Angelina Jolie opens up about having 'Few Friends' because of past betrayals

Angelina Jolie captured attention at the Venice Film Festival and the Telluride Festival in Colorado with her performance in Maria, directed by Chilean Pablo Larraín. In the film, she plays the iconic opera singer Maria Callas, earning one of the event's longest standing ovations—an impressive eight minutes—that brought her to tears. While promoting Maria, she spoke about how music became a source of solace during "times of despair and pain,” particularly referencing her ongoing legal battle with Brad Pitt over their divorce.

At the press conference in Venice, Jolie described the world of opera as providing "a therapy she didn't know she needed." She shared, “I had no idea how much I was holding in and not letting out,” she explained. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actress opened up about losing friendships over the years after being "betrayed.". “And so the challenge wasn't the technical; 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.” Her six children—Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Vivienne, and Knox—played a vital role in her transformation into Maria Callas, a role she dedicated seven months to prepare for.

© Alessandra Benedetti - Corbis

When asked about her closest friends or the people she would call at "3 in the morning," Jolie's answer revealed her solitude. “I don’t have a lot of those warm, close relationships as much that I lean on. But I have a few, and a few is enough. Loung is one of my closest friends. My mother was very close to me. I lost her,” she added, referring to her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who died in 2007 from ovarian and breast cancer when she was just 56.

© Jacopo Raule

Jolie further explained, "I’m not that person that feels like, 'Oh, I wish I could just be alone so I could have my guilty pleasures.' Because usually my guilty pleasure is being with somebody. I love doing something that makes them happy. That really does make me happy."

© Vivien Killilea

Angelina Jolie wants to move out of Los Angeles 

Having her children with her during the filming of Maria meant everything to Jolie. "That was probably one of the more intense things was that —usually when I’m expressing that much pain, it’s not in front of my children. You really try to hide from your children how much pain and sadness you carry. And so for them to be with you when you’re expressing it at such a level, I think it was the first time they ever heard me cry like that. That’s usually for the shower."

The actress would like to leave Los Angeles but remains theredue to her complicated divorce from Pitt and the custody dispute over their twins, Vivienne and Knox. Once divorce ends and their twins turn 18 she would like to live in Cambodia.