To play Maria Callas, Monica Bellucci confronts stage fright

It seems hard to believe, but Monica Bellucci - who has spent four decades in the limelight as a model and actress - says she suffers from stage fight.    

Now appearing on stage in Paris, incarnating opera singer Maria Callas, the Italian diva confesses experiencing pure "terror".    "It is not that I was afraid of theatre, I am still afraid of theatre. I tremble," the 55-year-old told AFP.    

"Going on stage is almost a kind of violence that I put myself through."    

Bellucci is playing the 20th-century opera star in a month-long show entitled: "Maria Callas: Lettres et Memoirs (Maria Callas: letters and memories) at the Bouffes Parisiens theatre until March 28.    

Film acting, said the actress who has played in two The Matrix movies and was a Bond girl in the 2015 movie "Spectre", is less intimidating.    

"When one makes a film, it is as if one is protected from the outside world. With theatre, one breathes in the public and the public breathes you in. There is a direct contact..."  

It is also less taxing.    

With theatre, said Bellucci, one's concentration must last for the duration of the show. With film, scenes are shot one by one, with rests in between.    

Only once, in Gaspar Noe's film "Irreversible" has she shot a scene that lasted as long as 20 minutes, she said.    

In spite of her fear, Bellucci said she was captivated by Tom Volf's project on Callas, known for her tragic love affair with the Greek billionaire Aristotle Onassis almost as much as for her captivating voice.            

The biographical show draws heavily on letters and writings by Callas, collected by Volf, who has also made a movie entitled "Maria by Callas".  

 "The letters are so beautiful... it was...