Muse Pedro Almodovara, the only Spaniard who received an Oscar and the love of millions of fans far beyond her native Alcobendas, told reporters how she discovered the world of a big movie.
Penelope Cruz, meeting with reporters in a cafe, kindly suggests trusting her taste, choosing dishes that involuntarily set the tone for a future conversation. Cruz itself does not drink, but knows what wine to order the interlocutor and can teach how to properly cook meat and how to enjoy it.
Folding a piece of ham into the tube, Penelope immediately proceeds to talk about changing time zones:
"Yesterday I returned from Los Angeles and had not yet managed to move to local time. In America, we are shooting a new season of the "American History of Crimes". They shoot very quickly, because the television projects have their own accelerated pace. Sometimes you get a new script just a couple of days before the filming begins. There are a lot of scenes with interactive English, but the heroine speaks with an Italian accent, it's easy, because I can easily give the languages, but these accents ... "
Being most of the time in Los Angeles and New York, the actress still still considers her home to Spain:
"I love my country and my city. I'm a real Spaniard. For me, culture is important, I love my native kitchen. I love my family, my mother and sister live here. Getting together, we always talk at the same time, it's so in Spanish! But often my heroines are too temperamental like that - they immediately grab at the gun, spaniards are not like that. It's just that the characters are a little nuts. "
The girl from Alcobendas
In the area where Penelope Cruz grew, everything is still. The family had three children, Penelope senior. My father worked in a hardware store, my mother worked in her own beauty salon. The attentive daughter took over the secrets of beauty from her mother and even told how the makeup of Salma Hayek once did.
The actress admits that she did not see herself as a star in her dreams, her desires were rather modest:
"All I needed then was to feel a bit independent, work and earn just enough to have enough for a living. And, of course, to dance. When I was thirteen, my father bought a cassette player, then no one was. I watched movies and wandered in the clouds. The TV has replaced walks, and my thoughts have been occupied only with screen images. Every day I discovered something new for myself. The nearest cinema was far away, and I watched the films at home. Then I found out about Pasolini and Sophia Loren. And at the age of 14, I watched the movie "Tie Me" and it turned my life around. After viewing the picture, I just went out and told myself that I had to find an agent and do everything possible to work with Almodovar! And already at 15 I found it, though I lied then that I'm seventeen. As soon as she found out the truth, she immediately sent me home. But I still have a close relationship with Catherine, and we are working together now. "
Ham and the first role
For Penelope ham is not just a favorite dish:
"No matter how it sounds ironic, but with a ham I have something more to do than just a love of food. My first serious work in the cinema was the role of Sylvia in the Bigas Moon picture "Ham, Ham."
According to the scenario, the heroine's chest tasted like ham, and for her game Cruz was nominated for the Spanish version of the Oscar - the Goya award. On set, she first saw her future husband - actor Javier Bardem, with whom today he brings up two charming children. It is true then, about marriage there were no thoughts, and the future spouses were married only after sixteen years:
"I immediately realized that this role will be fateful, but the picture is special. The plot was simple, but in its own way fresh and full of bold ideas. And, of course, the bed scene, which I was not at all pleased. But they treated me with respect and did not forget that I was eighteen. Javier was at the height, and our passion was captured on the film, as if the documentary chronicle. Sometimes I think that someday I'll have to show it to the children, telling the chronology of the events that led to their birth. "
Maestro Almodóvar
Here's how the actress recalls the beginning of cooperation with Pedro Almodovar:
"When Almodovar called, my career was just beginning. I remember when the phone rang, I did not want to pick up the phone and even thought that it was someone's joke, because everyone knew that I was going crazy about Almodovar. But suddenly in the phone I heard his voice: "Congratulations on success!", I could not believe my happiness. And only said: "Dreams come true!" But when I came to the samples of the movie "Kika", he found me too young and promised that he would come up with a film specially for me. Then there were samples for "Living flesh", where an older actress was needed. But all the same Almodovar offered me a small role with an 18-minute stage, being sure that I will refuse. Later, he admitted that "Penelope in the role of a prostitute from the province, gave birth to a bus in Madrid - this is the scene, one of the best that I ever shot in my life." And much later, Stephen Freese said that he offered me a role in the film "The Country of the Hills and Valleys" after seeing it in "Living Flesh".
But this was only the beginning. Love Almodovar to the professional talent of Penelope just started. There were still five pictures ahead. And what ... In the movie "All About My Mother" the actress plays a nun from a beggar district, pregnant with a transvestite who was engaged in prostitution and infected with AIDS. And immediately follows the role in "Return", which the director specially thinks out the details for his beloved actress. Slipping the camera along the heroine's body, legs, shoulders, fascinating transitions, every detail, up to the cut of the dress, which the maestro will later call "the most effective decollete in the history of cinema" - a picture that along with "Everything About My Mother" will become a classic of modern cinema.
But about the films that are not so successful, according to critics shot at the dawn of Hollywood career, such as "Vanilla Sky", "Cocaine" and "Sahara", the actress also speaks with warmth and love, because it is thanks to these works that she got acquainted with many great people:
"I will never deny any work. It's amazing that fate gives us a chance to get to know people. People fascinate me. They communicate with each other, solve their problems, and you watch. And if you stop, then the actor will die in you forever. Glory does not matter, only people. "
Recognition at home
In their home country Penelope Cruz is revered as a queen. She remains to this day the only Spanish actress who received the Oscar, as well as her husband, Javier Bardem. She is the pride of the nation, along with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Rafael Nadal. It is in America that the paparazzi are chasing her and constantly watching every release, and life at home is calm. The actress said that being in Spain, does not limit herself to anything:
"I go shopping, like the most ordinary resident of Madrid, buy food, do what I want. I like this life. At first I wanted fame, then did not, and now I just resigned. I'm not talking about my personal life, I do not advertise in the press, as I live. And I constantly tell myself that you need to be careful. I am a public person, but relationships with family and friends are too expensive. "
Penelope Cruz is in demand all the time. Now ahead of the work on the voice acting of the new film "Loving Pablo", where the actress plays the role of a Colombian TV presenter who spun the novel with the infamous drug baron Pablo Escobar, whose role, we note, went to Javier Bardem.
Senora Cruz admitted that this project was not easy for her:
"At first I was a little concerned. In the film, there are scenes where the main character is cruel to Virginia Vallejo. For a day on the set, you do not even notice how completely immersed in the life of your character. But in reality you need to go home to the children. Therefore, I always leave my heroines on set. I think that Javier is doing the same. Otherwise, it's just not possible. "Read also
- The opening of the Cannes Festival: Cruz, Blanchett, Stewart, Moore and Hargeyt presented chic images
- Javier Bardem defended against Woody Allen's attacks and supported the move #metoo
- TOP-25 most expensive brands
In late 2017, a new film, "Murder on the Orient Express," was released. Here, Cruz was given the role of a Spanish missionary. The game of colorful Spanish in the latest adaptation of the detective Agatha Crista is already watched by enthusiastic fans around the world, but no one doubts that there is still a big role ahead and are looking forward to the new premieres.