Monica Bellucci in smouldering new shoot alongside fellow Spectre Bond girls Lea Seydoux and Naomie Harris

Monica Bellucci, 51, shows off age-defying figure in smouldering new shoot alongside fellow Spectre Bond girls Lea Seydoux and Naomie Harris

By CIARA FARMER FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 00:21, 26 October 2015 | UPDATED: 00:42, 26 October 2015

They are the latest actresses to scoop the coveted role of Bond girls in the new 007 movie, Spectre.

And Monica Bellucci, Lea Seydoux and Naomie Harris showed they have all the credentials for the job as they came together for their first ever group photoshoot.

The stunning women posed up a storm on the November cover of United Airlines' Rhapsody Magazine, each channelling gothic glamour in striking, flowing gowns.

Bond babes: Monica Bellucci, Lea Seydoux and Naomie Harris showed they have all the credentials for the job as they came together for their first ever group photoshoot

Monica, 51, showed off her incredible, age-defying curves in a shimmering, purple gown, with a silver lace overlay, which skimmed her ankles while boasting elegant long sleeves.

The stunning actress, who plays foxy temptress, Lucia Sicarra opposite the legandary super sleuth, played by Daniel Craig, wore a sky-high pair of T-bar, black Christian Louboutin heels with a platform heel while further accessorising the outfit with a huge purple stone ring.

She wore her flowing raven locks loose over her shoulders, where the dark colour contrasted stunningly with her flawless, alabaster skin.

Timeless beauty: The stunning women posed up a storm on the November cover of United Airlines' Rhapsody Magazine , each channelling gothic glamour in striking, flowing gowns

Parisian star Lea Seydoux - who is set to play sexy psychologist Madeleine Swann - stood out between the two brunettes as she wore her bouncy blonde locks in Marilyn Monroe-style curls.

Her dress was the most demure of the three as it boasted a polo-neck with long sleeves and a full, ankle-length skirt. 

Despite the covered-up nature of the gown, the heavily-embroidered, sheer material gave a peek of flesh from underneath.

In an up-close shot, she wore little make-up, allowing her naturally flawless complexion to glow through while wearing a flouncy blouse with a wide, snakeskin collar, which was adorned with flowers. 

Blonde Bond beauty: Parisian star Lea Seydoux - who is set to play sexy psychologist Madeleine Swann - stood out between the two brunettes as she wore her bouncy blonde locks in Marilyn Monroe-style curls

Naomie Harris, the latest actress to portray M's lovelorn secretary, Miss Moneypenny, looked stunning in a flesh-flashing black dress. 

Although the gown featured a high neck and mid-length skirt, the see-through material allowed a glimpse of both leg and cleavage. 

She wore her sleek locks in an elegant centre parting, with long layers which flicked out, flattering her pretty face. 

In her striking up-close shot, she rested her hands on her chin to show off her incredible, over-sized amethyst ring, which co-ordinated perfectly with the one-shouldered purple gown, just visible in the picture.  

Captivating: Naomie Harris, the latest actress to portray M's lovelorn secretary, Miss Moneypenny, looked stunning in a flesh-flashing black dress

In an interview with the magazine, Monica spoke out about the importance of older women in film. 

She said: 'In Europe, I think we’re lucky. Look at Isabelle Huppert, Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling, Juliette Binoche. 

'There are a lot of women getting beautiful roles as they get older, and I think it’s right. There’s a certain beauty with youth, but there’s another one that comes with age. Your soul grows, and that’s sexy.'

Lea praised the Bond films, saying: '[It was] my best experience in a film. You’re with the crème de la crème - everything is the best - and that actually makes it easier.'

Naomie agreed: 'Not many films are made like Bond films.'

Striking three: The release of the photos comes just days after the trio attended a press conference with their fellow Bond stars

The release of the photos comes just days after the trio attended a press conference with their fellow Bond stars. 

