Inside Angelina Jolie’s miraculous Hollywood comeback after years of battling Brad Pitt

Angelina Jolie is no longer a girl, interrupted.

After eight years mired in Hollywood’s bitterest divorce, Jolie, 49, appeared seemingly from nowhere last month to become the toast of the Venice Film Festival for her star turn in “Maria,” a biopic of opera diva Maria Callas during her last days in Paris.

When Jolie won her first Academy Award in 2000 for “Girl, Interrupted,” she was Hollywood’s  sexiest, tattooed bad girl making out with her brother and wearing a vial of then-husband Billy Bob Thornton’s blood around her neck.

Now she’s re-invented herself as a demure and serious actress and filmmaker, all class and sophistication – backed by a new high-profile Tom Ford campaign to boot – but with her focus squarely on her work.

She is generating serious Oscar buzz again with “Maria” – which received an almost nine minute standing ovation at Venice and was noted as the first time in years she has “had a role worthy of her talent,” by Variety .

Long after Jolie left, her ex-husband Brad Pitt made a splashy entrance at the festival with pal George Clooney – but their heist comedy “Wolfs” got a lukewarm reception – and a much shorter ovation.

Jolie spent seven arduous months training for “Maria,” including rigorous vocal lessons. She apparently got so good, her voice was mixed with Callas’ in the film.

Though some reviews have referred to Jolie as lip-synching, Chilean director Pablo Larrain says it’s actually her voice blended with the opera diva’s, especially during the scenes that take place at the end of Callas’ life when her voice was weaker.

The mother-of-six told reporters in Venice that she was “terribly nervous” about singing opera and her stage fright came to a head when she was required to sing at La Scala, the famed opera house in Milan with hundreds in the audience and a full crew.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s son Pax was in a car accident two months before e-bike crash that landed him in ICU

“My first days, [Larraín] was very good to me in that we started in a more intimate (setting) with very few crew members,” Jolie told AP . “And we ended at La Scala with everyone. So I had a little time to get my nerve. But this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I was terrified.”

“Maria” is only the tip of what one veteran Hollywood publicist called Jolie’s “big renaissance” this year that kicked off with her new fashion venture, Atelier Jolie , which formally opened in downtown Manhattan in early February.

In June, Jolie took home her first Tony award as a producer of Broadway’s “The Outsiders.” Her 16-year-old daughter Vivienne, who also worked on the production, first alerted her mother to the show after seeing it in San Diego.

Now, almost eight years exactly from the date of the infamous plane ride from Nice, France to LA that ended with her filing for divorce from Brad Pitt, Jolie is also unveiling another film. Her latest directorial effort, “Without Blood,” premieres Sunday at the Toronto Film Festival.

Jolie also wrote the script for the war drama, which stars Salma Hayek, who called Jolie “probably the best director I’ve ever worked with.”

“Without Blood” was made as part of a 3-year deal she struck with UK-based Fremantle in 2022 to produce and star in various projects.

Two of her three sons, Maddox, 23, and Pax, 20 – both of whom have contributed on-set since Jolie made “First They Killed My Father” in Cambodia in 2016 – worked on both “Maria” and “Without Blood” alongside her.

“We work well together. When a film crew is at its best, it feels like a big family, so it felt natural,” Jolie told PEOPLE in 2022 . She said the boys worked in the assistant director department on both films.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s son Pax seen with arm cast in first sighting since traumatic e-bike crash

She said they were an especially big help to her on “Maria.”

“When I would have really heavy times, they would come over and just give me a hug or a cup of tea,” she told The Hollywood Reporter . “That was probably one of the more intense things—usually when I’m expressing that much pain, it’s not in front of my children.”

Jolie’s been known more for her personal pain and what she’s often referred to as her family’s “healing ” in the years since her split with Pitt — along with her somber, sometimes saintly, image as a global humanitarian, working with the UN refugee agency UNHCR for 20 years.

Most “Maria” reviews have been glowing, especially regarding Jolie’s performance, although one critic for New York magazine called it a “snooze.”

“As a celebrity, she’s stripped sex from her image entirely, emphasizing instead her identity as a filmmaker, a human-rights activist, and a mother,” Alison Willmore wrote. “…I also can’t deny that I’ve found this Madonna-martyr phase in her career less than compelling.”

Pitt and Jolie were both declared legally single in 2019, but their divorce is still dragging on. Pitt, 60, brought his girlfriend of two years, jewelry designer Ines de Ramon, 34, to Venice but Angelina has not been linked seriously with anyone since their split.

In addition to a nasty legal fight over their French chateau, Miraval, and its lucrative rosé business, Jolie and Pitt have been involved in a lengthy child custody battle. But it’s rapidly becoming a moot point since only Jolie’s youngest, 16-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox, are still being negotiated over between the warring parents.

Pax has lashed out against his father in the past, calling him an “a–hole” and daughters Shiloh, 18, Zahara, 19, and Vivienne have all apparently stopped using his last name and it’s believed Pitt’s four oldest have little to nothing to do with him.

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Some have blamed Jolie for the “War of the Roses”-style saga — saying she should not have publicly accused Pitt of lashing out at their kids and abusing her on the 2016 flight from France.

The incident was investigated by the FBI, but even though her version of events was later revealed in a lawsuit and redacted FBI report , no charges have ever been brought against Pitt, who denied any physical abuse and said the incident prompted him to quit booze.

Representatives for Jolie did not respond to a request for comment from The Post for this story.

A prominent Hollywood film producer who did not want his name used says the jury is still out on Jolie’s popularity in the industry because of the divorce.

“She’s not without talent,” he told The Post. “But she’s a little crazy. It’s horrible what she did to Brad Pitt, accusing him of beating the kids. Yeah, they respect her, but she’s a nut.”

Veteran publicist Peggy Siegal, however, told The Post she’s not exactly sure what’s behind the “mishegoss” — a Yiddish word which roughly translates to craziness — between Jolie and Pitt but says it’s clear Jolie is not simply the villain, as she was portrayed early on after the couple first split.

“She’s got a big renaissance going on right now and I’m thrilled for her,” said Siegal, who’s known Jolie since 2000. “And to think when I met her it was as ‘Jon Voight’s daughter’.

“She’s one of the most beautiful women in the world and while she may look inaccessible or cold, you just tap what’s underneath and you find a wonderful, friendly person with a great sense of humor about herself.

“I really don’t understand the mishegoss going on with her and Pitt, though. It diminishes them both. I hope they both put it past them at some point because she’s a bombshell and a true talent and she doesn’t need any of that to get in her way.”

Additional reporting by Michael Kaplan

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