Viva Monica
Interview | Alistair Duncan Actress Monica Bellucci knows about beauty – and it’s Europe’s charms that still seduce her, despite her rise in Hollywood SHE MAY BE one of the few contemporary Italian actresses to have made it in Hollywood, but don’t think for a moment that Monica Bellucci sees her future as being in anywhere other than Europe. “I’m very European,” she maintains. “There’s a [...]
Interview | Alistair Duncan
Actress Monica Bellucci knows
about beauty – and it’s Europe’s
charms that still seduce her,
despite her rise in Hollywood
SHE MAY BE one of the few contemporary
Italian actresses to have made it in
Hollywood, but don’t think for a moment
that Monica Bellucci sees her future as
being in anywhere other than Europe.
“I’m very European,” she maintains.
“There’s a beautiful energy in America,
but after a while that energy overwhelms you. I have to
come back to Europe to recover. That’s why I’ve never wanted
to live in Hollywood – there are so many interesting things
to do in Europe.” The actress and former model knows what’s
she talking about – she’s just back from a “gorgeous” trip to
Seville with her husband, the French actor Vincent Cassel and
their three-year-old daughter, Deva. In an expansive mood,
she reveals how much she enjoys Sardinia and “really, really
adores” Corsica, before raving about three Italian hotels she
has just discovered with lip-licking gusto.
“The new Bulgari hotel in Milan has such a lovely
restaurant, and the Hotel De Russie in Rome has a garden
that is just beautiful,” Bellucci enthuses. “But the place that is
really beautiful, really amazing – the Gritti Palace Hotel
in Venice. That is a wonderful hotel!”
Speaking to Bellucci about dreamy European destinations
induces a euphoric trance, not just because of her magnetic
beauty or kittenish purr of a voice. It’s also because the star
of two Matrix movies, who also played Mary Magdalen in
Mel Gibson’s The Passion Of The Christ and recently starred in
action caper Shoot ‘Em Up, speaks of these places with such
awe. But then again, Bellucci is a compendium of knowledge
when it comes to awe-inspiring places. After all, she has spent
most of her adult life being jetted between them.
Born in Città di Castello, a small village in Umbria,
Bellucci wanted to be a lawyer but ditched her studies after
a Milanese modelling agency spotted her beautiful face
and voluptuous figure, signing her instantly. She was soon
being whisked away for photo shoots in foreign climes. Now
though, does she regret having forfeited her legal aspirations?
Not a bit of it. “Now, with my work, I deal with many
lawyers,” she says, rolling her eyes, “and it’s so boring.”
Raised on the works of old Italian cinematic masters,
such as Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti, naturally the
young Bellucci adored actresses like Sophia Loren and Claudia
Cardinale. “But that’s because I’m Italian,” she admits with
a laugh. “Ask a French girl the same question and she’ll say
Brigitte Bardot.” These days she’s frequently compared to
Italian screen sirens of old. It would only be natural to be
flattered by the comparisons, but Bellucci shrugs them off.
“Of course, it’s flattering,” she says, “but there’s not much
that is similar. Sophia Loren became famous in Italian movies
that were watched around the world. These days, Italian
movies are seen much less in other countries. As an Italian
actress now, you have to work in French and American movies
to have an international career, which is what I’ve done.”
Bellucci may sound very focused, but making the move
from model to actress wasn’t as easy as you might think.
“When I started, people looked at me in a different way,”
she says. “When you come from the fashion business, people
say: ‘Okay, here’s another one – another model who wants to
be an actress.’ But that’s why I’ve wanted to do strong things,
like Irréversible or The Passion of The Christ.”
Strong is an understatement. The harrowing and bonecrushingly
violent Irréversible caused an almighty furore on
its 2002 release. Bellucci had done several films before this,
mostly small-budget Italian and French movies (she is also
fluent in French and English). But this one, the second movie
in which she co-starred with her then boyfriend Vincent
Cassel (they met while starring together in the stylish thriller
L’Appartement) was a brave choice – the critics at Cannes
booed Irréversible at its first screening, its violence proving
too much for even these seasoned cinema-goers.
However, the waves made by it had the effect of ferrying
Bellucci across the Atlantic to Hollywood, where she took
on the role of enigmatic, sultry Persephone in The Matrix
Reloaded and then The Matrix Revolutions alongside Keanu
Reeves. Incidentally, this wasn’t the first time Bellucci had
brushed shoulders with Reeves on the big screen. They also
appeared in Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, in
which Bellucci plays one of the vampire’s brides.
Mel Gibson’s The Passion of The Christ, which was filmed
with Latin, Hebrew and Aramaic dialogue, also provoked
strong reactions. Unsurprisingly, Bellucci’s agent advised her
against playing Mary Magdalen, who was portrayed in the
film as a prostitute. It didn’t stop her. “I never do easy things,”
Bellucci declares. “Actually, I look at my choice of films some
days and I think they are quite strange. Maybe I need a little
therapy like everybody else. I guess I make movies instead of
therapy. I do dark roles because my life isn’t like that.”
Is it time, perhaps, to try some light relief? A little comedy
maybe? “I haven’t done many comedies, it’s true, but I love
them. Maybe I should do more. But I guess when I see movies
like Shoot ‘Em Up, even though it’s violent, there is a big sense
of humour in it. It’s completely over-the-top.”
Now released on DVD, Shoot ‘Em Up was an aptly named
bullet-fest of comic book proportions. Bellucci played yet
another prostitute to Clive Owen’s gun-toting hero, on
a mission to save a baby. More recently, she has finished
shooting Le Deuxième Souffle (The Second Wind), a thriller
which sees Bellucci return to acting in French. The actress
brushes off any suggestion that it might be difficult for her
to act in a language other than her native tongue.
“It’s more relaxing for me to act in Italian of course, but
it’s more interesting for me as an actor to take on French or
English roles,” she argues. Certainly the actress is more than
comfortable in French – it’s what she speaks to her husband,
Cassel (known as the “bad boy of French cinema” due to his
gritty roles) and their daughter, on the subject of which, she
admits: “One of the things that’s so great about my job is that
I can be with Deva every day. She comes to the set with me.
In how many jobs can you bring your baby to work with you?”
There are, of course, other perks that come with being
Bellucci’s daughter. “I bought her the most expensive bike the
other day – I just can’t help myself,” she confesses, but
draws the line at designer clothes. “I don’t want her to be a
fashion victim at three, thank you.” Bellucci also seems to
apply the same attitude to herself. “Wherever I go, I always
take the same thing with me – a simple black dress and
high-heeled shoes. It’s an easy outfit that’s perfect for any
situation.” Nevertheless, she reveals: “You don’t really have
to shop a lot if you’re an actor because all these talented
people give me beautiful dresses and bags”. And having been
the face of Dolce & Gabbana and Christian Dior, she has, no
doubt, been well plied by both labels.
As our conversation drifts back to her jet-setting lifestyle
(she’s off to a film festival shortly to introduce a movie), you
wonder how Italian she still feels, what with three homes
in Europe (Rome, Paris and London), a French husband and
frequent trips to Hollywood. Does she miss Italy when she’s
not there? “It’s my homeland and I love it,” she declares.
“That’s why I keep a home in Rome – staying in hotels, I get
no privacy. But that’s Italians for you: if you walk down the
street, it’s not just men looking at girls – everyone looks at
everyone. We have lots of eye contact!”
No doubt she’s right, but you have to suppress a smile,
considering how this Italian-born, global object of desire has
enjoyed a lifetime of turning heads wherever she goes.
