Penelope Cruz
PENELOPE CRUZ AGREES WITH WOODY ALLEN THAT THREESOMES ARE “TOO COMPLICATED” TO WORK IN REAL LIFE BUT IN THE MOVIES A WHOLE OTHER SET OF RULES APPLIES
TEXT PHIL THOMPSON
PHOTOS MANGO CLOTHING
When Penelope Cruz went to Cannes this year to promote Woody Allen’s latest film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, she knew there would be questions. After all, not every movie features two of the world’s hottest female stars — Cruz and Scarlett Johansson — appearing together in sex scenes along with (Cruz’s real-life boyfriend) Javier Bardem.
The Spanish actress says she had met Johansson but they weren’t close friends when filming started. When it came to kissing the American sex kitten she will only say: “We’ve run out of things to say about that scene because everyone has been asking us for about it for five months.” But then she playfully adds: “The only thing I remember on that day is it was one of the biggest crowds on a set that I have ever seen.”
The film was a joint US/Spanish project and for Cruz the bilingual dialogue was both liberating and the cause for anxiety.
“This movie involves both [Spanish and English] and it was very interesting for us to be able to go back and forth from one to another. Woody gave us total freedom about when to use each language and a lot of freedom to improvise,” she says.
“I would use too many insults and a lot of them were terrible words… and then I’d go home and worry about it! I would think: ‘Woody is giving us all this freedom to improvise and what is coming out of my mouth is terrible!’ And to think he will go to the editing room with a translator and see it… he would have to cut half of what we did.”
Cruz is tight-lipped about her relationship with Oscar-winner Bardem, who is rumoured to have proposed to her during
a holiday in France in spring this year. The two started dating after working together on Vicky Cristina Barcelona. In fact, Cruz has made a habit of hooking up with her leading men (Tom Cruise after Vanilla Sky and Matthew McConaughey after Sahara). While the feisty star won’t be drawn into divulging juicy details of her private life, she does say: “I will talk about him as an actor. You know why I’m only going to talk about him as an actor? Because he’s always great. He has an amazing palette and this character needed somebody very talented and precise. The character is very difficult and he is the anti-cliché.”
Two men she will talk about freely are her favourite directors Pedro Almodovar — with whom she first worked on All About My Mother in 2003 — and Woody Allen.
“They are very different but I always found things in common with the two of them. They really like each other and always gave me messages for each other,” she says. “Yesterday Pedro was so happy about the success of the movie that he hugged me for five minutes and said for me to congratulate Woody.
“I respect the way they talk about things that are very important without ever lecturing anybody, and always with such wit and irony. They create comedy when the characters are suffering the most and that’s life.”
Cruz hadn’t previously worked with Allen but says Deconstructing Harry is her favourite film. “I also like Manhattan, Annie Hall, and Bullets over Broadway. When a Woody Allen movie comes out I go to see it that day at 4pm.”
Allen is known to ask about his actors before calling them in for castings to ensure that they are sufficiently flexible and easy-going, avoiding those he says “are really intense and don’t get up to speed until the 18th take”. And according to the Spanish star, the audition for the role of Maria Elena was typically unconventional and to the point.
“My agent said to go to a meeting and I think she told him I was a big fan. I was there for two minutes, no three minutes, and she told me: ‘Oh, you were there for a very long time,’” Cruz says. “His meetings are very, very short. Sometimes they’re 15 seconds. I had been told that by other actors too, and that doesn’t mean you won’t get the part. He told me he was writing this and he said he thought I’d be good in it. Then, a month later, he called me.”
Most of the shooting for the film — the fourth Allen has made outside the US and his first in Spain — took place in Barcelona, a city which, Cruz admits, the American director knew better than she did. But she could still teach him a thing or two about the joys of convivial Spanish life.
“We were talking about it at the wrap party but he’s not very much a party person,” she says. “Still, he was so sweet to all the crew. I got his glasses as a present on the last day. They’re my treasure. He only had two [pairs] and he gave me one.” And does she wear them? “Yeah but I have to change the lenses,” she laughs.
Filming in Barcelona, staying close to family in Madrid and spending time in the US, Cruz builds up a respectable number of air miles each year. “Madrid is my base and my family is there. That will never change,” she says. “But I spend some time in the States because of the work. Spain will always be my home and now I’m working with Pedro there for many months.”
Cruz has also been busy collaborating with her sister, fellow-actress Monica. Together they have designed a successful capsule range for Spanish style giant Mango.
When the actress isn’t at work or in transit she keeps herself occupied with her new pastime — photography. She confessed in a recent interview that what started out as a fun activity can be emotionally draining because of the subjects she chooses. During a visit to Nepal, she took pictures of the feet of refugee children who had escaped across the mountains from Tibet. “Some had lost toes because of the snow,” she says. “I have to control myself not to cry.”
While Cruz may be happy snapping other people, she is known to have a rocky relationship with the media who pursue her. “I have some very good friends who are journalists in Spain and in America. Not many, but some,” she says. “It’s my responsibility to protect myself and that’s why I never talk about anything private.”
“I am never relaxed,” she admits. “Only when I’m sleeping.” But with no sign of he career slowing down, she may have to wait some time for some decent shut-eye.
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