Angelina Jolie has played a lot of tough characters on the big screen, such as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider and Evelyn Salt in Salt.

But in real life, the 49-year-old Oscar winning actress is actually soft, she said while at the Venice Film Festival.

When asked by a reporter how she related to opera singer Maria Callas, whom Jolie is playing in a new Netflix movie titled Maria, 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 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.

Angelina Jolie has played a lot of tough characters on the big screen, such as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider and Evelyn Salt in Salt. But in real life, the 49-year-old Oscar winning actress is actually soft, she said while at the Venice Film Festival

When asked by a reporter how she related to opera singer Maria Callas, whom Jolie is playing in a new Netflix movie, 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

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.

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 as Callas

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.

‘He demands in a most wonderful way that that you really do the work and really learn and train.

Jolie cried during a standing ovation for her film Maria in Venice; seen in 2003