Angelina Jolie’s Pain: ‘Super-Strained’ Star Makes Heartbreaking Admission About Acting Career Amid Fears for her Mental and Physical Health…..See More

Angelina Jolie feels she has “never been taken seriously as an actress” in a heartbreaking admission about her career that has sparked fears she is “super-strained” amid raising her six kids, waging an Oscars campaign for her new movie and still battling Brad Pitt in the epic fight over their winery,

RadarOnline.com can reveal the Hollywood star, 49, has credited new movie Maria, which has been tipped as a potential Academy Award contender, for rediscovering her love of acting.

Jolie’s brutally honest claim comes amid reports she is struggling to cope with the strain of balancing looking after a young family, following her split from husband Brad Pitt, and maintaining her pursuit of recognition in the movie industry.

Speaking about her belief Hollywood execs and critics do not rate her while discussing opera singer Maria Callas, who she plays in the movie, Jolie said: “It was a challenge.

“As artists you want to take on something that you are afraid of, that you’re not sure you can do.

You think about the old interviews there was a fuller conversation that was able to be had.

“I watched Callas’s really old interviews and they spent hours talking to her about her craft.

“Nobody’s ever done that for me. She was taken seriously.

“I haven’t allowed myself to just enjoy (being an artist), because things become about celebrity or business.

“It is a gift to be allowed to live a life as an artist, and this role has helped make me rediscover art and being an artist.

“I am rediscovering that through Maria.

Jolie said she spent months learning to sing opera to play Maria Callas and in the film, her voice is mixed with Callas’s own.

On Monday, she was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her role as Maria.

Talking about the training, she said: “You really can’t fake opera. It doesn’t work. It has to be like a full-body thing for it to happen.

“The thing with opera is you have to sing it pretty loud. I’ve had my moments when everybody’s gone out, because then I get to be loud

I was not sure I was ready to visit that level of truth and pain. I can see her (Maria’s) love of her work, but I can see also that there was a level of pressure and pain.”

She added that she found singing opera to be a form of therapy, explaining: “I would recommend it for anybody.

“When people go through things in their life it stores in their body. It gets in your stomach and your posture changes — but to sing opera you have to unlock all those parts.

“I became very emotional because when you start to let it out it’s very, very primal.”

RadarOnline.com revealed last week Jolie has struggled under her heavy workload following her fallout with Pitt.

Her skinny physique has come under intense scrutiny, despite reports Jolie believes she’s “healthier than ever”.

A source told RadarOnline.com: “Angelina is really showing the strain now over raising a huge family, keeping her Oscar buzz over Maria alive and battling her ex Brad over their old vineyard.

“She’s getting skinnier and skinnier and just isn’t eating enough, and this response to an interviewer shows she is starting to lose her patience with everyone.”