Her casting in “Spectre” created a lot of buzz and for Italian beauty Monica Bellucci it was an opportunity to be a part of cinema history by playing a Bond girl. Bellucci, 50, plays a mysterious seductress in the 24th James Bond movie.
Bellucci was full of praise for the other Bond girl, French actress Lea Seydoux.
Talking about playing Lucia Sciarra in the movie, Bellucci said, “She is an Italian widow with secrets… James Bond is part of cinema history. I respect all the James Bond girls as they were incredible actresses and now we have Lea Seydoux. She is very beautiful, very talented and she is a great Bond girl.”
In the Sam Mendes-directed movie, the 007 agent embarks on a rogue mission to Mexico City following a cryptic message from his past. From Mexico, he travels to Rome, where he meets Lucia, the beautiful and forbidden widow of an infamous criminal. Bond infiltrates a secret meeting and uncovers the existence of the sinister organisation known as SPECTRE. He enlists the help of Moneypenny and Q to seek out Madeleine Swann, the daughter of his old nemesis Mr White, who may hold the clue to untangling the web of SPECTRE.
As Bond ventures towards the heart of SPECTRE, he learns of a chilling connection between himself and the enemy he seeks, played by double Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz. Seydoux described playing Madeleine a great adventure.
“She’s a doctor, she’s intelligent and very sensitive human character. I am very lucky to work with amazing actors and a great director. It’s been a great adventure.”
Mendes, who returns to his second and final Bond movie after the success of “Skyfall”, said he wanted actresses with depth and mystery to play Bond girls in “Spectre”.
“In SPECTRE, the two women who Bond hooks up with, both have great mystery, they both have depths and for that you need fantastic actresses.
“I thought who else but Monica Bellucci. It makes sense with the story, for the age of the character we are dealing with. She has an incredibly seductive presence in the life and in the movie…,” Mendes said. Lea Seydoux is a relative newcomer compared to the experienced cast of the movie but her filmography boasts of critically acclaimed turn in “Blue Is the Warmest Colour” besides roles in big ticket Hollywood dramas like “Inglourious Basterds”, “Robin Hood”, “Midnight in Paris”.
“Lea Seydoux plays Madeleine. The actress needed to be … feisty and complicated. This is a pivotal relationship so it could not have been a total newcomer. It needed to be someone with certain amount of life experience and maturity. She is sort of the whole package,” Mendes said.
“Spectre”, also starring Andrew Scott, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Jesper Christensen, is set for release in India in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu on November 6, 2015.
