“Maria is a film about someone who was never a victim. Someone who was in control of her will and her destiny, who knew what she wanted to do and how she wanted to do it,” says Visionary Chilean director Pablo Larraín, who researched her life with screenwriter Steven Knight, a leading British screenwriter.

Larraín offers a unique and intimate look at the final days of Maria Callas and brings a fresh perspective to the biographical genre. He was inspired to make Maria as part of his exploration of influential women from the 20th century. After directing Jackie (2016) about Jacqueline Kennedy and Spencer (2021) about Princess Diana, Larraín saw Maria Callas as the final piece of what he calls his “accidental trilogy.”

Larraín was drawn to Callas’ story because of her legendary status as an opera singer and the dramatic arc of her life. He wanted to focus on the final days of her life, capturing the emotional depth and complexity of her character1. The opportunity to work with Angelina Jolie, who brought her dedication and talent to the role, was also a significant factor in his decision to take on the project.

By telling Callas’ story, Larraín aimed to highlight the personal struggles and triumphs of a woman who left a lasting impact on the world of music and culture.

Steven Knight was also inspired to write the screenplay for Maria by his admiration for Maria Callas and her legendary status as an opera icon. He was already an opera fan and decided to delve deeper into the more remote and unknown elements of Maria’s life. Knight had the opportunity to build the screenplay around Angelina Jolie, who became attached to the project during the writing process.

He conducted extensive research and even accessed first-hand testimony from Ferrucio Mezzadri, Callas’ longtime butler. Knight and director Pablo Larraín chose to focus on Callas’ final days, finding parallels between the operas she sang and her own life. This decision helped to create a narrative that was both cathartic and reflective, allowing Maria to review her life before her passing.

Knight’s goal was to make the experience of flashing back not a torture for Maria but a cathartic replay, akin to rewinding a cassette and playing the important pieces. This approach adds depth and emotional resonance to the film, making it a compelling portrayal of the opera star’s life.

Maria follows the American-Greek soprano as she retreats to Paris after a glamorous and tumultuous life in the public eye. The film reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days as the diva reckons with her identity and life.

Interview with Pablo Larraín

What made the idea of a film about Maria Callas so appealing to you?

I was very lucky to grow up going to the opera house in Santiago with my family for many years. And I really, really loved it from a young age. Now it’s funny and beautiful to think that we would see some of the operas that had made Callas so famous, even though she was no longer alive at this point. I was just in love and floating after seeing them and then we’d go back home and then my mom would say, ‘Alright son, so you saw that, this is the real thing.’ She would play Maria Callas. I grew up with this presence of this next level of singer, someone who had the voice of an angel. Then later, of course, I got to know more about her life. So after doing Jackie and Spencer, it felt like the right ending for this process of these three movies. It’s also my first movie about an artist, and it creates a different dynamic for me personally on how to connect with the character and the story.

Did you understand the life of Maria Callas as something of an opera itself?

Many of the operas Maria Callas performed in are tragedies, so the main character that she played often is dead on stage in the last scene. The narratives of those operas are very different to her life, but I found there was always a bridge of relationship between Maria Callas and the characters that she played. One of the things that I talked to Steven Knight about at the very beginning was to understand that this is a movie about someone who becomes part of the tragedies that she played on stage. There’s some sort of a hidden map in the film where the piece of music that we use, whether it’s only orchestration or with vocals in it, is related to the moment in the film. They’re not just there because they worked where they are—they’re there because they have a dramatic purpose. Opera is a form of transcendence, and it’s a form of expressing emotions that you cannot say with words.

You mention Steven Knight – you’ve collaborated again after he wrote Spencer.

When I invited him to do this, I realized Steven was also a huge opera fan, so that was a good step. I went to him and said, “I think we should make a movie about the last week of her life.” We did a lot of research on Maria’s life and the end of her life, how the interactions of the operas she sang could create parallels with her own life. So that was a good starting point. And then talking to Angelina and Steven, we all understood that it was a film about someone that was never a victim. We are talking about someone that is in control of her will and her destiny, who knows what she wants to do and how she wants to do it. Steven really understood her character and how strong she was.

What made you choose the end of Maria’s life as the period you wished to chronicle?

Maria Callas was singing all her life for audiences, for others. And her personal life was always connected to her relationships. She was always trying to please someone, a relationship, a family member or a friend. And now in this film, at the end of her life, she decides to do it for herself. She’s going to try to sing for herself. So, this a movie about someone who is looking to find her own voice and understand her identity. It’s a celebration of her life.

