Monica Bellucci chooses her roles “through instinct.”
The 61-year-old actress is always attracted to the “element of surprise” and will happily take on a small part in a film if it makes her feel “free” and offers her the chance to do something different.
.jpg?trim=60,0,60,0&auto=webp&quality=75&width=1200 "Who is favourite to be the next James Bond? Callum Turner leads race ahead of Jack Lowden")
She told Variety: “When I worked with David Lynch [on Twin Peaks], I had just one scene. But sometimes, it really doesn’t matter if it’s a smaller role. I just like to be free.
“What I like about my work is the element of surprise. I like it when directors come to me with ideas I hadn’t thought of, even though I’ve been here for so many years. I still have the excitement and passion for my work.”
The Spectre actress feels “lucky” to still be working and believes there is a lot that older performers can bring to a role that they couldn’t when they were younger.
She said: “Our bodies change, of course, but we can express other aspects of life that we couldn’t before. I could never have done The Birthday Party when I was 30 or 40. I needed more experience to portray these kinds of emotions.
“Today, we actresses are so lucky to have the chance to keep working even as adult women. In the past, it was impossible to have a career after 40. It’s slow, but things are changing.”
But Monica insisted her “life” is more important than her work.
She added: “I love what I do and I’m very grateful that I still have the chance to do interesting things. But life is more important.
“Life is stronger than art.”
Monica can next be seen in Giovanni Tortorici’s Ketticè – which follows the teenager Giulio and his mother who both become increasingly lost within their lives – and she relished the chance to do something very different to her previous work.
She said: “I’ve never done anything like that.
“I was on set in my pyjamas with a knife in my hand and slippers on my feet. This woman has abandoned her femininity.
“It was interesting to play this wife and mother who represents the angst and frustration behind the apparent perfection of decaying high society. She’s an unhappy woman, bitter, with a kind of rage, but she has no outlet for it.
“She tries to counterbalance this frustration by eating little cakes and screaming constantly. Sometimes, the situation becomes almost comical. There is a real generational incomprehension between the two of them.”
