Bellucci, Monica

(1964-)

   Model and actress. Bellucci began modeling while studying law at the University of Perugia and soon abandoned her legal studies in favor of the fashion catwalk. Her acting career began in 1990 when she appeared on Italian television in the miniseries Vita coi figli (Life with the Children, 1990), directed by veteran Dino Risi. Her first film role was as the raffled wife in Francesco Laudadio's La riffa (The Raffle, 1991), which was followed by a small part in Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992).

   Her subsequent appearance in a number of Italian films failed to bring out her real talent, but her role as Lisa in the French thriller L'appartement (The Apartment, 1996) earned her a prestigious Cesar nomination. She appeared in mostly French films from then on, frequently with Vincent Castell, whom she would later marry. She was called to Hollywood again in 2000 to play opposite Gene Hackman in the crime thriller Under Suspicion (2000) and in the same year she also achieved greater international renown in the title role of Giuseppe Tornatore's Malena (2000). Bellucci went on to play what was perhaps the most demanding role of her career as the woman severely raped and beaten in Gaspar Noe's Irreversible (Irreversible, 2002). More recently she has returned to Hollywood to play opposite Bruce Willis in Antoine Fuqua's big-budget action movie Tears of the Sun (2003) and also taken on the role of Mary Magdalene in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (2004).