We do not know well this magnificent woman, actress, model, although every feature of her face and body line is familiar to millions. She talks little about herself, protecting her personal life from the tabloids. The meeting with Monica Belucci is not for the press, but for the soul.
For the first and so far the only time she came to Russia last summer, for the presentation of Cartier, whose face she became a few years ago. Arrived for just one day. Leaving Paris, she caught a cold, so in Moscow she looked a little tired, as if extinct. Oddly enough, it turned out that this weariness, a shadow lying in the corners of her lips, making her black eyes even deeper, suits Monica Belucci very well. She attracts everyone: her taciturnity, in which you always suspect some kind of secret, slow, confident intonations of a low voice, very Italian gestures of impeccably beautiful hands. She has a charming manner – during a conversation, lightly touch the interlocutor, as if hypnotizing, electrifying him with her energy.
Monica does not like to make speeches in public, apparently realizing that the viewer is more interested in her neckline than what she actually says. It’s a pity. Listening to her and talking to her is interesting. Our interview begins, and after a few minutes, after the first phrases of acquaintance and the inevitable general questions about her creative plans and new films, she “lets go” of herself, keeps herself simply, naturally, without any affectation. With a smile, she notices that it’s nice to be beautiful, of course, but “beauty will pass, you just have to wait.” We talk about her personal life, and Monica admits that she has been looking at Vincent Cassel, her husband, with special tenderness since he became a father. Then she regrets that she opened up, asks us to remove some phrases from the interview. We agree, and she thanks for this: “You respect me.”
Briefly and clearly
What were the most important events in your life in recent years?
The way my career developed and the birth of my daughter.
What did they change about you?
Career development gave me confidence, and with the birth of my daughter, I learned to understand what is really important in life and what is not …
What is luxury for you?
Have personal time.
During pregnancy, you did yoga, your daughter was given an oriental name – Deva … Are you attracted to the East?
Yes. Both spiritually and physically.
Should every woman experience motherhood?
No, everyone decides for themselves. It was vital for me.
Do you have professional restrictions?
Participation in porn films.
Does a person need physical beauty in life?
I don’t think it’s necessary. But it can make life easier to some extent.
Do you consider it necessary to observe any norms in appearance, in relationships?
The concept of a standard does not exist for me.
Psychologies: Probably, like many stars, you are burdened by the publicity of your profession?
Monica Bellucci: I’m trying to ignore it… Sorry, but I don’t like letting people into my private world. I’m not talking about our marriage with Vincent – I want to protect us. Although, to be honest, there is nothing new in what you call publicity for me. Where I was born and raised (Citta di Castello in the Italian province of Umbria. – S.N.), there was no privacy at all. Everyone knew everyone, everyone was in front of everyone, and my deuces reached the house before me. And when I came, my mother was already quite ready to assess my behavior. And the morals were simple: the men whistled after me, and the women gossiped.
One of your fellow actresses admitted that when she was a teenager, the looks of mature men weighed her down. Did you feel something similar?
M. B .: I was rather sad if they didn’t look at me! (Laughs). No, it seems to me that one cannot speak of beauty as some kind of burden. It’s not fair. Beauty is a great chance, you can only thank for it. Besides, it will pass, you just have to wait. As someone not stupid said, its action is given only three minutes, and then you should be able to keep your eyes on yourself. One day I was shocked by this thought: “Beautiful women are made for unimaginative guys.” I know a lot of beautiful people whose life is a total horror. Because they have nothing but beauty, because they are bored with themselves, because they exist only reflected in the eyes of others.
Do you suffer because people are more attracted to your beauty than your personality?
M. B .: I hope this doesn’t concern me too much. There is such a stable idea: if a woman is good-looking, then she is certainly stupid. I think it’s a very outdated idea. Personally, when I see a beautiful woman, the first thing I think about is not that she will turn out to be stupid, but that she is simply beautiful.
But your beauty made you leave your home early, become a model …
M. B .: I left not because of beauty, but rather because I wanted to know the world. My parents gave me such self-confidence, gave me so much love that it filled me to the brim, made me strong. After all, I first entered the law faculty of the University of Perugia, I had to pay for my studies, and I began to earn extra money as a fashion model … I hope that I can love my daughter the same way my parents loved me. And raise her to be independent. She has already begun to walk at the age of eight months, so she should flutter out of the nest early.
Have you ever dreamed of living like an ordinary person – not famous, not a star?
M. B .: I like to be in London – I’m less known there than in Paris. But, in my opinion, we ourselves cause aggression in people, establishing a certain distance between them and ourselves. And I lead a normal life: I walk the streets, eat in restaurants, go to shops … sometimes. (Laughs.) And I would never say: “Beauty and fame are my problem.” I don’t have this right. That’s not the problem. The problem, the real one, is when you are sick, when there is nothing to feed the children …
You once said: “If I had not become an actress, I would have married a local guy, would have given birth to three children for him and committed suicide.” Do you still think so?
M. B .: God, I think I really said that! Yes, I think so. (Laughs). I have girlfriends who are made for home, marriage, motherhood. They are wonderful! I love visiting them, they cook like goddesses, I feel like they have my mother: they are so caring, always ready to help. I go to them and I know that I will always find them at home. It’s great, it’s like a reliable rear! I would so like to be the same, to lead a calm, measured life. But I have a different nature. And if I had such a life, I would feel like I’m trapped.
How do you feel about your body? From the outside, it looks like you’re quite happy with it. Is this true or just an impression from the movies?
