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MONICA TALKS ABOUT "SHOOT EM UP"  How did Michael Davis explain his inspirations for the character? Actually I didn’t know what was in his mind in the beginning about my character really, because she could have been Italian, French, American, everything. I think that he wanted to bring the emotion in the middle of all of this mess and violence and blood. He wanted the female character to bring just the emotion,because in the end it’s all about love... Do you think that this role is a role that American actresses wouldn’t take? I don’t know. When I received the script I thought the character was really, really strong. Okay, there is one sex scene in the movie of course, but there’s much more that you would imagine than what you really see. That’s why the scene is very sensual but nothing more than that. What were the most difficult scenes to do in the movie SHOOT’EM UP? Well, for me the difficult scene I had to do was the love scene because it’s an action scene at the same time. We had to rehearse and make it looks sexy but it was dangerous. How long did it take you to film that scene? I think one day maybe. In the movie SHOOT’EM UP you are with a baby, taking care of the baby do you draw on any maternal instincts or is it pure fantasy in this? When you play a mother and you are a mother it’s easier and of course the baby didn’t have any risks in the movie because I’m a mother so I was really careful. Also the baby was on set for just a few minutes because most of the time it was just special effects. You play such sexy, strong women in many of your films. How do you prepare for that? I like to do on screen what I’m not in life. In life I’m much more weak and insecure and so then you know I like to play characters that are stronger than me. How does it feel to be considered one of the most beautiful women in the world? I’m too old for that. What leads you to picking the scripts? I’m in a special situation because I’m Italian and I work in Italy, I work in France, so once in a while I come to America and it’s just a strange situation. When I make choices, it’s by instinct. I read the script and I said I will do that. It’s not my agent because my agent sends scripts and they can say, 'Oh, I like that' but then I say, 'No, I don’t like that.' It’s just my decision. Are there any kinds of movies you would not want to do? Horror movies. Anything is possible. I like comedies, I like thrillers, I like love stories. Everything is beautiful. It depends if the film is good, who cares? Everything is interesting. Are you going to let your daughter see all your movies when she grows up? Yeah, but she’s going to be very old, because I’ve done very difficult movies, very difficult movies when I think about it. This movie, IRREVERSIBLE, THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, all those violent movies, and I’m not violent in life. 9 October 2007 Monica Bellucci: I'm Proud Of My Sexy Curves. By Siobhan Synnot Real Women Italian Actress Monica Bellucci Has Just Been Announced As The Face Of Cosmetic Giant Dior. Samuel L Jackson Says He's Completely Besotted By Her, Keira Knightley Envies Her Curvy Body And Mel Gibson Surrendered To Her Immediately When She Demanded He Give Her A Part In One Of His Films WITH her sultry looks, ex-law student's brains and growing worldwide reputation, Monica Bellucci is the closest thing that Italy has to a modern Sophia Loren. The stunning actress, who posed naked for Vanity Fair while pregnant with her daughter in protest at restrictive new laws in Italy for fertility treatment, admits she has her insecurities about her looks just like ever other woman. But on the other hand, she says she is proud of her sexy curves and refuses to feel guilty about her body. And she believes playing strong, passionate characters will help women change their opinions of their bodies too. And she's as vain as the next person. "I'm like you," she said." We are all the same. We all want to be young, beautiful and healthy. Nobody wants to be fat, sick and old." Samuel L Jackson, who served with her on the Cannes Film Festival jury, is smitten by her looks. He declared Monica was the only woman who looks gorgeous anytime, anyplace, without even trying. For now, she says she is too lazy to resort to cosmetic surgery to lift wrinkles. In the future, who knows? "I don't know how I'm going to be in 10 years," she said. She hopes her wit will see her through when faced with the ageing dilemma. "When I see old women with wrinkles and they can deal with that in an intelligent way, I like that very much," she said. "I hope I'll be strong and intelligent enough to deal with that." Best known in this country for her Hollywood films, which include Tears Of The Sun, The Brothers Grimm and the new action picture Shoot 'Em Up, the vast majority of Monica's work involves French and Italian movies. Bella in any language, Monica is 42 and shows no signs of giving up her sex siren status. But the Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions star says it's because there's less ageism in Europe than in Hollywood. "I do think it is more a problem for American actresses," said the former Dolce & Gabbana model. "It is more a Hollywood than a European obsession. In Europe, we have so many actresses like Charlotte Rampling and Catherine Deneuve and Sophia Loren who still play sexy characters that are their own age. "In Hollywood, it is so strange. After awhile, even young and beautiful