Do you see Maria Callas as a survivor, given her tumultuous personal life?

I think she struggled a lot, and she had very sad moments. But there are a few biographies and there’s a certain number of things on which they all agree, and that is that Maria Callas was someone who was only truly happy when she was on stage. That was the way she fulfilled her heart and her soul. Yet she’s someone who at some point realizes that her voice is not going to be strong enough to be able to perform at the highest level, the only level she could ever accept. The film describes the difficulties of someone who has lost that element that not only made her famous, but also that created who she was in all human levels. But we’re not looking at her with pity, and I don’t think the audience should feel sorry for her. I think the audience will understand who she was and why we did it in the way we did with such a wonderful performance like Angelina has given.

What made Angeline Jolie the right actor to play Maria Callas?

There’s something about people like Maria Callas, but also Angelina Jolie—these women have a physical presence on a stage, in front of a camera or even just in a room. You feel the enormous amount of humanity they carry. There was no struggle for Angie to be Maria Callas and carry that weight, as she already has it. And then she also took preparing for the role so seriously – six or seven months of it. I said to her, “The best preparation you can have for this character, it is actually a process of getting to sing.” Then there’s also a level of fragility and sensibility and intelligence that Angelina has that can really make a difference. You feel that she disappears into the role in a way that you can enter the film and quickly forget that you’re looking at Angie. It requires a very powerful and immense talent, obviously, but also someone that has the dedication, the discipline and the vulnerability to do that.

Can you describe the process Angelina Jolie undertook to learn to sing opera?

This was the challenge, to make a movie about Maria Callas with her own voice, because why would you make it without it? It’s an essential element, of course. Angie had different stages in her preparation. At the start, it was with opera singers and coaches who helped her have the right posture, breathing, movement and the accent. She was singing very specific operas or arias, and most of them are in Italian. You have to sing it properly and get to the right pitches, and that means being able to follow the melody and sing it properly. We recorded her voice, her breathing, everything. There are moments in the film when you hear Maria Callas in her prime, when most of what you hear is Callas, but there’s always a fragment of Angelina. And then sometimes, it’s more Angelina than Callas. It’s a multilayered track that has different voices. So, Angelina really had to go for it—not only because it made the movie more possible in terms of the illusion, but to also create the right process for her as an actress.

You never considered just using Maria Callas’s voice?

I think it’s about being honest with the character and the process. To me, it’s the wrong path to take when there’s a form of cynicism in the performance, where the act is just trying to look right, get to the note and move the mouth in sync, etc., but the actor has never really experienced it in the right way. It could feel dangerously fake, not in the technicality of the singing, but also in the way that she inhabits the character. I think there’s an honesty in Angelina’s voice that you can feel very transparently.

Can you describe the process of capturing Angelina Jolie’s voice?

The only way to do it was she had to really sing the music properly, be in sync with Callas, and sing out loud. So then when you bring the Callas voice in the mixing, it would match organically. There isn’t a miracle kind of technology here. It’s really about Angelina’s work and the way that we were able to record that and to capture the sound. Angelina was absolutely exposed to singing, sometimes in front of 200 people, or 500 extras and she had to sing out loud by herself, and all people would hear was Angie’s voice alone. I would have my headphones on, I would listen to the orchestration, a little bit of Callas, and a little bit of Angie, so I was sort of mixing live. But she was metaphorically naked, voice wise, in front of hundreds of people. At the beginning, it was hard for her. She was almost apologizing to the crew, but everyone was saying, “Come on, it’s amazing. Just keep going.” Everyone loved her because she was not only doing well, but she was also so brave.

Aristotle Onassis and JFK are characters that are connecting figures to your previous film, Jackie. Are the films linked?

Well, somehow, they are, because they were people who were beloved when they were alive and remain icons today. Maria and Jackie were very strong women that conducted life the way that they wanted, and I include Diana Spencer in this, and they had natural interactions and connections, not only through Onassis or JFK, but also mostly through the kind of world that they were living in and they related to it. It’s a world that was very masculine, and they needed to struggle to find their own space—and they did it.

Did you have a greater understanding of Maria in that aspect because of the study that you’d done for Jackie as well?