M. B .: The body of the actress speaks exactly like her face. It is a working tool, and I can use it as an object to play my role more strongly. For example, in the famous rape scene in the movie Irreversible, I used my body in this way.
In this film, you played a very brutal rape scene that lasted 9 minutes and was said to have been shot in one take. Has this role changed you? Or have you ever forgotten that this is just a movie?
M. B .: Even the prepared audience of the Cannes Film Festival – and she left this stage! But where do you think these people go when they close the cinema door behind them? That’s right, the real world. And reality is sometimes much more cruel than movies. Of course, cinema is a game, but even when you are acting, some unconscious factor interferes with your life and you have to take it into account. When you enter the realm of the unconscious, you never know to what depths of your own you can go. This role in Irreversible affected me more than I thought. I really liked the dress of my heroine, and at first I wanted to keep it for myself. I knew that during the scene of rape it would be torn, so for me personally they set aside another one of the same kind. But after filming, I couldn’t even think about wearing it. I couldn’t even look at him! In the game, as in life, you can fix any technical issue, but not the unconscious one.
In Irreversible, you played a rape survivor. Now in Bertrand Blier’s film How Much Do You Love Me? – a prostitute … Are you interested in the status or rights of women?
M. B .: Yes. I became independent very early and I don’t even know how it is to ask a man for something. I can count on myself and that’s important to me. “Kept woman” in Italian will be mantenuta, literally “the one that is held in the hand.” And I don’t want someone to hold me in their hand. This is where independence begins for a woman. I understand how lucky I am as an actress: already three months after the birth of my daughter, I was able to return to the shooting and take her with me. But most women are forced to give a three-month-old child to a nursery: at 7 in the morning they bring him, in the evening they take him away and do not know what he did without them all day. It’s unbearable, it’s unfair. Men who make laws have decreed that a woman can leave her child three months after she first saw him. This is complete nonsense! They don’t know anything about children! The horror is that we are so used to such injustice that we think it is normal! A woman is being abused with the help of laws that men “smuggle”! Or here’s another: the Italian government decided that in vitro fertilization and the use of donor sperm can only be allowed to official couples. This means that if you have not signed, if you have not put all these seals, science cannot help you! Religious dogmas and everyday prejudices again control the destinies of people. The Muslim world forbids a woman to walk with her head uncovered, but in our country she is forbidden to wait for help from science, and she will not become a mother if she does not fulfill the same formal requirements of society, like wearing a headscarf! And this is in a modern European country! when this law was passed. I was expecting a baby. I was happy and the injustice towards others outraged me! Who is the victim of the law? Once again, women, especially poor ones. I publicly said that this is a disgrace, but this seemed to me not enough. I protested as a model and actress: I posed completely naked for the cover of Vanity Fair. Well, you know that… On the seventh month of pregnancy.
It seems that you live between the airports of three countries – Italy, France, USA. With the advent of your daughter, did you have a desire to take a time out?
M. B .: I took it for nine months. For the duration of my pregnancy, I gave up everything, took care of my stomach only and did nothing.
And now everything is going the same again? Have there been any significant changes?
M. B .: Against. I have determined the most important thing for myself, and now I am doing only that. But even these main things in my life are too many. I tell myself that I will not exist in this rhythm forever. No, I think that I still have to discover something for myself, to prove something to myself, to learn something. But, probably, one day there will come a moment when I will not just stop improving myself – I will simply lose such a desire.
Do you think it is possible to love and still be free?
M. B .: For me, this is the only way to love. Love lives only when there is respect for each other and freedom. The desire to possess another as a thing is absurd. Nobody belongs to us, neither our husbands nor our children. We can only share something with the people we love. And don’t try to change them! When you manage to “remake” someone, you stop loving them.
Shortly before the birth of your daughter, you said: “Films can be made all your life. But children are not allowed.” Now you have a child, and a career, and creativity … Is there something that you are missing?
M. B .: Probably not, I have enough! I even feel like I have too much. Now everything is fine, there is harmony in life, but I understand that this will not last forever. Time passes, people will leave with it … I am not getting younger, and therefore I strive to live every moment as brightly as possible.
Have you ever turned to psychotherapy?
M. B .: I have no time. But I am sure that studying yourself is interesting. Maybe I’ll do it when I’m older. I have already thought up so many activities for myself for those years when I am old! It will be a wonderful time! Can not wait! (Laughs.)
Private bussiness
- 1969 Born September 30 in the town of Citta di Castello, province of Umbria, central Italy.
- 1983 Enters the Faculty of Law of the University of Perugia.
- 1988 Works for the famous modeling agency Elite in Milan.
- 1992 Film “Dracula” F.F. Coppola, where he invited her to act after seeing one of Monica’s fashion shoots.
- 1996 On the set of J. Mimouni’s film “The Apartment” he meets his future husband, actor Vincent Cassel.
- 1997 Nomination for the main film award of France “Cesar” for his role in “The Apartment”.
- 1999 Marriage with Vincent Cassel.
- 2000 The first serious film role – in the film by J. Tornatore “Malena”; Nude shoots for Max and Pirelli calendars.
- 2003 The epic “The Matrix” secures the status of an international star for Bellucci. Filming in “Tears of the Sun” with Bruce Willis gives rise to rumors about the relationship of the actors.
- 2004 Birth of the daughter of Deva (translated from Sanskrit – “divine”). Films “Secret Agents” by F. Shenderfer and “The Passion of the Christ” by M. Gibson.
- 2005 The role of the evil sorceress in The Brothers Grimm by T. Gilliam. At the same time, he is working on five more film projects.