Monica Bellucci
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Monica Bellucci | |
 Monica Bellucci at the premiere of The Matrix Reloaded, May 7, 2003 at Westwood, Los Angeles, California |
|
| Born | September 30, 1964 (age 42) Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy |
| Spouse(s) | Vincent Cassel (1999) |
| Notable roles | Lisa in L'Appartement (1996) Chantal Hearst in Under Suspicion (2000) Malèna Scordia in Malèna (2000) Persephone in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions (2003) Mary Magdalene in The Passion of the Christ (2004) |
Monica Bellucci (born September 30, 1964) is an Italian actress and former fashion model. She is considered an Italian sex symbol.
Contents |
[edit] Personal life
Bellucci was born in Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy, to Luigi Bellucci and Maria Gustinelli. Initially pursuing a career as a lawyer, Bellucci decided to start modeling in order to help pay for her tuition while at the University of Perugia, but the glamorous lifestyle tempted Monica away from her law studies.[citation needed]
She speaks Italian, Persian, French, and English fluently and has acted in each of these languages, as well as Aramaic.
She is married to fellow actor Vincent Cassel, with whom she has appeared in several films and had a daughter, named Deva (born September 12, 2004). In 2004, while pregnant with her daughter, Bellucci posed nude for the Italian Vanity Fair Magazine in protest against Italian laws that allow only married couples to use in-vitro fertilization and that prevent the use of donor sperm.[2]
[edit] Career
[edit] Modeling
In 1988, Bellucci moved to one of Europe's fashion centers, Milan, where she signed with Elite Model Management. By 1989, she was becoming prominent as a fashion model in Paris and across the Atlantic, in New York City. She posed for Dolce & Gabbana and French ELLE, among others. In that year, Bellucci made the transition to acting and began taking acting classes. In 2003, she was featured in Maxim.[3] In 2004, she topped AskMen's 100 Most Beautiful Women in the World annual list.
Bellucci's modelling career is managed by Elite+ in NYC.
[edit] Entertainment
Bellucci's film career began in the early 1990s. In 1992 she made her first appearance in a major English-language film as one of Dracula's brides in Bram Stoker's Dracula. She became known and popular with English-speaking audiences following her lead role in the acclaimed Italian film Malèna, as well as through the portrayal of a rape victim in the highly controversial Irréversible, though is perhaps best known for her role as Persephone in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions followed by her portrayal of Mary Magdelene in The Passion of the Christ.
After her work in The Passion of the Christ, Bellucci was assumed by many fans to be Roman Catholic. However in a documentary about the film, The Big Question, she stated: "I am an Agnostic, even though I respect and am interested in all religions. If there's something I believe in, it's a mysterious energy; the one that fills the oceans during tides, the one that unites nature and beings."[4]
In 2005, Belucci starred in The Brothers Grimm as a beautiful evil queen.
Her latest films are The Stone Council, directed by the Frenchman Guillaume Nicloux (2006) and Manuale d'amore 2 (2007) where she portrays a physiotherapist in the first segment of the film who is object of the desire of her patient. She was supposed to be seen portraying Indian politician Sonia Gandhi in the biopic Sonia planned for release in 2007 but that has now been shelved. As of February 2007 she has finished Shoot 'Em Up, where she plays a prostitute opposite Clive Owen, and is currently filming Le Deuxième souffle, an Alain Corneau thriller with Daniel Auteuil, Michel Blanc and former football player Eric Cantona.
Bellucci also voiced as Kaileena in the video game Prince of Persia: Warrior Within.
[edit] Filmography
|
|
|---|
| Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) | L'appartement (1996) | Under Suspicion (2000) | Malèna (2000) | Le Pacte des Loups (2001) | Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre (2002) | Irréversible (2002) | Tears of the Sun (2003) | The Matrix Reloaded (2003) | The Matrix Revolutions (2003) | The Passion of the Christ (2004) | She Hate Me (2004) |The Brothers Grimm (2005) |
[edit] References
- ^ “Monica Bellucci's Stats”
- ^ Bellucci's pregnant pose infuriates the Vatican
- ^ Monica Belluci
- ^ Monica-Belluci.net
[edit] External links
- Monica Bellucci at the Internet Movie Database
- Monica Bellucci at Yahoo! Movies