As well as Daniel, they were joined by Dave Bautista (Mr. Hinx), whose tattoo sleeve was on display in a roll-neck black jumper, alongside Ben Whishaw (Q), Christoph Waltz (Franz Oberhauser) and the film's director Sam Mendes.

The women are no doubt preparing themselves for the Spectre World Premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Monday. 

A host of stars are expected to attend the star-studded event, which will see the first screening of the latest movie which sees Bond taking on sinister organization SPECTRE.

Spectre is Daniel Craig's fourth Bond movie and Naomie's second yet it is a first for stunning stars Monica and Lea. 

Spectre is released in the UK on 26 October 2015 followed by a US release on 6 November

Bond and his babes: The women are no doubt preparing themselves for the Spectre World Premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Monday (pictured with Daniel Craig) 

Daniel Craig on negative press and advice to the next Bond

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Meet Monica Bellucci, Naomie Harris and Léa Seydoux, the three sirens of Spectre who are flipping the script on what it means to be a woman in 007’s world

Bond girl, Interrupted

Meet Monica Bellucci, Naomie Harris and Léa Seydoux, the three sirens of Spectre who are flipping the script on what it means to be a woman in 007’s world

Author Toby Skinner Photography Jason Bell

image: http://www.hemispheresmagazine.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/bondgirls.jpg

The day before Skyfall opened in 2012, Naomie Harris took to the stage at the BAFTAs to present an award. Dressed in a black strapless Miu Miu gown with her hair in delicate waves, she looked every bit the Hollywood starlet, but she quickly proved to be much more. Reading the teleprompter copy, she made one subtle change to the script: She wasn’t a Bond girl—she was a Bond woman.

The women in Bond films have certainly evolved since 1963’s From Russia With Love, when Sean Connery’s Bond told Tatiana Romanova to “just do as I say, will you?” before dismissively slapping her backside. (Connery’s Bond was also wont to slap women’s faces, and worse.)

Ever since Dame Judi Dench’s M called Pierce Brosnan’s Bond a “sexist, misogynist dinosaur” in GoldenEye (1995)— echoing a complaint that’s never quite gone away—Bond women have become more complex. They’re still impossibly glamorous, but they’ve become less like purring playthings and more like human beings. And now Sam Mendes’ new Bond film, Spectre, out November 6, might be the franchise’s most forward-thinking yet: 007 finally mans up and stops fooling around with girls. 

On a drizzly summer afternoon in an empty corner of the Northall restaurant in London’s lavish Corinthia Hotel, the film’s trio of Bond women—Naomie Harris, Monica Bellucci and Léa Seydoux—meet for lunch. They arrive one by one, having just been introduced to each other for the first time at a photo shoot for Rhapsody. (All their scenes for Spectre were shot separately.) Bellucci is different from the character you often see on screen—less temptress, more earth mother. She’s warm, funny, self-deprecating, reassuring. Harris is intimidatingly put together, her all-black outfit as crisp as her BBC English. Seydoux, who turns up in sandals and a thrift store–chic fur coat, radiates intrigue; over the course of lunch, she is by turns bored, shy, vulnerable and utterly magnetic.

Spectre is Mendes’ second Bond film. His first, Skyfall, was widely lauded as among the franchise’s best. It was still unmistakably Bond—gadgets, cars, foreign-tongued villains and Bérénice Marlohe in a plunging dress festooned with Swarovski crystals—but the characters were darker, more intense, more real, particularly Dench’s doomed M.

It also introduced Harris’ Eve as a Miss Moneypenny remodeled for the 21st century—a former field agent who’s capable of verbally sparring with her colleague and tactfully turning down his advances.

Eve is back for Spectre, and she’s joined by Seydoux’s Dr. Madeleine Swann, a psychologist at a clinic in the Austrian Alps who is the daughter of an assassin, and Bellucci’s Lucia Sciarra, the widow of another assassin killed by Bond. If Bellucci’s character seems the most classic—a mysterious beauty who sleeps with Bond and possibly dies—the twist is that at 50 she plays a paramour who is, for once, older than 007.