actresses don't work anymore." Compared to image-conscious US actresses, Monica prefers to be honest to the point of blunt outspokenness. But her straight talking style hasn't held her back - quite the opposite. The Italian actress asked Mel Gibson outright if she could play the part of Mary Magdalene in The Passion, which he wrote, directed and produced, after finding out he was still looking for an actress to fill the role. Yet acting was not always on the agenda for Monica, who modelled around the world for Elite during the early Nineties. It was a small role as Dracula's bride in Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula that changed her mind. "It was just a little part, but I knew it was the beginning of something big for me," she said. But she's had to pay a price for being Italian. "In the days of Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida, it wasn't so hard," she said. Back then, the Italian film industry was at its height, its directors and stars internationally renowned. "Today, if you're Italian and you want to become international, you have to leave Italy," she said. "And that is such a shame because Italians have so much talent and so much to offer." In 1995, Monica moved to France because she loved the language and felt she could carve a career there. Ten days after her arrival, she was cast in L'Appartement, which won a Bafta for best foreign language film and garnered Bellucci France's Cesar Award for Most Promising Actress. But L'Appartement was a turning point in more ways than one. It's also where she met her husband, Vincent Cassel, also a major sex symbol in his home country. "It was not love at first sight," she said of the Ocean's 12 and 13 star. "In fact, it was the opposite. I thought, 'This guy is very pretentious. Who does he think he is?' But we got to know each other over time. I realised he was not as he seemed. He put up a public face, like many of us. "He also told me later: 'I thought you were just a model pretending to be an actress. Then I realised you could act.'" NOW they may be European cinema's most glamorous married couple - and certainly the most photogenic - with a shared taste for controversy. They've made eight movies together, the most notable of which was the scandalous rape-revenge drama Irreversible in 2002, a film that deliberately dragged France's golden couple into world of violence and sexual sadism which made some viewers physically ill and has driven many more out of cinemas. Premiered in Britain at the Edinburgh Film Festival, it became a surprise hit in many parts of Europe. Less traumatic work together includes The Brotherhood Of The Wolf, Doberman and most recently, a cameo for Monica as a vampire in a film within Vincent's latest film, Sheitan. A complicated couple, the pair were rumoured to be on the verge of splitting in 2002, but then had a daughter called Deva in 2004. But while Monica recently moved to London, her husband of 10 years stayed in Paris. "We have a place in Chelsea and it's where I eel the most relaxed because it can get a little, you know, excited in Paris and Rome," she said. "Sometimes I have to wear a little disguise to go out," said the star, who admits that her domestic arrangements might seem a little odd, although she and Vincent try to see each other at weekends. "We don't see each other all the time, but you know," she laughed, "we're actors. It's a special way of life. "We've both lived like this forever. We don't know anything else. "Of course, when my baby starts school, many things are going to change because I won't be able travel like I do now." When Deva is older, her mother says she'll cut back on movies, but she admits it will be a long time before she shows her daughter some of her tougher films. " I've done very difficult movies when I think about it. Irreversible and The Passion Of The Christ are violent movies and I'm not violent in life." Monica's current movie is the unapologetically violent adventure Shoot 'Em Up, which stars Clive Owen as a mysterious man named Smith who delivers a baby in the middle of a shoot-out, then rescues the child from dozens of gunmen after the mother dies. And the bullets also fly in a scene where Monica and Clive's lovemaking is interrupted by assassins. "What I like is that it's violent but at the same time it's sexy and it's funny," smiled Monica. "It wasn't very easy but it's interesting. "I like to do on screen what I'm not in life. In life, I'm much more weak and insecure and so then you know I like to play characters who are stronger than me." But sometimes she finds it hard to take herself too seriously, to the point that she held up work on her sex scene with Matt Damon in The Brothers Grimm because she kept giggling. But Monica is convinced the lighthearted mood helped her relax during the embarrassing scene. "I just found him so funny. It actually helped though," she said, tossing back her luxurious long black hair. "When you have loves scenes with someone that you never met before, it's difficult. You have to create a nice situation, a good sensibility. "With him it was easy. He just made me laugh." Shoot 'Em Up is in cinemas now. 