and he would push me.

“I was willing to jump if he believed I could, but I was terrified.”

The actress has been tipped for an Oscar nomination for the movie and while that would be a “dream”, she’s already “genuinely so happy” just to have made the film.

She said: “It means a lot that somebody thinks you did a good job. Right? That means everything to me.

“That kind of stuff is exciting and very, very nice. But I’m just so happy we were able to do this film. I’m genuinely so happy.

“I know it sounds like people say this but really, this was an experience of a lifetime.

“I learned to sing and I embodied a woman that I respect. I was able to work with this extraordinary team of people.

“I feel like I’ve already been given the greatest gift.

“The audience seemed to respond well to it. So, anything else is a dream but I’m so grateful already.”