“We’re diverse as women are diverse,” says Harris, tucking into a cut of lamb. “More women than ever will see themselves represented onscreen in a Bond film, and it helps that we all play strong women. Bond films have always kept certain elements—people still cheer when the car appears in the premiere—but they’ve survived because they’ve moved with the times.”

Longtime producer Barbara Broccoli noted this change upon the release of Skyfall. “I think the women in the film have evolved like women have evolved in society,” she said. “And about time, too.”

Though the three new Bond women all subscribe to the need for strong female counterparts to 007, each has a different take on gender politics in film. “We’re still struggling with equality,” says Bellucci, “especially where I’m from, in Italy. There’s a mentality where it’s difficult for women to get free—even when you open the cage, they find it difficult to get out.”

Seydoux, the star of 2013’s transgressive lesbian coming-of-age drama Blue Is the Warmest Color, seems nonplussed that her gender is even a talking point. “It’s never been an issue for me,” she says. “I’ve always felt as strong as a man. I feel free. This belongs to me, and I’m the boss of it.”

Seydoux, whose gap-toothed smile makes her look younger than her 30 years, calls herself “a product of my generation.” Twenty years her senior, Bellucci is the oldest woman ever cast as a “Bond girl,” but she doesn’t blanche at a reference to her age. “When the agent called me, the first thing I asked was, ‘Will I be Judi Dench?’” she deadpans. “Sadly, I wasn’t, but I loved the concept of Bond having an affair with an older woman. It seemed quietly revolutionary.” 

Bellucci, who has two daughters with her ex-husband, French actor Vincent Cassel, has acted in more than 50 films in her 25-year career, and despite dipping into
Hollywood with The Matrix Reloaded, The Brothers Grimm and The Passion of the Christ, she continues to take roles in ambitious art-house films, from the Fellini-esque Malèna, in 2000, to the powerful Iranian love story Rhino Season, in 2012. Actresses from Meryl Streep to Kristin Scott Thomas have complained about the limited roles for older women, but Bellucci seems unconcerned. “In Europe, I think we’re lucky,” she says. “Look at Isabelle Huppert, Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling, Juliette Binoche.There are a lot of women getting beautiful roles as they get older, and I think it’s right. There’s a certain beauty with youth, but there’s another one that comes with age. Your soul grows, and that’s sexy.”

If there’s a trait that links these three disparate women, it’s perhaps that they all identify as outsiders. Bellucci says she grew up a lonesome only child in a small city in the Apennine mountains. Harris, who was raised by a single mother in north London, claims she didn’t fit in at Cambridge, and she recently revealed that she saw a therapist after first meeting her Trinidadian father, in 2009. Seydoux, a one-time aspiring opera singer who turned to acting because she envied the lifestyle of a former boyfriend, says of herself, “I love to be lonely. I’m French, and we find suffering poetic.”

“I don’t quite know where I belong, except with acting,” says Bellucci, who left a modeling career to pursue the big screen in her mid-20s. “Modeling left me lonely so many times, but acting feels like being part of a family. Apart from spending time with my daughters, it’s the only way I know how to be fully in the present. I need it.”

There’s no question that all three of these women are more artist than celebrity. Harris, who received rave reviews for her portrayal of Winnie Mandela opposite Idris Elba in 2013’s A Long Walk to Freedom, speaks about an actor’s incredible capacity for empathy. “It’s something you’ll find with most actors,” she says. “That sensitivity to life. When I come into a room, I can sense the mood acutely. Has there been a fight? Is there something in the air? It can be hard to live with, but it’s also essential if you want to inhabit someone else.” At one point while Harris is talking, Bellucci reaches out to hold Seydoux’s hand in a slightly maternal gesture. It feels inescapably actorly, yet somehow not affected.  

As much as the progression of Bond films has created a more mature home for female actors, Bellucci argues that the role of a Bond woman has always been a great opportunity. “There have been so many wonderful actors who’ve done this over the years, and it’s become this worldwide tradition that creates iconic moments,” she says. “Ursula Andress coming out of the sea is a moment that will last.”

