Monica Bellucci

Monica Anna Maria Bellucci ( born 30 September 1964) is an Italian actress and model.

She began her career as a fashion model before transitioning to Italian and later American and French films.

She has played starring roles, supporting roles and guest appearances within an eclectic filmography spanning a range of genres and languages.

Her accolades include the David di Donatello, Globo d'oro and Nastro d'Argento awards.

Monica Anna Maria Bellucci was born in Città di Castello, Umbria, on 30 September 1964.

Her father, Pasquale Bellucci, owned a trucking company.

Her mother, Brunella Briganti, was a housewife and amateur painter.

She is their only child, as her parents did not want another one.

Bellucci grew up in Selci-Lama, in the comune (municipality) of San Giustino, on the banks of the Tiber.

Bellucci received a Catholic education.

She was known to be an "intelligent child".

Discreet and increasingly interested in fashion, she grew up "surrounded by love", her father said.

Bellucci was introduced to modelling at age 13 by posing for a photographer friend of the family in Città di Castello.

She was distant from other children her age, regularly making detours to get home after school and not spending time with them around the comune's public space, with her father recalling that she complained that everyone stared at her.

By then, her father had helped her to gain self-confidence.

A taste for cinema would not cease to animate her, watching Italian films by Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini, Luchino Visconti, and also by Marcel Carné and Jean-Luc Godard.

Bellucci has said that her personality is largely due to her upbringing: "Certainly a lot of positivity also depends on the climate in which my parents raised me."

Bellucci, then 16, was asked to do photographic sessions by her father's friend, the director of a fashion agency.

She later stated that she made her modelling debut at age 16, which led her to travel periodically to Milan and Paris while continuing her studies at Città di Castello.

"I approached the adult universe very early", said Bellucci, because she worked with models ten years older than her.

She made her acting debut in the Italian television miniseries Vita coi figli (1991).

Bellucci went on to play one of Dracula's brides in the horror film Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) and then enrolled in acting classes.

After appearing in Italian productions, she had her breakthrough role in the arthouse film The Apartment (1996), for which she received a César Award nomination for Most Promising Actress.

Bellucci came to the attention of American audiences in Under Suspicion (2000) and gained greater international recognition as Malèna Scordia in Malèna (2000).

Bellucci starred in the period drama Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) and the comedy Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (2002).

She portrayed a rape victim in the controversial arthouse thriller Irréversible (2002) and Persephone in the 2003 science-fiction sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.

Bellucci was praised for portraying Mary Magdalene in the drama The Passion of the Christ (2004).

She played a prostitute in How Much Do You Love Me? (2005) and Shoot 'Em Up (2007) and acted a diverse array of roles, including in The Whistleblower (2010), The Ages of Love (2011), and The Wonders (2014).

Bellucci received the knight insignias of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2006 and of the Legion of Honour in 2016.

She represents Italy as a permanent member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Her role in Ville-Marie (2015) earned her the Dublin Film Critics' Circle Award for Best Actress.

At the age of 50, by appearing in the James Bond film Spectre (2015), Bellucci became the oldest Bond girl in the history of the franchise.

An international actress starring in films such as On the Milky Road (2016) and The Man Who Sold His Skin (2020), she subsequently sought to move away from her previous roles.

Her television appearances include the series Mozart in the Jungle (2016) and Call My Agent!'s original French version (2018).

In 2018, Forbes Italy named her one of the 100 most successful Italian women.

Bellucci was an Elite model and the protagonist of Dolce & Gabbana campaigns.

Bellucci made her stage debut in 2019 as Maria Callas in Letters and Memoirs.

Bellucci starred alongside her second husband, Vincent Cassel, in an on-screen partnership that spanned ten years.

She has remained involved in modelling and as an ambassador for luxury brands such as Cartier and Dior.

She has been labelled a sex symbol by various media outlets.