Angelina Jolie found wild success in her summer Disney blockbuster Maleficent, and looking back, she says that the iconic villain was a lot like a certain movie star in a very important way.

Jolie told the LA Times that it was very important to her to keep a sense of humor about Maleficent, as that was a key trait the regal fairy embodied.

“When I was little, [seeing Maleficent] was like when you look at Marlene Dietrich for the first time. She was so elegant and so strong, and seemed to be having a great time. She always seemed … like she had a secret, like something else was going on and you couldn’t get close enough to her to know what that was, and so she remained a mystery,” Jolie said.

Jolie’s next project will include her new husband, Brad Pitt. By The Sea will be written and directed by the actress, and she’ll star in it opposite Pitt. She said over the summer that they didn’t enter into the project lightly, as the subject matter is fairly dark and focuses on the things one couple goes through together.

“We have been shy of it for quite a few years because it’s very heavy, about a relationship, people going through and surviving a lot together. It’s not easy. So we were nervous about being able to handle the material as actors and to take it on together,” she said.