Angelina Jolie has embraced becoming an ‘older woman.’

The 49-year-old actress – who plays opera singer Maria Callas in the biographical drama film Maria – has explained how particular aspects of the movie chimed with her own reality.

Speaking to IndieWire, Angelina said: ‘I’m 49. I do feel like an older woman now and I embrace that.

Jolie – who is still in a painful custody battle with ex Brad Pitt – then spoke of the importance of opera to help deal with emotions.

‘When I was younger, there were certain pieces of music and certain sounds that matched what I was feeling: I was falling in love, or I was curious about this, or whatever I was going through.

‘There is nothing that meets what you’re feeling like opera,’ she added.

Angelina Jolie says that she has embraced becoming an ‘older woman.’ Seen left last week and right in 1999

The 49-year-old actress – who plays opera singer Maria Callas in the biographical drama film Maria – has explained how particular aspects of the movie chimed with her own reality

‘[Some pieces] are so beautiful, so full of hope and so full of yearning,’ added the Oscar-winning star.

‘Opera is bigger. It is bigger than we allow ourselves to feel in every moment.’

Angelina wasn’t very familiar with opera music before she began shooting Maria.

The Tomb Raider actress admitted: ‘I grew up in America.

‘In other countries, they understand how essential and important it is, and it’s much more a part of the culture, but not where I was raised [Los Angeles].

‘I had been introduced to [Maria] but it was a complete discovery of this new art form, to come in and transform my life and teach me all of the different operas.

The actress is seen here in one of her many hits, Tomb Raider from 2003

This comes after Angelina said she is actually soft.

When at the Venice Film Festival she was asked by a reporter how she related to Callas.

‘I think the way I related to her may be a surprise — [it was] probably the part of her that’s extremely soft,’ said Jolie at a panel on Thursday, according to People.

The star continued, ‘And she doesn’t have room in the world to be as soft as she truly was, and as emotionally open as she truly was.’

Jolie was hinting that she has hidden her soft side due to her enormous fame.

When asked by a reporter how she related to Callas she explained. ‘I think the way I related to her may be a surprise — [it was] probably the part of her that’s extremely soft,’ said Jolie at a panel’ seen August 29 in Venice

This comes after Jolie shed tears when she received an eight minute standing ovation for her film Maria.

The mother of six was seen wiping away tears as the claps continued.

Jolie also said during her panel that she worked very hard to star as Callas in a movie.

She said she spent almost seven months training her voice so she could sing opera because she does not want to ‘disappoint’ Maria’s fans.

And she was asked about the word diva, which is what Callas was called.

‘I think it’s often come with a lot of negative connotations,’ said Jolie.

‘I think I’ve re-learned that word through Maria… and I have a new relationship to it.

‘I think it is often other people’s perception of a woman that defines, sometimes too much, who she is and who she was, or what she intended,’ she added.

Jolie was hinting that she has hidden her soft side due to her enormous fame

This new image of Jolie on stage as Callas was shared this week

Callas (L) and her husband Giovanni Battista Meneghini (R)

‘And I actually think [Maria] was one of the hardest-working people, who didn’t hurt anybody.

‘So I suppose it’s everybody in this room that makes that definition sometimes, but the true definition may be [that] the great composers define it differently,’ Jolie said.

Netflix has acquired the rights to Maria, but a release date has not yet been announced.

Earlier Jolie said she got her sons to block the door of her rehearsal room when she was training to sing like Maria Callas.

The Maleficent actress said: ‘Everybody here knows I was terribly nervous about the singing.

‘I spent almost seven months training because when you work with (director) Pablo (Larrain) you can’t do anything by half.

Jolie and Brad Pitt arriving for the world premiere of World War Z in 2013; they are still battling over custody 8 years after they split