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.