Monica Bellucci Breaks Down Her Career, from 'The Matrix' to 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice'

My agent called me

and told me, Sam Mendes wanted to meet you

for 'James Bond.'

And I was 50 at the time,

the oldest Bond lady ever.

[smooth jazz music]

Hi, I'm Monica Bellucci,

and this is the timeline of my career.

Obviously, Henry has talked to us about your marriage.

How you wish you had married a younger man,

someone closer to your own age, like Paco.

You're saying Henry is jealous of my sister's husband?

Are you having an affair with Paco?

Am I on trial now?

No.

I was working in the fashion business,

and Roman Coppola saw pictures of me,

and I met Francis Ford Coppola and I was in Dracula.

It was my first cameo, but was so important for me

because I realized that I wanted to be an actress.

And then I went back to Rome and I started acting lessons.

And then I was in my first American film

with a bigger role, of course.

I was in Under Suspicion with Morgan Freeman

and Gene Hackman.

So I went to Los Angeles,

and they were so nice, so generous,

and I felt completely welcome to the project.

[water pattering] [tense music]

I went to Cannes Film Festival

and was trembling, actually, I remember.

And Gene Hackman touches me

and he told me, Oh, you don't have to feel like that.

I mean, you have to be relaxed, just go.

And so he gave me the courage.

[wind whooshing]

[actors speaking in foreign language]

Malena speaks through the eyes and her body.

It's a lot about body language.

And the body, for actors, is really an instrument,

how to connect with the others.

And in this film, it is really about that.

Tornatore knew me because we did a commercial together.

And at that time he told me, I have a story in my mind.

And if one day I'm going to make this movie,

it's gonna be with you.

And he called me like three years later and he told me,

You know, do you remember this project, 'Malena?'

I wanna make it.

And we were shooting in Sicily for a few months.

And I love Sicily, because I think that in Italy,

without Sicily, we don't have cinemas,

because [laughs] I think all the most beautiful stories,

they come from Sicily.

[lively music] [crowd screaming]

The sequence is very violent,

but I have to say that those actresses,

they were amazing with me.

In the end, you know, nothing happened to me,

even though the scene is very violent, of course.

But we tried everything before,

so I knew how to move without being in danger,

and Tornatore was so protective as well.

So actually I was safe,

even though the situation looks really, really terrible.

But it gives the strength to the story.

And this woman, Malena, she's in a situation

where the women hate her because she provoked desire.

And even the men, they don't protect her.

And there is this scene that's so famous, you know,

when she smokes a cigarette and all the men come closer.

And actually, it's just about desire.

Nothing to do with love.

We are in a male-dominated society,

so a woman doesn't exist without a man.

And so when she comes back in the end with her husband,

to that moment, the people respect her again.

[patrons speaking indistinctly]

[actor speaking in foreign language]

Irreversible is the most violent film I ever made.

At the same time, it's also very poetic.

It shows the beauty and monstrosity of human beings.

Even in the scene that we all know

that was very, you know, dangerous.

I mean, for the audience it looks dangerous,

but I was completely protected, even in this one,

because it was like a choreography.

So I knew every step I had to make.

So it was like a dancing scene, in some way.

This film is also interesting the way it was made

because there were 20-minutes long sequence shot.

So I could act for 20 minutes nonstop, like in theater.

And this, in cinema, never happened.

So even the way it was made

was something really special.

[light tense music]

I'll give you what you want,

but you have to give me something.

What?

A kiss.

Excuse me?

I want you to kiss me as if you were kissing her.

[light tense music continues]

Why?

You love her.

She loves you.

It's all over you both.

When I did Dracula with Francis Ford Coppola,

Keanu Reeves was in the film,

so it was easier.

It is always great when you know someone

in a big cast like that.

[light tense music continues]

I felt more secure, you know, because I knew him already,

and he was very nice, very generous,

and it was an experience.

And Carrie-Anne Moss, she was so protective with me.

And I was in Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolution,

so they all knew each other.

So I was a new one.

Persephone, she comes from a Greek mythology.

In the Greek mythology, she's between hell

and human beings.

She had to be secretive, mysterious, dangerous.

At the same time, she needs love.

She wants to feel sensuality.

So I had to play this character in a very elegant way.

[light music]

When I did The Passion of Jesus Christ,

I was in Rome at that time,

and I met the costume designer of the movie.

I asked him, Who is gonna play Mary Magdalene?

I met Mel Gibson, and he offered me the part.

Mary Magdalene was such an incredible figure

because, to me, Mary Magdalene represents the humanity.

Someone that is in front of something

that is bigger than her, and she can't explain

because in the beginning, she doesn't have a faith.

So she get into that little-by-little.

So to me, Mary Magdalene was such an interesting role,

because she represents the human condition.

