Penélope Cruz and Pedro Almodóvar are the biggest stars of Spanish cinema, and now they’ve set their sights on the Oscars. They talk about success, failure and each other to Michael Kessler
Dressed in vintage Chanel and sling backs, her hair artfully messy, Penélope Cruz walks confidently into a room full of film critics. They’ve been exchanging Oscar gossip – a lot of it about Cruz herself – as she’s a prime contender for a Best Actress gong at this month’s awards ceremony. Cruz is wonderful in the role of Raimunda, a fiery young woman in Spanish bad boy Pedro Almodóvar’s darkly comedic Volver.
By now, Penélope Cruz is well used to the attention, from press conferences in Spain, Europe and Hollywood, to the media interest that follows her every move, especially her liaisons with Hollywood stars like Tom Cruise, Mathew McConaughey and, the latest rumours insist, Orlando Bloom. She won’t comment, she never does. But the tabloids love her anyway. She’s a ball breaker, they reckon, a Latin seductress.
But today is different. Today, on a chilly New York morning in the ritzy Essex House Hotel on Central Park, Cruz arrives with a point to prove – she’s here to talk about Volver and her role in it, which she considers to be her most demanding and her best yet. Although she’s appeared in two previous Almodóvar films, as a prostitute in Carne Trémula and an HIV positive nun in Todo Sobre Mi Madre, this is her first lead role with the Spanish director. But it won’t be her last – Cruz is very much the current muse of her close friend and mentor, and has a follow up film with him (El Piel Que Habito) already in the works.
In fact the two of them share quite a love story, albeit in the innocent sense of the word. In Volver, Almodóvar’s camera gazes adoringly at Cruz’s voluptuous figure – padded out by a special prosthetic to enhance the curves of her behind. For her part, Cruz thinks he’s “a genius”, and describes him as an almost political figure in Spain, such is the contribution that he’s made to its culture. They are the closest of friends.
The day before, the director described her as a ringer for Audrey Hepburn. What does she think of that, and other comments like, “Penélope has the most spectacular breasts in the industry! It is a pleasure to film them.”?
“What, he said that?” she squeals, in between mouthfuls of Asian noodles grabbed from the food trolley in her Central Park suite. Late lunch, how very Spanish.
“I prefer not to be in the room when he says that,” she admits, looking genuinely embarrassed. “It’s very flattering – he’s very flattering – but I get completely red and I don’t know what to say. Of course I don’t believe those things.”
But why not? After all Cruz regularly makes People magazine’s list of the world’s 50 most beautiful stars, and Almodóvar talks about her in the same breath as legendary sirens like Sophia Loren and Anna Magnani. He calls her, “A screen goddess for the new Millennium”. Doesn’t she see herself as a sex symbol?
“No! He talks about women that I have admired so much in my life, you know? I mean, you can take it as a compliment but I prefer not to feel different.”
If anybody understands Penélope, though, it’s Pedro. What is it about him, about their relationship, that is so special? “Pedro is a great connoisseur of women,” she replies. “It’s not so much what he asks of me when we make a film together, but I feel like he sees everything – even when I try to hide something from him he sees that too, with no effort.”
Cruz got her big break on Spanish TV as the host of a teenage music show in the early 1990s, but it wasn’t until Bigas Luna’s ribald Jamon, Jamon, in which she co-starred with Javier Bardem, that the actress really hit the big time. But, paradoxically, ever since that film’s release in 1993 set her on the path to international megastardom, Cruz’s Hollywood career has been at odds with her European work.
Though she’s made over 40 films, barely a third of them have been in the US, the ultimate proving ground for any actor. And though she’s worked with some of the biggest names in the business – from Nicolas Cage to Jonny Depp and even Bob Dylan – none of those Hollywood efforts have been what you could safely call a runaway success.
And yet back on home turf, Cruz, who works in four languages – Spanish, English, Italian and French – has been nominated three times for a Goya (a Spanish Oscar) and won twice, starred in huge hits like Belle Époque and Abre Los Ojos, and won a swag of European film awards including a David di Donatello gong (an Italian Oscar) for her dazzling performance as the destitute tramp in the Italian-Spanish production Non Ti Muovere.
More recently Cruz shared the Best Actress prize with her fellow female Volver cast members at Cannes, perhaps the crowning glory of her career. And the news only got better last October when she won Best Actress at the Hollywood Awards for the same film; a presentiment, perhaps, of more to follow at this month’s Academy Awards?
Though the tide may finally be changing for Penélope Cruz, how does Almodóvar explain this discrepancy between her success on one continent, and her struggles on another? “Penelope’s had bad luck,” he says. “She’s done important projects like All The Pretty Horses, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and Blow that deserved to have more success but didn’t. Those were interesting films that offered her good parts, but none of them worked.
What is it, then, that he sees in her that others don’t? “Penélope is an incredibly original actress with a phenomenal strength, quite apart from being beautiful. But in America she still hasn’t been able to connect with the right role that would allow her to show all those characteristics. However, I think that’s about to change. She gives me the impression that she’s more mature, and before long she’ll deliver a role in English at the same level as one in Spanish or Italian.”
Cruz, though, is more pragmatic about her US films: “It’s normal that the most demanding emotional parts have been in Europe where I’ve done 30 films. My career in America is younger, and I don’t see anything strange in that. But I think Volver is going to push me in the right direction. I think it will open up people’s minds and people’s imaginations; they will say, ‘Okay, you can do that’.”
