Penelope Cruz is finally coming into her own in English-language film, and she’s so happy she could sing
On a cold winter’s day in Berlin, Penélope Cruz breezes into the boardroom of the Adalon Hotel like a ray of sunshine. Once dubbed the ‘Spanish enchantress’, she may be 5ft 6in but you can’t fail to notice her. Dressed in figure-hugging navy jeans, tailored black jacket and silver-hoop earrings that peep through her long black hair, the 34 year-old starlet is in a triumphant mood. And no wonder: in town to promote Elegy, she’s just received some of the best reviews she’s ever received for an English-language film.
Directed by the Barcelona-born Isabel Coixet, and based on the novel The Dying Animal by Philip Roth, it’s an intimate work that casts Cruz as Consuela Castillo, a literature student in New York who undertakes a May-to-December romance with her professor (played by Sir Ben Kingsley). “I was very touched by that story when I read it,” she says. “It’s very honest, and with very twisted, complex characters – but that’s what I always look for. I feel that from the movies I’ve done in English, this is the most complex character I’ve played.”
It’s certainly a relief for Cruz. Despite an illustrious career in Spain – and in particular for Pedro Almodóvar, whose last film Volver saw the actress nominated for her first Oscar – her Hollywood efforts, from Blow to Gothika, have been met with less acclaim. Yet with Elegy Cruz has “never been better in English”, according to trade paper Variety. “They were not talking about my accent!” says Cruz, barely able to contain her delight. “I have worked very hard for that, with my English. I learnt English when I was 18, as before I studied French. I’m starting to feel more relaxed about it, but it takes time when you learn English late.”
Language issues aside, the film is also arguably one of Cruz’s most moving performances – not least because her character develops breast cancer. As part of her research, Cruz met four women in Vancouver, where the film was shot, who had all suffered from the same illness. “These women I met went through hell. And some of them survived and are OK now. The physical, the emotional, the psychological reaction is very hard, what they go through. The ones that I met, they survived – and I feel like this movie is for them, as they’re amazing.”
After the heavyweight nature of Elegy, Cruz admits she was relieved to get a little light relief from her next project, Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which has just been unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival. Allen’s first film to be set in Spain, this story of a painter and his complex love life pairs Cruz with fellow Spaniard Javier Bardem, whom she is currently romantically linked to. The pair got together on the set of the film – though have kept their affair top-secret and a polite enquiry about her love life is met with a sharp, “I don’t talk about that.”
Read the full article in our August 2008 edition.