US actress Angelina Jolie promotes her latest film "Maleficent" in Shanghai on June 3, 2014. Cao Zichen / For China Daily

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Angelina Jolie spoke of her directorial ambitions and hinted at the possibility of a sequel to Maleficent, Disney's dark-edged revisionist fairytale that has taken the US box office by storm. She was in Shanghai, on her first trip to China.

Jolie, who celebrates her 39th birthday on June 4, was cast in the title role of the not-so-wicked witch in Disney's new take on its 1959 classic Sleeping Beauty.

"I never get cast as normal," Jolie says during a press conference at the Peninsula Shanghai near the Bund. "Maleficent may be the most emotional female villain ever on film."

She describes it as her favorite role to date, beating Lara Croft and a host of hard-nosed female archetypes.

"It was pretty hard to top her. She was pretty fun. Maybe I'll get the chance to play her again," says the actress, who was wearing a black dress, matching fingernail polish and eye-catching gold stilettos that evoked hints of Oscar statuettes.

"But I feel like her journey was fairly complete. If so, I think it would be more of an Aurora story." Aurora is the name of the bewitched princess who can only be awoken by a truelove kiss.