Word is that Cruz’s diary has been cleared as the push for her Oscar picks up momentum. She’s even bought a place in Los Angeles, although she’s adamant that it’s not home. She’s always coming and going between Madrid and LA, saying it makes her feel “more secure”. Cruz misses Spain a lot (“There’s nowhere to walk in LA!” she complains) and perhaps that’s why she keeps hold of her European customs.
“I have dinner at 10pm. This having dinner at 6pm thing makes me sad, it’s not for me. Really!” Here, you feel, is the secret of Cruz’s success, and the success that will surely be hers over the months and years to come in America. Despite the beauty, the fame and all the awards, at heart she’s just a girl from Madrid, and that’s exactly the way she wants to keep it: “I have dinner with my friends, I’m not a party girl. I prefer long dinners, speaking with friends at the table.
I love going to the cinema and watching a lot of films at home.
The same things that I do in Spain.”
Penelope aime Pedro
Grâce à son rôle dans le film Volver de Pedro Almodóvar, Penélope Cruz (Raimunda) part favorite pour remporter l’Oscar de la Meilleure Actrice lors de la prochaine cérémonie de ce mois de février.
Elle considère ce rôle comme le plus exigeant de sa carrière, le meilleur aussi, qui confirme sa position de muse d’Almodóvar, devenu son ami proche et son mentor.
En fait, les deux stars partagent une vraie histoire d’amour. Dans Volver, sa caméra caresse son personnage avec adoration et il la décrit comme le double d’Audrey Hepburn.
Cruz pour sa part, pense qu’il est un “génie”, qui a apporté une énorme contribution à la culture hispanique. Elle reconnaît qu’il est “un grand connaisseur des femmes,” mais elle préfère ne pas se projeter dans l’image d’un symbole sexuel: “C’est très flatteur, mais cela me fait complètement rougir et je perds mes moyens!”
Cruz a fait sa première apparition remarquée à la télévision espagnole dans les années 1990, avant de d’arriver au cinéma dans le film Jamon Jamon. Mais malgré plus de 40 films à son actif et un impressionnant palmarès – deux Oscars en Espagne, un Oscar en Italie, et un prix de la meilleure actrice pour Volver au Festival du Film de Cannes – sa carrière américaine n’a jamais vraiment décollé.
Almodóvar pense que tout cela est dû à de la “mauvaise chance”, mais Cruz ne s’inquiète pas, disant “Ma carrière en Amérique est plus récente et je ne vois rien d’étrange à cela.”
De plus elle ne s’est jamais si bien sentie à Hollywood, recréant son petit monde madrilène : “Je dîne à 22 heures, et je passe beaucoup de temps à discuter avec mes amis à table. J’adore aller au cinéma et je regarde aussi beaucoup de films à la maison. Ce sont exactement les mêmes choses que je fais lorsque je suis en Espagne.”
Florentine, où se trouve le plus grand club de Tel Aviv, 17 Haoman.
Et bien entendu, une visite de Tel Aviv ne serait pas tout à fait complète sans une promenade dans les innombrables ruelles étroites de Jaffa. Faites une halte au Wine Bar Yoezer renommé pour sa cuisine succulente et au marché aux puces, faites le plein de cadeaux avant de renter au pays.
Penélope en Pedro
Met haar rol als Raimunda in Volver van Pedro Almodóvar is Penélope Cruz deze maand een van de grote kanshebbers op de Oscar voor beste actrice.
Ze vindt het haar beste en meest veeleisende vertolking tot nog toe, die haar bevestigt als muze van Almodóvar, haar goede vriend en mentor.
Het wederzijdse respect is groot. In Volver glijdt Almodóvars camera liefdevol over haar vormen, en de filmmaker noemt haar een waardige opvolgster van Audrey Hepburn.
Cruz beschouwt hem dan weer als een genie dat de Spaanse cultuur een boost gaf. Ze geeft toe dat hij een groot vrouwenkenner is, maar ziet zichzelf liever niet als sekssymbool: “Het is erg flatterend, maar het maakt me zeer verlegen!”
Cruz kende in de jaren ’90 haar grote doorbraak op de Spaanse televisie, vóór ze met Jamon Jamon naar de filmwereld overstapte. Maar ondanks ruim 40 films, twee Spaanse en één Italiaanse Oscar, en een acteerprijs voor Volver in Cannes, is haar Amerikaanse carrière nooit echt van de grond gekomen.
Volgens Aldomóvar ontbreekt het haar aan geluk, maar Cruz maakt zich geen zorgen. “Mijn carrière in Amerika is nog pril, dus zo vreemd is dat niet.”
Trouwens, in Hollywood is ze nog het gelukkigst wanneer ze er haar eigen stukje Madrid kan creëren. “Ik eet er pas om 10 uur ’s avonds, altijd met vrienden. Ik ga er graag naar de cinema, maar bekijk ook thuis heel wat films. Dezelfde dingen dus die ik in Spanje doe.”
Florentine, où se trouve le plus grand club de Tel Aviv, 17 Haoman.
Et bien entendu, une visite de Tel Aviv ne serait pas tout à fait complète sans une promenade dans les innombrables ruelles étroites de Jaffa. Faites une halte au Wine Bar Yoezer renommé pour sa cuisine succulente et au marché aux puces, faites le plein de cadeaux avant de renter au pays.
No comments yet.
