Angelina Jolie's motivations have changed during the course of her career

The Oscar-winning star told Sky News: "There's this kind of study of being human that we do when we create, and we communicate with an audience because our work is not in isolation - it's a connection.

"I think when I was younger, I had different questions about being human and different feelings and now as I've gotten older, I understand some things and now I have different questions."

'Maria' follows the opera singer in the final days before her death, in 1977, as she reflects on her life. And Angelina feels she can really relate to her character because of everything she's been through in her own life.

She said: "It's a matter of life, right? And so maybe that's interesting that this now is a character really contemplating death and really contemplating the toll of certain things in life that I, of course, couldn't have understood in my 20s."

Last year, Angelina claimed that she's embraced being an "older woman".

The actress explained how some particular aspects of 'Maria' 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.

"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.

"[Some pieces] are so beautiful, so full of hope and so full of yearning. Opera is bigger. It is bigger than we allow ourselves to feel in every moment."