Penélope Cruz stars in 'Broken Embraces,' 'Nine'
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Classics | Penelope Cruz as Lena Pina in "Broken Embraces."
Trailer: Nine
Trailer: Broken Embraces
Almodovar Keeps Cruz Coming Back
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Scenes from 'Broken Embraces'
Madrid-born Penélope Cruz came to American attention with the steamy seriocomedy "Jamón, Jamón" (1992), in which her co-stars included future boyfriend Javier Bardem. After he won a best supporting actor Oscar for 2007's "No Country for Old Men," Cruz returned the volley, winning best supporting actress for 2008's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona."
In the interim, Cruz made such middling U.S. movies as "The Hi-Lo Country" (1998), "Blow" (2001), "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" (2001), "Vanilla Sky" (2001) and "Sahara" (2005). But she became a signature screen persona for acclaimed director Pedro Almodóvar, starring in his "Live Flesh" (1997), "All About My Mother" (1999), "Volver" (2006) and now "Broken Embraces," in which she plays Lena, a rich man's companion who falls in love with both a filmmaker and the magic of movies and stories. Cruz also co-stars with an international pantheon in Rob Marshall's musical "Nine," opening Dec. 18. She spoke with frequent Newsday contributor Frank Lovece.
You've said Almodóvar knows how to push your buttons to get the performance he wants. How did he do that in "Broken Embraces?"
He knows me very well, but he is that way with all actors - he knows how to take you to the place that he needs, in a way that is a beautiful dance. He can be very tough and very demanding, but in the end for me it has always been an experience where I go home and feel happy about what everybody did on the set.
Lena doesn't love Ernesto, the rich man with whom she lives, and cheats on him with the filmmaker, Mateo. She seems to be using Ernesto to get ahead as an actress. How do you make a character like that sympathetic?
I don't think she's using him to get ahead. I think she starts using him and manipulating him because her father is dying of cancer and she is finding the money to help her father. I try not to judge my characters. I don't have to like them, I don't have to agree with them, but I need to understand them, and I understand what she's doing. It doesn't mean I agree or disagree with it - I don't even ask myself that question. And later, after she's decided to stay with him, she finds Mateo, who becomes the love of her life. She feels trapped in the other situation, and she has to become even a better actress in life than in her work.
In your major dance number in "Nine," you do a lot of rope work without gloves, and endured a lot of calluses and bleeding. Did you realize that would happen when you decided against gloves, or did you realize it as it was happening and continued anyway?
No, I knew it would happen because I trained for three months to do the number, and I knew I would be living with blisters during those months, and I was used to it. During those months you rehearse, like, four hours a day of dancing, and when you get to shoot the number, you do 12 hours a day of dancing for three days in a row, and that's when you get all the bruises and blisters. But I didn't even feel that much physical pain because I felt like flying!
Different reports say that in your cameo in the upcoming "Sex and the City 2," you play either yourself or a character named Lydia.
No, I don't play myself. It's a little character [role]. I only was on the set for three hours. I did this collaboration because I'm a big fan of the show and the movie.
I'm not going to pry [about the tabloid rumors concerning Cruz' pregnancy], but why do you suppose the public cares so much about whether a celebrity has a baby or not?
It's all because of the Internet, because there are more and more shows and stuff to fill with material. A lot of the press is losing so much credibility that people don't know anymore what to believe and what not to believe. I have a couple of great friends who are journalists, who are very serious journalists, and at the end that affects them and their work.
Yet when People magazine, say, pays a million dollars for a baby picture, those covers apparently sell well because the public, for reasons I just don't know, wants that.
I don't want to talk about it.