Yes, of course. Maria says to JFK when they meet, she says something like, “We are very lucky angels who belong to this very specific and fortunate group of people” who can do anything they like. They are wealthy. They’re famous. They have an incredible place in this world, but they can’t get away from it. The fact that they all belong to that group doesn’t make them friends, but they do belong to the same group of people. That generation of people that saw the world with privilege, but also with authenticity and will.

Aside from music, was Aristotle Onassis the great love of Maria Callas’s life?

I think so. I think Aristotle Onassis was the love of her life, and I think they had different moments through their relationship. They were very often close in the 70s after he split with Jackie, but it was somehow a toxic relationship, I think, as well. She could just disconnect with the world and let everything be under his control. I do think there were moments of the relationship that weren’t very healthy. But I also think they came to a peaceful understanding of who they were as individuals and as a couple by the end of their lives.

Do you think that some of the harsh public criticism she faced was because she was a woman in the spotlight?

Yes, it’s the fact that she was a woman, and she had a temper, and she wouldn’t tolerate unprofessional things. She was criticized because of that. You would never say that about a man. Onassis had a huge temper, but that’s supposed to be okay because he was a man. Maria was a strong woman in times where that wasn’t really tolerated, where she would just say what she thought. She was outspoken, she had no fear, and she would just say what she wanted to do and perform in the best way in her own capacity, the maximum capacity, and became an icon. People were just not used to that. But the paradox of that is that by her being criticized, she became who she was. She became this inaccessible diva, and it created a hunger for her music and for her private life. So, she was on the covers of gossip magazines and opera magazines for four decades. It was absolutely unusual.

You mentioned you’ve always been an opera fan. Would you like to see Maria create greater curiosity to experience opera?

Opera started in the 16th century; they were folk music pieces that were sung in Italian, sometimes from the oral tradition. Then they became connected to popular stories at the time and were performed on stage. So, it started as a very popular form of art that was for everyone. Over the years, it became a more sophisticated kind of art. But opera singers like Enrico Caruso, Maria Callas and Luciano Pavarotti, and perhaps now Andrea Bocelli, these are figureheads who really worked to put opera back in its rightful place. It should be a very popular art form that should be accessible to the public. I think Callas was criticized by some when she made opera so popular. The aim of Maria is to have that operatic sensibility in a way that is popular. All the pieces in the film are beautiful and broad and have an ability to reach anyone.

Who Was Maria Callas? Inside The Life Of An Icon

“You are born an artist, or you are not. And you stay an artist, dear, even if your voice is less of a firework. The artist is always there.” Maria Callas

Maria Callas was one of the greatest opera singers of the 20^th century. The American-born Greek soprano garnered widespread critical acclaim and international fanfare, rising from modest circumstances to grace the stages of the world’s most illustrious opera houses in the 1950s and ’60s. She was an icon hailed as “La Callas” or “La Divina” (“the divine one”), revered for her astonishing vocal power, her technical agility, and the incredible passion she brought to her every role.

Born to Greek immigrants in New York on Dec. 2, 1923, Callas’s early homelife was upended by her father’s infidelity and her parents’ subsequent divorce. At the age of 13, Maria returned to Athens with her mother and sister and enrolled in the Athens Conservatory as a soprano under the tutelage of opera singer Elvira de Hidalgo. At 17, she made her professional debut with a modest role in the Royal Opera of Athens’ production of Franz von Suppé’s Boccaccio.

Only one year later, Callas won the title role in the company’s production of Puccini’s Tosca, playing a 19th-century Roman prima donna driven to a tragic death by the machinations of a powerful man who desires her. It was a part with which Callas would come to be strongly associated throughout her career.

Her confidence bolstered by her early success, Callas auditioned at New York’s prestigious Metropolitan Opera and was offered a contract to sing supporting roles. She declined, believing that the position was beneath her, and instead moved to Italy where she starred in a 1947’s La Gioconda at the Verona Arena. There, Callas met her husband, the wealthy industrialist Giovanni Meneghini. The pair married in 1949, with Meneghini taking over the singer’s business affairs as Callas’s manager. The same year as Callas’ breakout performance at La Fenice in Venice as Elvira in Il Puritani.

As Callas traveled the world, her reputation and stature grew with every performance. In 1952, she made her Covent Garden debut in Norma, starring in Bellini’s tragedy as the titular priestess, a doomed woman at the center of a love triangle during the Roman occupation of Gaul—a role that arguably became her true signature. Two years later, Callas performed Norma at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, marking her American debut.

