Monica Bellucci on harassment: “We were full of pent-up anger, and it exploded after the Hollywood scandal”
“I spent five months shooting a film with Tornatore. I also worked on some adverts with Tornatore, and he called me back for a small role in Baaria. I have been friend of Tornatore for 20 years, and we still keep in touch”. Monica Bellucci repeats the director’s surname over and over again, almost as if she is defending him in court.
Yesterday, she received the “Virna Lisi” career award, handed to her by none other than Giuseppe Tornatore himself. However, the Oscar-winning director has now ended up on the list of alleged sexual molesters after charges levelled against him by former TV showgirl Miriana Trevisan. His is the first name to emerge in the Italian version of the Weinstein scandal.
Commenters on social networks were quick to shower him with insults (they often seem capable of little else), some based on the title of one of his films: The Best Offer. This affable, well-educated man has been painted as a monster who at casting interviews pinned actresses against the wall and groped them. It all has something of the surreal about it.
Monica Bellucci – appearing with her hair cut short for a “wicked” role in an Australian horror film, and who is set to return as a Bond Lady – was his muse, and the epitome of female beauty in Malèna. She defended the director, saying: “Giuseppe is a friend and I respect him; thanks to him I have had so many opportunities.” It might seem unusual for a woman not to back up another woman on an issue such as being forced to exchange sex for advancement, but Monica’s take is much more complex: “We were full of repressed, atavistic anger. It exploded after the Hollywood scandal, and that’s only right”.
And now? “It’s like an erupting volcano, but lava can take many directions and should be channelled”. Could you explain? “It was right for the anger to burst out, but perhaps it burst out in the wrong way. We need to distinguish between rape, blackmail, harassment and making advances. We shouldn’t tar everyone with the same brush. There is a difference between an act of sexual violence and making an advance”.
Asia Argento is a case within a case: she was assaulted by Weinstein and she was young, but she was also ambitious, and apparently flirted with this ogre... “It’s not easy for women. I think this change in attitudes, with so many actresses going public with their accusations, is leading to a transformation”.
But was she surprised? Kevin Spacey, then Dustin Hoffman... The stars are falling like skittles. “We need to dissociate the person from their work. Just because someone has power, it doesn’t mean they’re a wonderful person. They may have great talent but not a character to match. Think about all those faceless young women who have no way of making their voices heard ... We have to distinguish between what people do and what they are”.
Is this cinema’s dirty secret? “I’m not only speaking about producers and actors, but also politicians and businessmen. These things happen in every line of work. The abuse of power is not even gender-specific: there are also powerful women who behave like men. Power consumes those who wield it, regardless of what Andreotti used to say”. She stops, and smiles: “In the last few days, men seem to have started behaving better”.
Monica has regained her good humour, after momentarily losing it when we asked her if she had ever been harassed: “What sort of question is that? You’ll be asking me what colour panties I’m wearing next!” Monica, it’s a fair question. “Okay, then let me tell you there is no woman in any kind of job who has not experienced some kind of inappropriate behaviour from a man. We must learn to defend ourselves. I worked as a model when I was very young. Now, women are starting to speak out, and I’m happy that my two daughters were born at a time like this. We are learning to be free and are realizing how strong we are. But wherever there is power there will be inappropriate behaviour. It’s not about sexuality, but fear. A certain kind of man is excited by women’s fear; it’s something that goes beyond sexuality in the strict sense. We were blocked by fear, like caged birds, and when the door opened, it was fear that paralysed us and stopped us from escaping. This is the power that is exercised on those who are fragile”.
It’s never been any different, right back to Adam and Eve. “Exactly! We are the product of the past. Women used to eat the food left over by their menfolk; we just got the carcasses of animals, did you know that? I heard that we are smaller in stature because we ate less than men”. Will things change? “I think so. I told you: in the last few days I have seen men behave with unprecedented kindness. But it’s a shame we only talked about bad stuff and not something more positive; I would have liked to say something about the beauty of the actress who gave her name to this prize, Virna Lisi”.