Bellucci, Seydoux and Harris agree that simply being a part of such a storied franchise is an incomparable opportunity. Seydoux, who spent 60 days shooting, much of it in the Austrian Alps, calls it “my best experience in a film. You’re with the crème de la crème—everything is the best—and that actually makes it easier.” Harris agrees: “Not many films are made like Bond films.”

And not many films have the power to change how we see women’s roles in action films. With Bellucci, Harris and Seydoux, Spectre is rewriting the Bond story—and Bond himself—for the better. As supervillian Blofeld famously tells 007 upon their first encounter, “You only live twice.” Forty-five years later, the Bond girl is getting a second chance at life. It’s about time.

Read more at http://www.hemispheresmagazine.com/2015/10/21/bond-girl-interrupted/#XulYV315MB1hLCpS.99

Photos: Naomie with Monica Bellucci and Lea Seydoux at London SPECTRE photocall

Monica Bellucci, Léa Seydoux, and Naomie Harris Shake Up the New James Bond Film - Vanity Fair

Monica Bellucci, Léa Seydoux, and Naomie Harris 

Shake Up the New James Bond Film

Monica Bellucci, Léa Seydoux, and Naomie Harris, photographed in the Hamilton Penthouse, at the Corinthia Hotel London.

Photograph by Bryan Adams.

A fierce trio offers a new take on the Bond woman in Spectre.

BY 

• BRUCE HANDY

The term “Bond girl” is at least four decades past its sell-by date. So, the “Bond woman”: hers remains, arguably, the most narrowly prescribed role in movie history. Traditionally there have been two: a good-ish one, who is romanced and discarded by 007 early on, and a bad-ish, more intriguing one, who is eventually persuaded to join Her Majesty’s team and who may survive long enough to see the “JAMES BOND WILL RETURN . . . ” memo in the closing credits. Given those prerequisites, and given the series’s other obligations—martinis, swanky locales, a villain with mental-health issues—“doing a Bond is an act of reverse engineering in a sense.” Or so says director Sam Mendes. He is currently putting the finishing touches on the upcoming Spectre, the 24th “canonical” Bond film and Mendes’s 2nd, following 2012’s Skyfall, the series’s most lucrative yet. In that one, perhaps not coincidental to its success, Judi Dench’s M was a full-fledged co-star to Daniel Craig’s Bond—the ultimate Bond woman, boss as well as surrogate mum. We likely won’t see her kind again. Spectre, though, will try to keep pace by featuring three Bond women: the English actress Naomie Harris, returning for her second go-round as Eve Moneypenny, former field agent now sitting behind the late Lois Maxwell’s old desk; the Italian actress Monica Bellucci (Irréversible and the two Matrix sequels); and the French actress Léa Seydoux (Inglourious Basterds, Blue Is the Warmest Color). The latter two women play, respectively, the wife of an assassin and the daughter of another. “As such, they reflect Bond back to himself,” Mendes says. “I know it’s the cliché now to stoke up the roles of women in large commercial movies by saying, ‘They’re so strong’ and ‘They’re his equal.’ It’s quite difficult to construct roles which actually conform to that.” But with this trio, he continues, “I think the combination of the roles and their authority as actresses help massively the feeling that they’ve lived lives before meeting Bond. They’re not simply adjuncts” or “wide-eyed innocents jogging around after him, sort of just over his shoulder.” Yes, we knew the type.

