Angelina Jolie is starting to feel like herself again. Up until recently, the Maleficent actress hadn’t been in a film since 2021. Her most recent film, Maria, “was the beginning of starting to come alive again,” Angelina told Vanity Fair during a recent interview.
When describing her years-long break from acting, Angelina didn’t get into specifics. However, she revealed that she “went very dark” for some time. Though she declined to say why she was struggling, she admitted she “didn’t have a lot of light and life within” her.
Angelina didn’t mention her ex during the interview, but over the past several years, she and Brad Pitt have been involved in various legal disputes.
“Your light’s dim,” Angelina told Vanity Fair in the interview. “I also just needed to be home more, so I couldn’t commit large periods of time to pieces. The choice of what to work on and when was not a creative choice, often, the last few years, but sometimes the practical choice.”
Prior to Maria, her most recent role was in Marvel’s Eternals in 2021. While working on Maria, she “needed a lot of kind people around me to hold my hand.”
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She described working on a film like Maria as “healing.”
“We’re all going through this human condition and this life. So it’s very, very healing to be able to be a part of these films and to talk to you about this and to live that way,” she told Vanity Fair. “And I missed it. I realized I did really miss it. I missed being an artist.”
In the movie, she plays the role of the title character, opera singer Maria Callas.
Her role in the film reminded her of the power of collaborating with other creatives. “I wasn’t myself for a while, so I wasn’t able to give as much to my work for a few years,” she explained. “To feel like I could work again and communicate and to be with nice people — so much of what I do is collaboration with other artists.”
“When you’re with nice people and creative people, you learn so much about yourself and about life. You’re in a safe place to play and stretch,” she added.
When she started acting again after her break, it helped that two of her kids, Maddox and Pax, were “doing [assistant directing] work” on set. “It really meant a lot that my boys were with me on Maria,” Angelina previously told The Hollywood Reporter. “When I would have really heavy times, they would come over and just give me a hug or a cup of tea.”
