'Brothers Grimm' gives actors food for thought, Bellucci says

One problem with U.S. movies is their target demographic, Bellucci says.

"Now, all the movies are for teenagers," she says. "It's very difficult for an actress to find really deep, beautiful characters to play. Can you imagine all the characters Bette Davis played?"

The situation is different in Europe, she says.

"In Europe we have many actresses like Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Fanny Ardant and Nathalie Baye," she says. "All those actresses between 45 and 60, they work a lot. So I think this is more an American problem that actresses after 35 don't work anymore."

The Hollywood landscape isn't hopeless, she says.

"You make incredible movies: big blockbusters like 'Matrix' and more intimate films like 'Magnolia' and 'American Beauty.' "

Bellucci went against prevailing wisdom by signing on for Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ."

"When I did 'The Passion,' nobody believed in the movie," she recalls. "Everybody was telling me, 'You shouldn't do this movie. . . . But I wanted to play Mary Magdalene. I thought that I could do something strong and deep with this character."

Bellucci stirred up controversy herself last year when she posed pregnant (with daughter Deva, born last September) and in the buff for the cover of Italian Vanity Fair to protest Italy's new laws against in vitro fertilization.

"I had to," she says of her naked protest. "In Italy, there are just horrible things going on. . . . All the rich women, they can go out and have insemination outside of Italy, and all the poor Italians . . . they can just go to the church and hope for a miracle, which is ridiculous. . . . The priests decide what is the law. Isn't it crazy? . . . I respect every religion, but . . . a priest doesn't know anything about a woman."