Angelina Jolie 'out of her mind with nerves' at singing in new film

Angelina Jolie has admitted she was "out of her mind with nerves" at taking on the role of Maria Callas.

The actress plays the opera singer in new biopic, Maria, which is earning critical acclaim.

After receiving a standing ovation after a screening at the Venice International Film Festival, Angelina spoke at a panel about taking on the role.

"I had seven months of opera classes, great teachers and Italian classes, and a supportive team that were going to help me," she said, adding she was still "so nervous that morning I was out of my mind".

She revealed when she first started on set there were "not a lot of people in the room" to allow her to become more confident, before they "stepped up to eventually having more crew, eventually more extras, eventually more - up to La Scala," she said in reference to filming at the Milan Opera House.

Last week, Angelina, 49, told how she hadn't sung for years after she "had somebody in my life who was not kind to me about singing", revealing that "it was a relationship I was in".

She added, "I just assumed I couldn't really sing... I just kind of adapted to this person's opinion."

She talked about how she sang in front of her children, Maddox, 23, and Pax, 20, who came to see her on set.

"It wasn't that I was nervous to sing in front of them, which I was. It was that parents don't show that level of grief to their children, ever... But then through it, they would give me a hug and we'd (have) tea and it was this beautiful thing of communicating on a deeper level about pain."