Tim Burton and Monica Bellucci sparked dating rumors long before they confirmed their relationship — now, the director and the actress have made a movie together, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which was released in the U.S. on Sept. 6.
“What I can say … I’m glad I met the man, first of all,” Bellucci told Elle France in June 2023, just after news broke that Burton had cast her in the highly anticipated sequel to the iconic 1988 film Beetlejuice. “It's one of those encounters that rarely happens in life ... I know the man, I love him and now I'm going to meet the director — another adventure begins."
Burton rose to fame directing movies including 1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, 1989’s Batman and 1990’s Edward Scissorhands. Beetlejuice was only his second feature film. Italian star Bellucci had a career as a model before appearing in movies such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) and the Matrix sequels (in 2003 and 2021).
Though Burton and Bellucci met many years before, they didn’t officially become a couple until 2023, making their first public appearance on the red carpet of that year’s Rome Film Festival. Up until they started working together on Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the couple kept their work completely separate from their relationship. "I'm with Tim. Not with Tim Burton,” Bellucci told Paris Match in June 2024.
Read on to learn all about Burton and Bellucci’s relationship.
They first met in 2006 Tim Burton and Monica Bellucci attend a red carpet for the movie 'Diabolik Chi Sei?' during the 18th Rome Film Festival on October 19, 2023 in Rome, Italy.Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty
Burton and Bellucci first met on the red carpet at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival in France — but it was a brief meeting, when both were in long-term relationships with other people.
The two reconnected in October 2022 at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon, France, where Bellucci presented Burton with the festival's lifetime achievement Lumière Award. “All my life put together, I have never felt so much love as tonight,” Burton said at the event, per The Times. “Welcome to the best funeral I ever had.”
Not long after, the pair sparked dating rumors when they appeared arm-in-arm in Madrid. It wasn’t until October 2023 when they made a public appearance together on a red carpet at the Rome Film Festival in Italy. Burton was there to support Bellucci at the premiere of her film Maria Callas: Lettere e Memorie. Coverage of the event in Rome described Burton as “so in love and happy,” according to The Independent.
They both have famous exes Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci in 2006; Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter in 2013.Richard Lewis/WireImage ; Kevin Mazur/VF13/WireImage
Burton was in a long-term relationship with Harry Potter star Helena Bonham Carter from 2000 to 2014. The former couple welcomed son Billy in 2003, and daughter Nell in 2007. The two made headlines for their unusual living arrangement, keeping separate houses next door to each other, which were connected by a hallway.
"We just have two houses knocked together because mine was too small," Bonham Carter told The Telegraph in 2010. "We see as much of each other as any couple, but our relationship is enhanced by knowing we have our personal space to retreat to." Though they were never married, when the relationship ended, Bonham Carter described it as “a divorce.”
"I went through a very painful divorce," she said in 2022 on the podcast Therapy Works. "It was a long-lasting thing. That's the other thing, it's not that finite. It never ends. Even if you divorce somebody, it's a kind of marriage if you have children with them. The relationship has to change. It's a very complicated thing how to share the children."
Bellucci married French actor Vincent Cassel (from Oceans 12 and Oceans 13) in 1999. The couple welcomed daughter Deva Cassel in 2004, and daughter Léonie Cassel in 2010. Deva told Gen V in 2023 that her parents “taught me to always look forward, always protect myself, always be kind and always keep wonder in mind … There’s much more, but the point is that they’ve taught me how to handle unexpected situations and live by my own rules, while always respecting people and the environment I’m in.”
Bellucci and Vincent split in 2013.
Bellucci identifies with the themes in Burton’s movies Monica Bellucci in 2022.Arnold Jerocki/Getty
Speaking publicly about their relationship for the first time to Elle France, Bellucci revealed that she connects to the themes in Burton’s work. "I love this dream world where the monsters are kind, like we can turn our darker aspects into something bright, forgiving,” she said. "Tim Burton's films talk about that a lot."
They worked together on Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Monica Bellucci and Tim Burton attend the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards on January 15, 2024 in Los Angeles.Kevin Mazur/Getty
In May 2023, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Bellucci had been cast in the long-awaited Beetlejuice sequel. She plays the wife of the “ghost with the most.” The movie filmed primarily in London.
"I love Tim," Bellucci told Elle France in June 2023. “And I have great respect for Tim Burton."
“On this last one, Beetlejuice 2, I really enjoyed it," Burton told The Independent in 2023. "I tried to strip everything and go back to the basics of working with good people and actors and puppets. It was kind of like going back to why I liked making movies."
The movie debuted at the Venice Film Festival on Aug. 28, 2024.
They appeared together for a big honor for Bellucci Tim Burton and Monica Bellucci attend the 64th Globo d'Oro Awards on July 03, 2024 in Rome, Italy.Franco Origlia/WireImage
In July 2024, the couple attended the Globo d'Oro Awards in Rome, where Bellucci was presented with a lifetime achievement award. The appearance was noteworthy not just because of the award, but because the two don’t often make public appearances together. On the red carpet, Burton was affectionate, kissing Bellucci’s cheek.
Bellucci thinks Burton has a “spectacular soul”In a 2023 interview with Harper’s Bazaar Espana, the actress spoke openly about her feelings for the director. “I found in Tim a wonderful spirit,” she said. “I met a spectacular soul.”
