Angelina Jolie Says Sons Saw When She 'Broke Down Crying' Making 'Maria' (Exclusive)

Angelina Jolie made it a family affair with three of her kids, Pax, Zahara and Maddox, at the premiere of "Maria" at the 62nd Annual New York Film Festival at Film and Lincoln Center.

The 49-year-old superstar told “Extra" of her children's support during the journey of making this movie, "It’s meant everything."

"You know, before you get out in these things, you're as nervous," she said. "They just said, 'No matter what, Mom, good luck and we know how hard you work and we love you.' You know, you just have that moment where the people who are with you tell you, succeed or fail, they care about you."

Because of that safety net, she confided, "We all just, you know, said we're gonna have a good time tonight.”

Angelina had a lot to be nervous about going into "Maria," in which she plays Maria Callas, the opera singer lauded as one of the greatest, most enigmatic talents of the 20th century. Making matters scarier, Jolie was doing her own singing, mixed with Callas' voice.

She shared, “My boys were with me on set, and they were in the AD department, the photography department. So, it was kind of an amazing thing to have, you know, they don't always... to see you work in this way because it was such a deeply emotional film that I didn't catch it at first... They saw me learn how to sing, they saw me practice, they saw me nervous. They were there the first time I had to do it and I was terrified, and they were there when I broke down crying… So, it was an interesting time for us to kind of get closer in a different way."

"Many of us that have children know you don’t often cry in front of your children," she went on, "or you don’t express certain things in front of your children, so to do that and then tell them it's okay and be there for each other was very special.”

Jolie also laughed that knew when she got better at singing because of her kids! “In the beginning, it was more like they were proud of me for trying so hard. It wasn’t that, 'We like your voice,' it was, 'Good for you!' We're proud of you, Mom. We know how hard you're working."

She continued, "Then there was a time when they started to say, 'You know actually, you're kind of doing it, Mom!' So they were with me through the times when I was singing loudly in the house and everyone was probably in their rooms thinking, 'Oh, my God.' It's like learning the violin at home."

Jolie really embodies Callas for the film, even wearing similar glasses.

She recalled, "We took it to an optometrist and he said, 'This glass and this level to match her photos,' he said, 'This woman really couldn’t see,' and it’s something we don’t really know about her 'cause it’s something she covered very well. But the couldn’t see her composer really well. She had trouble seeing co-stars across the stage. So it says a lot about how much harder she had to work, and little things about her she was struggling with that nobody knew but she just dealt with. So yes, they were part of the character, but also just kind of made me respect her all the more.”

"Maria," directed by Pablo Larraín, will be in select theaters November 27 and stream on Netflix December 11.