'We all want to be young, beautiful and healthy. Nobody wants to be fat, sick and old' 'I don't see my husband all the time but we're actors. It's a special way of life. We've lived like this forever'  10 Sept 2007The Post's Adam McDowell enjoyed lunch with Monica Bellucci on Sunday 10 Sept 2007 Here's his report: To the average red-blooded North American male, a European actress like Monica Bellucci is as exotic as a 30-foot squid. You might marvel at one in a picture, and if you’re lucky you might even get a chance to see one up close, but to have lunch with one seems too much to hope for. When Bellucci finally does arrive, an hour behind schedule, a few male reporters stand up; such is the sense of occasion. She’s protecting herself from the unexpected cold by wearing a black pleather trenchcoat over her tight black dress, and keeps it on during lunch. The attire serves as a reminder of her role as Persephone in the Matrix trilogy, a part that transported her to the alternate universe of Hollywood. The Italian-born Bellucci, who splits her time between Paris, Rome and London, could be described as a quintessential European actress. The film she’s promoting at the Toronto International Film Festival, Le Deuxième souffle, is director Alain Corneau’s revisitation of a classic French film noir; it’s a crime movie only Europeans could have made. At the same time, Bellucci is the female lead in Shoot ’Em Up, a Toronto-shot American actioner. Bellucci is well placed to talk about the difference between the two sides of the pond. “It’s about money,” she says. “Of course, in America you can do big things in a movie. In Europe, €50-million is a really huge budget, but in America, $100-million is normal. …But when you’re in front of the camera, acting is acting.” The glam is also turned down a notch in Europe. “If you showed up to a premiere with a limo and everything, people would think you were tacky,” she says. Though she doesn’t look it, Bellucci will turn 43 this month. As a 40-something actress, her thoughts are turning to the kinds of parts she can expect to be offered in Hollywood. “What’s beautiful about Europe,” Bellucci says, “is that all these actresses who are between 48 and 60 are given these sexy parts. They have sexy stories, love stories. In America, they are the grandmother, the mother, the aunt. They don’t look at you like a woman anymore.” Bellucci intends to continue to accept juicy parts as long as she’s offered them. “The stuff that I’ve done is risky,” she says. When Bellucci accepted the role of Mary Magdalene in The Passion of the Christ, she notes, there was no guarantee it would be a success, even with Mel Gibson’s name attached. “The fact is that, at the time, The Passion was a movie nobody wanted to finance. I remember my instinct, even though I knew it was not going to be a blockbuster, was that I wanted to do the movie.” What drew her to the character of Jesus’ most loyal and ardent female follower was that “she’s real,” Bellucci says. “She’s a human being. I think the character of Mary Magdalene is one who has doubts. As an actress, I wanted to do that.” One final difference between Bellucci and some American actresses: She doesn’t pretend to survive on Fiji water and attention. “OK, I’m going to eat something,” she says. She orders a fancified caesar salad and pan-roasted chicken, and says she might eat dessert. How exotic. How European  7-3-20031.MONICA TALKS ABOUT IRREVERSIBLE(Interview) 7-3-2003 ACCORDING TO IRREVERSIBLE,TIME DESTROYS EVERYTHING.DO YOU AGREE? MONICA:"Yeah,i believe that time destroys everything.You can take one beautiful apple red.After a while,it becomes shrivelled and full of worms,just like what happens to us"(in the movie) WHAT CONCERNS DID YOU HAVE WITH THIS FILM? MONICA:"I didnt read any script because we didnt have a script.Actually i wanted to work with Gaspar just because he is so talented and because i've seen his first two movies,Carne and i Stand Alone.I thought this guy is crazy but he is so talented.When he wanted to work with me,i was verry happy,i was really thrilled.We started to work with 15 pages of synopsis,nothing else.So,what we did was-you have to be really confident when you work with that.It doesnt happen very often.Never happened to me.So,no script,just i knew the story,and as you can see the camera keeps rolling for 15,20 minutes without cutting.So in some way,it was like working in theatre.What we did, we rehearsed and improvised one day,and we would shoot the next day.So,it was a completely new way for me to work but it was beautiful because in cinema,you never have this opportunity to build up the character.The last scene,when iam with my husband,i have time to wake up and to talk.Then i go into the bathroom and i have the shower and then the pregnacy test and i realize i'm pregnant.When can you do this in a movie?.Never.You have just one minute,then cut,you have to go to another scene.Here you have time,like in the theatre" CAN YOU TALK ABOUT SHOOTING THE FILM'S VIOLENT SEQUENCES? MONICA:"In acting process,its very difficult to explain.Its something very intimate,very private and what i did that day,Vincent asked me 'Do you want me to stay on set with you?i said no.So he went to do some surfing in the south of France.I was by myself all day long,in my house.When i arrived on set,it was full,but i rehearsed the scene one day before so i knew very well all the positions because after the rape scene,there are all this violent moments.Those moments are really difficult because if you take something on your head,you are going to die.So, i had to rehearse everything,but how i would shoot the scene,the feelings,i didnt know anything about it.I didnt know what i would have done five minutes before shooting,because its something,i think you have everything inside you.You just have to find it." IT LOOKED