Monica Bellucci, 57, opens up about aging and not being 'obsessed' with looking young: 'I want to get old in a peaceful way'

At 57, Monica Bellucci doesn't fear getting old. Instead, she's embracing the aging process.

“There are so many women who are feeling free to get old in a different way,” Bellucci said in a new interview in the Sunday Times Style magazine.

Bellucci eschews rigorous workouts and strict diets, instead preferring wine and pasta and the occasional Pilates session. Still, she gets in enough exercise and diets "a bit" when she has to work, all while keeping it reasonable.

"I am not obsessed. I’ve always been a curvy woman, never so skinny, that’s my nature. And I want to get old in a peaceful way," she shared. "When you are 50 or 60 you don’t have the same needs as when you are 20. You change, like when your baby comes into the room, you see that the first thing is her. We come in second. This gives us another perspective.”

Reflecting on her experience as a 50-year-old "Bond woman" in Spectre, the Italian actress noted that her casting marked a "big change,” adding, "there are so many women who are feeling free to get old in a different way.”

Bellucci prefers to look at aging in a "matter-of-fact" manner.

“There are many different moments in life,” Bellucci muses. “When you are very young, you have what in France they call la beauté du diable, the beauty of the devil, which is just natural, it is the beauty of youth, the beauty of a biological moment in your life. And life goes on. The physique, it gets old and we have to deal with that. There is nothing we can do. At the same time we are lucky, because if we get old it means we have a long life. As the body goes down, the soul grows.”

Bellucci has two daughters, Deva, 17, and Léonie, 11, with her ex-husband Vincent Cassel, from whom she split in 2013. Since then, the former couple has found their co-parenting rhythm.

“We have been separated for a long time, but at the same time when you are a parent you are parents for life," said Bellucci. "It is beautiful to have a relationship for the kids when it is possible.”

While Bellucci stays mum on the current state of her love life (“I think I have an age right now, this age, that gives me the right not to answer") it's known that she spends her time with sculptor and former model Nicolas Lefebvre, 39.

As a mom who has experienced the difficult aspects of the entertainment business, Bellucci said she doesn't want to teach her daughters to be in constant conflict with men.

“We have come a long way, and today we have the courage to say things because there are women that did this before us, but at the same time I don’t believe in a war between men and women, I think we have to find a common ground of communication. I don’t want to teach my girls to be full of hate, it doesn’t bring anything," she said. "We have to find a way to talk.”

Ultimately, Bellucci said she's grateful she didn't start out in the industry as a young teenager.

“I went through some times, moments that were not always perfect,” Bellucci said. “But I started to work when I was already 18, 19 … I wasn’t 14. And then when I did cinema I was coming from a situation in fashion, so I was already economically independent. I was lucky because I was never in a situation that I couldn’t deal with. That is a matter of luck, sometimes you just can’t defend yourself.”

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