Related: Test-Driving James Bond’s Snazzy New Aston Martin

Daily Mail EXCLUSIVE - Never-before-seen pictures of Monica Bellucci, 50, 'who was so beautiful as a child that waitresses gave her free food'

EXCLUSIVE - Never-before-seen pictures of world's oldest Bond girl Monica Bellucci, 50, 'who was so beautiful as a child that waitresses gave her free food'

• Exclusive pictures show the glamorous actress before she became famous
• But her father, Pasquale, tells MailOnline she was UGLY as a toddler
• And he denies cosmetic surgery saying 'her lips were always that big'  
• The attention was so intense that she became a reclusive child, father says
• Hairdresser who discovered her said she was a natural from the first shoot 
• Now, she will become the oldest ever Bond Girl at 50, starring in Spectre 

By HANNAH ROBERTS IN CITTA DI CASTELLO and JAY AKBAR FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 13:28, 10 December 2014 | UPDATED: 16:06, 10 December 2014

Pouting into the camera with all the assurance of a teenage bombshell, these exclusive pictures show a teenage Monica Bellucci in some of her earliest shoots.

Taken an incredible 32 years before she was selected, aged 50, from among the world's most beautiful women, as the latest Bond girl - these images show how the remarkable Italian actress has remained virtually unchanged by time.

The raven-haired beauty will become officially the oldest-ever Bond girl when she appears in the new 007 film Spectre opposite Daniel Craig next year.

'Just look at her lips,' her father Pasquale Bellucci insists, as he opens the family archive for MailOnline.

'Everyone says she has had work done. But here is the proof. Her lips really were that full even at the very beginning. She's completely natural.'

Scroll down for video

Unchanged: Monica Bellucci aged 18 (left) and last week, aged 50, at the launch of the new James Bond film, Spectre

Natural model: Monica Bellucci, here aged 18, was completely self-confident in her first photoshoots and comfortable posing for the camera, according to the hairdresser who discovered her

Stunning: Monica Bellucci styled at 18-years-old by Piero Montanucci, the hairdresser who discovered her

Family portrait: Pasquale Bellucci (pictured, back) says his daughter (pictured at 12, left) was ugly as a toddler

Her father, who ran his own lorry company before he retired, and her mother, a housewife, couldn't be prouder of their only child, who found fame on the catwalk before posing nude in Vanity Fair and starring in dozens of films including Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mel Gibson's The Passion.

The supermodel's pictures - which Mr Bellucci insists have not been seen before - hang everywhere in the family home in the village of Selci Lama near Citta del Castello, Umbria where she grew up 'surrounded by love'. Stacks of VHS tapes of her interviews from all over the world stand next to the TV.

'It's lucky we never had another child. They would probably have been jealous of Monica', her mother Brunella laughs.

But despite her breathtaking beauty as an adult, the sex siren wasn't a cute baby or toddler. 'She was so ugly', Pasquale says, pealing into laughter as they bring out 'Monica's first nude' aged 4 months.

Until she was a teenager they even kept her hair short like a boy, as her father had a theory that it would make it stronger and thicker in the long run. 'That's why she still has that long beautiful black hair today,' he insists.

But by 12 it was clear that she was exceptional -- she had an early instinct for fashion and already wore high heels, makeup and a chic turban to cover her short curly hair. 

Aged 18, Monica Bellucci was a great beauty who has remained 'completely natural' and has never had any work done, her father told MailOnline

Enchanting aged 18: Mr Bellucci says keeping her hair short as a child is the reason it's so long and beautiful today

Captivating: Monica's father recalled that she'd come straight home after school because people would stare at her in public. Pictured far left aged 18, above

Happy childhood: Portraits of Monica adorn the walls of her family's home in Umbria, Italy, where her parents say she was 'surrounded by love'

First shoots: Piero Montanucci (right), the hairdresser who 'discovered' Monica, says she was completely self-confident in her first professional shoot aged 18 (left)

Her beauty was utterly captivating even then. Complete strangers propositioned her with offers of millions of lira and a new life abroad, friends say.

Waiters and waitresses at restaurants offered her the opportunity to eat for free. Teachers at school lost concentration – one presented her parents with a sketch he had done of her while supposedly teaching her in class.

But such beauty in a small town was not always a blessing. Monica at one point became reclusive because the attention was overwhelming, her father remembers.

'All the other kids would go and hang around in the piazza after school, as teenagers do. But Monica would hide away, taking a detour through the backstreets and then coming straight home.

