Monica Bellucci expresses hope to ‘grow with dignity’ in her 60s

Monica Bellucci wants to "grow old with dignity" because getting older is a "wonderful gift."

The 62-year-old actress opened up about ageing in a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar Espana revealing she's embracing getting older because it gives her a "different perspective" on life.

She told the publication, "There's no real alternative: either you grow old and accept the process with dignity, or you die. Looking at it that way, I'd much rather grow old...”

"Growing old means you're fortunate enough to still be alive and have a future. Besides, maturity brings with it a wonderful gift: detachment,” Monica explained.

She further mentioned, "Sometimes, as you get older, you stop being just an actress and become a spectator of the world, which makes you see everything from a different perspective."

Monica also insisted being in her 60s has allowed to her tackle more roles ,as she wouldn't have felt able to take on her new movie Histoires De La Nuit, in which she plays a painter who lives alone on a remote island, when she was younger.

"If I analyze my own career path, I realize that I could never have played this role when I was 30 or 40, not even with layers of make-up to age myself,” the Malena actress explained.

"To give substance, weight, and truth to a character with that level of inner turmoil, you have to have lived. You have to accumulate scars and experience,” she said, adding, "Bodies change over time, but what's truly important is how we change on the inside.”

"Actors need to reinvent themselves before their own eyes; we can't remain stagnant. It would be absurd for me to try to play the same roles today that I played in Malena, Irreversible, or The Passion of the Christ,” the iconic Italian actress mentioned.

"There comes a point when you need to explore areas far removed from mere aesthetics. In Seven Dogs I play a very glamorous woman because the genre demands it, but in Histoires de la nuit my tired physique is a narrative tool, and that's a gift for any performer,” Monica Bellucci said regarding how an actor adapts themselves to their role.