In 1955, she returned to Europe for a career-defining performance as Verdi’s doomed heroine Violetta in La Traviata at Milan’s La Scala. The following year, she finally took the stage in Norma at the Met in New York, and for her appearance, she demanded a salary equal to the male singers and conductor Von Karajan, shocking the music world.

Callas’s exacting standards courted controversy, and they soon took a toll. Her voice became less reliable while Maria was still in her 30s, a time when sopranos typically are in their prime. While still unclear why she began to lose her voice, many attributed it to her weight loss at the time, causing scrutiny. Cancellations became more frequent for the star as she became too sick to perform, increasing the extreme backlash. Yet when she did take the stage, she continued to deliver magnificent performances until formally retiring in the 1960s. “I will always be as difficult as necessary to achieve the best,” she was quoted as saying.

At 41, Callas made her final operatic appearance on July 5, 1965, starring in Tosca at London’s Covent Garden, but Callas’ time in the limelight wasn’t over. Having parted ways with her husband in 1959, she’d struck up a torrid love affair with shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, which became the subject of great public fascination, as did her status as a fashion icon. She did continue to do concert tours, starred in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1969 film Medea and conducted master classes at the Juilliard School, before moving to Paris in the mid-1970s and fading from view.

She died on Sept. 16, 1977, from a sudden heart attack at the age of 53.

Callas is remembered as an unparalleled artist and a groundbreaking presence in the world of opera, though others have painted her as a tragic figure, a woman whose own life mirrored the art form she loved. Some have even outrageously suggested she died from heartbreak in the wake of Onassis’s 1968 marriage to former U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy—it was opera that was always her true love.

Director, Producer Pablo Larraín

Pablo Larraín (Director, Producer) is one of the most celebrated Chilean filmmakers and producers working today. He is a founding partner of Fabula Producciones, a company dedicated to film and television production and one of the most prolific production houses in Latin America.

His films include No, starring Gael García Bernal, which was nominated for the Academy Award® for Best International Feature in 2013; El Club, which won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2015 and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best International Feature Film; Jackie, starring Natalie Portman; and Spencer, starring Kristen Stewart, both of whom were nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards® for their performances in the films. His film El Conde won the Best Screenplay Award at the 2023 Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Cinematography by Edward Lachman.

Through Fabula, he has produced numerous films and television series such as A Fantastic Woman, winner of the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film in 2018; the documentary, The Eternal Memory, which was nominated for the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature and won the Goya Award for Best Ibero American Film. The television series include Midnight Family (Apple TV), El Dentista (ViX) and Baby Bandito (Netflix), as well as the documentary The Doomsday Cult of Antares de la Luz (Netflix).

Screenwriter Steven Knight

Steven Knight is a leading British screenwriter, producer and director. He is the creator, executive producer and writer of BAFTA-winning television series Peaky Blinders, starring Cillian Murphy, as well as the hit series Taboo, SAS Rogue Heroes, This Town, The Veil and the Netflix limited series All the Light We Cannot See, which earned multiple nominations including for Best Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television at the 2024 Golden Globes. Knight also co-created international game show phenomenon Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

His first penned film, Dirty Pretty Things, was directed by Stephen Frears and opened the London Film Festival. It won four BIFAs, the 2005 Humanitas Prize for Film and earned an Academy Award® nomination for Best Original Screenplay, among other honors. Further screenplays for film include Eastern Promises and Spencer, and three that he also directed: Hummingbird, Locke and Serenity.

Knight is Co-Director of Digbeth Loc. Studios, a new TV and Film studio complex, which officially launched in Birmingham – his home city – in 2023. Beyond the screen, Knight has published four novels: The Movie House, Alphabet City, Out of the Blue and The Last Words of Will Wolfkin. He was also part of the creative team responsible for the opening ceremony of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Knight received a CBE in the New Year’s Honours List 2020 for services to Drama, Entertainment and the community of Birmingham. He has the highest honor from the Royal Television Society’s Midlands Centre – the Baird Medal – and in 2023 the Royal Television Society awarded Steven a Fellowship for his contribution to the UK television industry. He holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Worcester, an Honorary Degree of Doctor from Birmingham City University and an Honorary Fellowship at UCL.

Upcoming projects include Disney+ series A Thousand Blows, starring Stephen Graham, and theNetflix feature film installment of Peaky Blinders.

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