It's complicated coming from a culture where to be a mother is more important than to have a career.
In a couple, sometimes, one or both people have to give up their personal life, dreams and ambitions for the good of the family.
I'm a lucky person because I've been loved a lot. I have a great family.
Just a touch of eyeliner and red lips is glamorous.
When you're in front of the camera, you have to try to create different emotions because even the person making pictures of you needs inspiration. To be 'you' means nothing - you can be so many yous.
I know many beautiful people and their lives are just so terrible. They feel so uncomfortable with themselves. Being comfortable is not about what you look like, but how you feel.
In so many places in the world, women have been prisoners for so long that they feel they have to scream about their rights. But when you scream, nobody listens to you. Real authority comes when you no longer need to scream - and that's something we women still need to learn.
What's natural is beautiful, and when you're not you anymore, you become a caricature.
When someone is suffering, you have to see this in the body and the face. I say all the time that actors use their bodies like objects of war.
I always wanted children late; I had my first daughter at 39 and the second at 45.
If a man sees a woman with red lipstick, he admires her, but often he won't feel like kissing her.
I think the lawyers are such incredible actors. Can you imagine the performance they have to do every day?
We should not be worried about age when it comes to love and attraction.
I like to be in the spotlight once in a while, and then I like to be in the shadows. It's really regenerating.
For me, true beauty has nothing to do with wrinkles and everything to do with the fact that my maternal grandmother raised five children just after the war and remained a fighter throughout her life. True beauty is the slick of red lipstick my paternal grandmother would put on before going to church on Sunday.
My body is so important to me... my face, my arms, my legs, my hands, my eyes, everything. I use everything I have.
I know very well the difference between my image and who I am.
Personally, I find it romantic not to be with someone all the time; you don't get used to someone or take them for granted.
Mel is a great director because he's not just a director, he's an actor, so he knows how to direct actors. I loved working with him. He's great as a director. He's so intelligent. He's generous. I really loved him.
I have a lot of adrenaline. I have a naturally fast system. But I love to eat, and I am not skinny.
We all need illusions. That's why we love movies.
If you believe what you are on the red carpet, then you would have to go see a doctor, and there are so many actors like that. You have to know very well this is a moment of glamour, and when I go back home, I don't have the airbrush, and I have dark circles because I don't have the make-up on.
I went to a modeling agency and said I wanted to be a model. I worked, worked, worked so much while I was studying.
When I first met Sam Mendes, I was a bit confused and said to him, 'I'm 50 years old. What am I going to do at 50 in a Bond film?'
I am certainly Italian in my love of food! I eat everything, but I love Italian food most of all. Even my daughter does. Her favourite food is pasta and parmigiana.
Sometimes I've done small parts, like with Spike Lee, but it doesn't matter because you want to work with the director.
I have no idea how I'm perceived in America because I don't live the reality of America.
Envy is human nature.
I've been working with good directors - the Wachowski brothers, Spike Lee, Terry Gilliam, Mel Gibson... I love American movies, but I love European movies, too, and I want to do both.
I think we can all be divas, but as an actress, you can't only be the diva; that would be boring. But sometimes, perhaps, it's fun.
Because I'm pretty, everybody thinks I'm stupid. But it is like a mask, and you have to break the mask to show that there is something else behind it. You have to show who you are to make the others come to discover you.
Beauty is a gift, just like good health or intelligence. The only thing is not to be proud of being beautiful. Because you didn't do anything - it was given to you.
Men have the power in everything: journalism, acting, direction; in banks, finances, schools. All the laws are made by men. Men think that women, when they're not able to procreate any more, become old. That is not true - they are still amazing!
Sometimes it's more difficult to exist as a female lead, especially in action movies because all those men are around you. They take so much place.
I speak a little Portuguese, but my daughter speaks it better than me. I always feel that Italy is my home, but it is important for my husband that we also live in France. Sometimes we live as a family all together, but as we are two working actors, sometimes we have to be apart. Sometimes I'm shooting a movie; sometimes he is.
If you have a script that's not great, if you have a great director, you can make a great movie, but if you have a great script with a director who's not good, never are you going to have a good movie.
I'm a true woman, not a Bond girl. That's why I say all the time, 'James Bond lady,' 'James Bond woman.'
An actor works with their soul and their thought.
When a relationship doesn't work anymore, it's terrible to stay with someone that you don't love.
I like a movie that brings out many discussions. From my experience, every time I have done movies, they create this kind of situation. Like 'Irreversible,' 'The Passion of the Christ,' 'Malena'; it's so interesting. I like to explore the dark side of humanity. That's why I'm an actor.
The most important thing with children is to give them your time. Actually, that's all that matters.
In France, they call the beauty of youth 'the evil beauty.' You don't have it because of you but because you're born with it. The other kind of beauty is your own work, and it takes forever.
In the beginning, I didn't know if I was still a model, if I was an actress. I knew I wanted to be an actress, but it was so difficult to be believed.
I believe that time destroys everything. You can take one beautiful apple, red. After a while, it becomes shrivelled and full of worms, just like what happens to us.
I wanted to do 'Matrix' because when I saw the first one, I was in Paris, and I came out from the movie and said, 'Wow - I've never seen something like that; it's so incredible.'
People assume I work hard on my body, but I honestly don't.
British people don't express when they are in pain. They don't think it's elegant.
We had a moment in the '40s and '50s, where female characters were very strong in film, where these incredible roles were written for women like Joan Crawford, like Bette Davis. But then there was a space of time where - I don't know why - it wasn't like that. It became difficult for women to find certain roles after a certain age.
I don't know Hollywood very well. I've never lived in Los Angeles or New York. But what I can see in Paris, where I live, is that actresses like Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Charlotte Rampling, still get the chance to play strong, sexy roles even though they're not 20.
