Angelina Jolie Says Sons Saw When She ‘Broke Down Crying’ Making ‘Maria’ (Exclusive)

Angelina Jolie attended the premiere of ‘Maria’ at the 62nd New York Film Festival at Film and Lincoln Center for a family affair with her three children Pax, Zahara and Maddox.

“It meant everything,” the 49-year-old superstar told “Extra” of his children’s support during the making of the film.

“You know, I get the same nerves before I work on something like this,” she said. “They just said, ‘No matter what, good luck mom. We know how hard you work and we love you.’ See, we’re with you. There are moments when people say they care about you, whether you succeed or fail.”

Thanks to that safety net, she confessed: “We all said we were going to have a good time tonight.”

Angelina was very nervous about her role in Maria Callas, an opera singer hailed as one of the greatest and most enigmatic talents of the 20th century. Even more frightening, Jolie was singing her own songs mixed with the voice of a crow.

She said: “My sons were with me on set, they were in the AD department, they were in the photography department, so it’s not like they always do that…you work like this. It was great in a way because it was a very emotional movie and I didn’t understand it at first… They watched me learn how to sing and practice. They were there the first time I had to do it and they saw me when I broke down and cried. We were there… So it was an interesting time for us to be able to approach it in a different way.”

“A lot of us who have kids know that you don’t cry a lot in front of your kids,” she continued, “or you don’t express certain things in front of your kids, so then you don’t cry in front of them.” It was so special to tell them it was okay and to be there for each other.”

Jolie also laughed and said that her singing has improved thanks to her children. “At first, they seemed proud that I was trying so hard. It wasn’t, ‘I like your voice,’ it was, ‘That’s great!’ We are proud of you, Mom. We know how hard you work. ”

she continued. “Then there was a period where they started saying, ‘You actually look like you’re doing it, Mom!'” So I was singing loudly in the house and probably everyone was in their rooms saying, “What the heck?” They were there with me even when I was thinking, “That’s it.” It’s like learning the violin at home. ”

Jolie really embodies the crow in this movie, even though she wears similar glasses.

“We took it to the optometrist and they said, ‘This glass and this level match her picture.’ They said, ‘This woman was really blind.’ I didn’t know much about her,” she recalled. I mean, she covered it very well, but she couldn’t really see her co-stars on stage. She was suffering from something that no one knew about, but she just dealt with it. So they were part of the character, but at the same time I started to respect her more and more. ”

Directed by Pablo Larrain, Maria will be released in select theaters on November 27th and streamed on Netflix on December 11th.