Monica Bellucci – September
Christened Monica Anna Maria Belluci, the daughter and only child of Brunella Briganti and Pasquale Bellucci was born on September 30, 1964 in the Italian village of Città di Castello, Umbria.
Having spent many of her growing years in San Giustino, she completed primary school and then began modelling at 13 after she posed for a local photographer. She enrolled at the University of Perugia where she envisioned she would study law, thus began her career in modelling to pay her tuition.
But as modelling became her passion, she gave up law to follow her interests. It was 1988 when she moved to Milan, Europe’s fashion hub where she signed a contract with Elite Model Management. It took only twelve months and she was posing for Dolce & Gabbana and French Elle. During that year, she made the transition into acting and began taking classes.
Her acting career was carved out in the early 1990’s and she played bit parts and minor roles until 1996 when she was nominated for a César Award for best-supporting actress for her performance as Lisa in The Apartment. It was during the making of this film, Bellucci met French actor Vincent Cassel. They were married in 1999.
In February 2001 Bellucci was featured on the cover of Esquire and in an article on the five senses. Come 2003, she was in Maxim while Men’s Health named her one of the “100 Hottest Women of All Time” and ranked her at 21. In 2002 she was named as the Number One Most Desirable Woman. Sophia Loren and Claudia Cardinale were responsible for inspiring her acting career and in 2006, Bellucci became a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival.She had become one of Italy’s sex symbols.
Belluci posed nude for the Italian Vanity Fair whilst pregnant with her daughter Deva. She used this opportunity to protest against the Italian law that prevented the use of donor sperm. In the magazine’s April 2010 issue, Bellucci again posed, this time semi-naked whilst pregnant with her second daughter, Léonie. She had
now had become the face of a range of Dior products and by 2012 she was the face of Dolce & Gabbana.
Her early acting career encompassed Italian films when she played the role of Persephone in the science fiction films, The Matrix, Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, Mary Magdalene in The Passion of the Christ, and at age 51, she played a Bond Girl in the 2015 James Bond film, Spectre.
During the 2006 to 2010 period, Bellucci served as the face of Dior for a range of their products and while her modelling career was being managed by Elite+, her career in Milan was being looked after by D’management Group. Storm Model Management took care of her modelling assignments in London and whilst she wasn’t modelling, she was winning the Golden Globe Award European Golden Globe in 2005.
By 2013, due to Cassel’s infidelities, he and Bellucci separated. She lives most of the time in Rome while her estranged husband lives in Paris. She has been ranked as possessing one of the “Most Beautiful Famous Faces” by TC Candler’s list of the “100 Most Beautiful Famous Faces From Around the World”. She owned that rank for 18 consecutive years during which she was ranked number 2 in 2004. She comes from a Catholic background but holds no religion, however, every religion fascinates her and she respects each. Although she speaks four languages, she is recognised for saying, “Acting is not words. Holly Hunter didn’t speak in The Piano (1993) and she won an Oscar.”
10 years is not a long time yet Monica Bellucci has achieved much. When she first strutted her stuff, she wasn’t certain whether she wanted to become an actress or even if she was still considered a model. Everything is now so much better for her as though getting older brings wisdom and the knowing that she has what it takes which is something youth lacks. She will never live in Hollywood and prefers to remain in Rome for she believes Hollywood is pretentious and obsessed with youth, beauty and a trim body, two elements she claims she no longer has. She says she will never be skinny; she’s had children, she claims also she is lazy and loves to eat. She concludes, “Who Cares? I am natural.” Indeed nobody can argue with that.
She is at a stage in her life where she is happy to spend time with her children rather than strutting down the red carpet on her way to premiers. To Monica Bellucci, life is a mysterious energy that fills oceans during tides and unites nature and beings. She knows that beauty invites a certain curiosity, and she once quoted Oscar Wilde, “Beauty is just five minutes long if you don’t have anything else to sustain that curiosity.” She’s still got everything she needs; her talent, her family and her home in Rome.
Sources
- Main Image: Wiki
