In a new interview with IMDb, the Oscar-winning actress discussed her own similarities to Callas, who became a recluse late in her life after losing the ability to sing due to dermatomyositis, a chronic muscle inflammatory disease.

“I went through a few years where I wasn’t able to leave my home that often. “I needed to be with my family more,” Jolie reflected. “You sometimes had to turn off certain aspects of yourself in order to be other things that you needed to be. So I was reminded of how much being a creative person and connecting with other creatives shaped my life, how important it was and how much I missed it.”

She added: “I think I’ve built a very full life for myself regardless of being an artist, and she wasn’t able to do that. “So if everything were gone tomorrow and I was just a mother and just, you know If you were to work in the field, I would be very happy.”

Jolie is the mother of six children who she shares with her ex-husband Brad Pitt: Maddox, 23, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, Knox, 16 and Vivienne, 16.

As for how she taught her to play Callas, Jolie pointed to the opera diva’s complicated relationship with fame.

“Today there is often too much focus on celebrities that you almost hide from art or sometimes from being an artist,” she said. “She reminded me how much I really love, because I don’t love all of it, but I love being an artist. And it is a great joy and privilege to be one and to communicate with an audience. And I love it, and I missed it.”