[gentle opera music] What a lovely view.

You're wasting your time.

There are a hundred more that will come after me.

All you buy me is five minutes.

Excellent.

Time for a drink.

To be in a Bond movie

is almost a secret dream for many actresses.

And what happened to me was so funny

because my agent called me

and told me, Monica, do you want to laugh?

Sam Mendes wanted to meet you for 'James Bond.'

And I was 50 at the time.

So I said,

But he wants to meet me for M?

[laughs] I was, you know, because, of course,

I was so happy to play M.

I have so much respect for Dame Judi Dench.

But he told me, No, he wanted to meet you

for a James Bond girl, Don Lucia Sciarra,

the oldest Bond lady ever.

And you're obviously crazy, mister...

Bond.

James Bond.

To be in the movie, for me at my age,

was a kind of revolutionary.

And it was, because this subject came out all the time,

was really something new that a mature woman

could be close to James Bond.

Also because Daniel Craig is younger than me.

I mean, in reality, it proves that things are changing,

and we are in a new era,

and women have such an impact in society.

And I think it's an example, this movie.

The pasta was overcooked

by at least three minutes.

[dishes clatter]

4 1/2.

Well, I'm not here to conduct your cooking.

What if my singing is overcooked?

I will never allow that.

Never.

You want to talk about the blood?

Well, my heart, it has been bleeding for a while,

and I think your voice is the only thing that can save it.

Mozart in the Jungle is my first TV series,

and Roman Coppola produced this TV series.

So it was such a beautiful coincidence

to get in touch with him for the second time.

In this TV series, I had to play an opera singer

completely obsessed with her voice.

And she has this passionate love

for a man that is younger than her,

played by Gael Garcia Bernal, he is a conductor.

I had to sing in many different languages,

so in German, Italian, English,

and my sync had to be perfect.

So I had to work very hard for this role.

[light serene music]

Alessandra was a woman that she was suffering

because she was losing her voice.

So this instrument was so delicate.

And also she's scared of getting older.

At the same time, what saves her,

that she's very childish,

and she comes out of the tragedy.

She has this way to escape out of the situations.

[Monica speaking in foreign language]

Monica, you're fucking beautiful.

I want to share with you my life, my ranch, everything.

[Monica growls]

When Marc Fitoussi, the French director,

came to me with this project, I said, Oh my God,

what are you gonna write down?

Is it about me?

He told me, No, it's gonna be just an inspiration.

Then, of course, the script is gonna be bigger than life,

so don't be scared.

Go, and let it go.

And this is what I did.

And actually it was inspired by me as, you know, an actress.

But at the same time, I had to play someone

who doesn't believe in love anymore.

And [laughs] it was so funny,

but she wants an affair with her agent

because she thinks he's the only one who can see her

for who she is.

It was really well written,

and so it was easy for me to play this role.

I had so much fun.

And also I was happy,

because I didn't have so many chances

to play in comedies, you know?

You know when you see all those films

that we are talking about, in Malena, Under Suspicion

and Irreversible, they're all so dramatic.

So for me, it was so refreshing to be in a movie

that was a comedy.

[actors speaking in foreign language]

[actor scoffs]

[actors speaking in foreign language]

I've worn dresses, different dresses that I had,

really to give something of myself,

not just the way I was acting.

Because sometimes it's so interesting

and important in our business to have some distance.

And this role gave me the possibility

to be distant of myself and also to play with myself,

and to laugh of myself as well.

And I think sometimes it's important to do this.

[light suspenseful music]

The dead, can they coexist?

Hmm?

Ah!

[light suspenseful music continues]

That's what we're here to find out.

[light suspenseful music continues]

[airplane engine roaring]

[electricity buzzing]

Where is Beetlejuice?

Of course, I was big fan of the first one.

And when Tim told me there is a key role in this movie

and for which I thought about you,

so I was very happy to accept it and to play it.

Delores, she's Beetlejuice's bride.

The connection between them

is that they have a dark side,

and they're connected by their soul.

It's like poison love trauma.

[light ominous music]

Soon, my beloved.

Soon.

[light ominous music continues]

[glass shattering]

What was incredible is that we didn't know each other,

and we had to play an intimate, funny scene right away.

With him, it was easy because

he was really generous and protective,

and at the same time, was so beautiful for me

to see the relation through the years

between Tim and Michael.

And also what is so interesting in the film

is to see all these actors

that have grown with their characters,

and they still have fun to play those characters.

An incredible honor to be part of this amazing cast

and to enter into Tim's poetic, fantastic world.

There is so much substance for an actor in his fairytales.

[smooth jazz music]

It's the passion that drives you,

and I believe in synergy.

I mean, if you want something and you fight for,

things are going to happen.

[smooth jazz music concludes]