AS IF THE RAPE SCENE TOOK ONE TAKE? MONICA:"We did six takes.Each take took 15,20 minutes because i have to come out from the house,meet the prostitute,speak with her,go to the tunnel inside,be witness of the fight and then the rape scene.It takes 20 minutes." TALK ABOUT WORKING WITH YOUR HUSBAND ESPECIALLY WITH THE INTIMATE SCENES. MONICA:"Vincent was so incredible,so sweet.When we went to Cannes for the film,you know the momment when i come out from the tunnel and we see me for the first time completely with blood all over,he was crying.I said 'Vincent come on'.Its just a movie.We know its no real.But just because its filmed in such a realistic way,it looks almost like a snuff movie.And to work with him for me is amazing.We know each other very well.To have this kind of intimacy with someone that you dont know is much more difficult.To work with your husband,of course we used some aspects of our relationship,but it was just a springboard for inspiration.The rest was acting"  2.MONICA SPEAKS WITH GIORGOS SATSIDIS(GREECE) Giorgos Satsidis: Why was it Vincent Cassel and not another man that won your heart? Monica Bellucci: Because I never get bored with him! I also don’t need to explain that much. He absolutely comprehends me. GS: How does he feel next to a woman who is said to be the ultimate sex symbol by men worldwide? MB: The way I do being with a man who has thousands of female fans considering him irresistibly sexy. We find ourselves in the same situation. When we first met, we were both already known through the star system game, so that helped a lot simplifying everything. GS: What is that the world doesn’t know about Monica Bellucci? MB: You know nothing (laughing)! GS: Nothing? It cannot be! Monica must have something in common with Malena or Persephone of the Matrix. MB: No, no, people don’t necessarily know who I am by my films and magazine covers. I am much more out-going than the fatal, sexy, slightly dark woman of the movies. I have a lot of friends of whom I don’t trust just a few. I don’t live within protection bars terrified of perhaps being cheated upon or having my fame exploited. In reality, these are so closely related to each other. If your choices concerning movies fail twice, you will get a hard time convincing people. I suppose the only way to explore the world and have fun is to be open to people, ideas, things evolving around you. Learning comes only through others. GS: Do you believe in destiny, that things happen at some specific time in our lives for a reason? MB: I don’t know if I believe, everyday life is full of surprises. A simple phone call can change your whole life. I started out studying Law, went on modeling to earn some money and ended up making movies. I would say I believe more in luck rather than fate. You could be working so hard your entire life –with no important rewards- and all of a sudden, luck shows you up with a great opportunity. You must pluck up the courage to grab it, make the right choice. GS: Do you consider yourself lucky? MB: Very much! GS: What’s the secret about it? MB: There are plenty. Optimism, love, being in the mood for life and new things. I have always been like this. GS: Have you been the pretty girl at school? MB: Yes, I’ve been through that too! GS: How do you keep yourself fit? MB: Fit? Jesus, I’m having this constant nightmare of not finding the time to go to the gym. The truth is I’m very lazy. I also love good food – that great pleasure of life. As you can see, I’m not thin. I only lose weight if it is demanded by a role. GS: How do you get dressed when you are not walking on the red carpet? MB: I love the Italian fashion in general. Dolce & Gabbana are in fact the designers that discovered me and made me well-known. I owe them a lot. In my everyday life I would wear a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I’m anything but fanciful. GS: How does it feel stealing the show with no effort at all? MB: Has a woman ever told you she doesn’t need an effort for that? I can assure you that even a fine, benefiting sleep is a true effort these days!  3.ABOUT MALENA Do you think MALENA is about jealousy? Yes, but also envy. Envy is human nature. Everything in this film is not just a portrait of a Sicilian village during the 1940s or a portrait of beauty, but I think it's a portrait of envy and how envy can destroy relations between human beings. In this case, it was beauty, but it could've been anything else. To be beautiful was just a metaphor here. Has beauty ever been a handicap for you? It is a handicap if you're stupid, but not if you are intelligent and know how to use your beauty. I feel fine and comfortable with myself, but not because I'm beautiful. I know many beautiful people and their lives are just so terrible. They feel so uncomfortable with themselves. Being comfortable is not about what you look like, but how you feel. I'm a lucky person because I've been loved a lot. I have a great family. What was the challenge in making "Malena" for you, bearing in mind you have few words in the film? The idea of the film was a challenge. I wanted to see if I could make this part exist just by a body. It was possible to do it. There's so many things that come out of "Malena". I learned how a body could speak. Acting is not words. Holly Hunter didn't speak in "The Piano", and she won an Oscar. It's the film that Guiseppe Tornatore wanted to direct. You just contribute the performance. back to home page |
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