'One day I asked her why she didn't want to be in the square with the others and she said: "When I go in the piazza everyone looks at me. The men look at me. The women look at me. All the kids from school. I feel ashamed".'

Her father continued: 'I told her "You need to get used to it. Looking like you everyone is going to stare at you for the rest of your life. You have to be strong." From that day she blossomed. She became strong'. 

These early words of wisdom boosted her self-assurance and she was soon 'discovered' by a local hairdresser who she met when she hitched a lift off him into town. 

Piero Montanucci, who is a still a friend today, says Monica 'had total self confidence' from their first shoots. He released pictures which he said had never been seen before to show how her natural beauty is unchanged.

Making history: At 50, Monica will become the oldest-ever Bond girl in the upcoming film, Spectre, where she will appear opposite Daniel Craig

Bond girls: 50-year-old Bellucci poses with her younger co-stars, Naomie Harris, aged 38, (right) and Lea Seydoux, aged 29 (left)

The flamboyant hairdresser who still has a salon in Citta di Castello remembers the heady days of the 1970s: 'One day we did a shoot for some hair mousse with a photographer.

'But somehow the pictures turned out nude. The boss called me after two days and said 'Piero you've shot everything but her hair'. We had to do it all over again.'

Monica dressed 'almost androgynously' in the village, he said, as she didn't like to exhibit herself.

'One day she was wearing some sexy outfit on a shoot and I said she should dress more like that in Citta. She said, "Piero do you really think I can go around the village wearing this?" I had to admit no. It might have caused chaos!'

Half the town was in love with her, friends say. But Monica herself has said she found it annoying. She told an Italian newspaper: 'I was born in a provincial town.

'There any beautiful girl elicits a morbid curiosity just for existing. It was annoying. If you spoke to anyone people said you had gone to bed with them. For the men you are an object, for the women a whore.'

With all the attention, the diva's first lover came when she was 14 - in a Fiat Lancia. Monica told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. 'I was 14 and a half. Precocious. He was four years older... I could have done it far earlier as I was very free but I did it with a boy who I was very I love with who I liked physically and everything happened in the most beautiful of ways.'

But the Dolce and Gabbana muse refused all offers of fame and fortune saying she wanted to finish school first.

Old friends: Piero Montanucci (pictured, right) still remains friends with the actress, who posed nude in Vanity fair and starred in Bram Stoker's Dracula

Even at 18, above, Monica's father says her beauty was 'utterly captivating' and even complete strangers propositioned her with offers of millions of lira and a new life abroad 

Sam Mendes reveals new Bond movie will be called...

Her former mentor Piero explains: 'She didn't want to become famous -she always said she wanted to study 'and then we'll see'. Everything just happened to her. She did everything slowly, little by little. That's why her career has lasted. That's why she's still at star at 50 years old.'

After their final shoot together aged 19, before she went off to Milan signing a contract with Elite, Piero saw the contact sheet and said 'But Monica you are a beautiful girl', he remembers. 'She said: 'Hadn't you noticed before now?'

Despite her celebrity credentials, the Matrix actress returns to Citta di Castello often. But she and her two daughters Leonie and Dava will spend Christmas in Brazil with former husband Vincent Cassel whom she divorced this year.

In a storyline fit for a Bond girl, she was briefly rumoured to be dating Russian oligarch Telman Ismailov, but her parents scotched reports of a relationship.

Her mother said: 'She wants to be single. She has had a marriage – it lasted 20 years-now she's not looking for anything. She wants to give her love to her children. If love happens it happens.'

Striking brunette Brunella, who is a clothes size 8 and still works out at the gym - diva style - in full make-up, looks at least a decade younger than her real age of 71. She puts the family's longevity down to a diet high in fish – and homegrown vegetables from their garden. 

And if the latest Bond star is anything like her mother she'll still be gracing our screens in 20 years. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2868294/Monica-Bellucci-reveals-teenage-pictures-lips-big.html#ixzz3LXoP1wUF
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