Angelina Jolie's children helped her cope with her latest movie role.

The 49-year-old actress plays renowned opera singer Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín's new biopic 'Maria' and Angelina - who has six children aged between 16 and 23 - revealed she relied on her kids whenever she had a tough day on set.

She told The Hollywood Reporter: "I have never had a set where my family is not allowed to be there because I’m focusing — I’m not that person. You can climb all over me or visit. It really meant a lot that my boys were with me on 'Maria'. When I would have really heavy times, they would come over and just give me a hug or a cup of tea.

"That was probably one of the more intense things was that —usually when I’m expressing that much pain, it’s not in front of my children. You really try to hide from your children how much pain and sadness you carry. And so for them to be with you when you’re expressing it at such a level, I think it was the first time they ever heard me cry like that. That’s usually for the shower."

Angelina plays Maria when the singing icon was nearing death and losing her voice.

The opera legend is still renowned as the greatest voice in the history of opera and died in 1977 aged 53 after a spell of illness and isolation.

And, two of Angelina's sons, Maddox and Pax, even worked on the film with her.

She said: "Mad and Pax were on this one. Doing AD [assistant directing] work. They’ve done that quite a few times, and I think that’s good for them. Pax tends to do stills and he gets brought in, and Pablo was wonderful and saw that he was good at it."

And, after taking time out to focus on raising her family, Angelina revealed she is excited to be now taking on more work.

She said: "They’re a bit older, getting more independent. I’m less needed and so able to go away for different periods of time. And they’re old enough to join me at work. It’s a new season in our lives. I’m very excited for them to be coming into their own more and more every day."