C-FORCE
Penélope Cruz Finally Comes into her Own
by Alex S. Morrison
When Penélope Cruz took the stage at the 81st Academy Awards last February to accept her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, it was a moment that had been a long time coming for the Spanish enchantress. In recent years, the Madrid native had been better known for her exotic beauty and high-profile relationships with A-list actors such as Nicolas Cage, Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey than for her acting abilities.
But this was not the future most pundits would have predicted for Cruz when she first came to Hollywood. Born Penélope Cruz Sanchez in 1974, she began her career as a ballet dancer with Spain’s National Conservatory before besting 300 other girls in a talent agency audition at the age of 15. Roles in Spanish TV shows led to films, including a role in 1992’s Oscar-winning import Belle Epoque. By the end of the decade she’d become director Pedro Almodóvar’s favorite leading lady, proving her thespian cred in Live Flesh (1997) and the Oscar-winning All About My Mother (2000). That same year she appeared in her first English-speaking role in Woman On Top, and was soon co-starring opposite Johnny Depp in Blow. The hype machine went into overload, and numerous cover stories proclaimed her Hollywood’s next big thing.
“I’ve never felt like I had difficulty [breaking through in America] because I never expected this to happen,” the demure Cruz acknowledges, “since it never happened to an actress from my country. Maybe they came to America and made one movie, but that was all. The doors were much more closed years ago, so I was very grateful that they kept giving me opportunities.”
Unfortunately, though she was never reduced to playing Latina stereotypes, the majority of Cruz’s Hollywood opportunities came in mediocre fare such as Waking Up In Reno, Gothika, Head In The Clouds and Sahara. By the end of 2005, she had widely been written off as just another pretty face.
“The most difficult thing in the world is to start your career known only for your looks,” Cruz admits, “and then try to become a serious actress. No one will take you seriously once you’re known as a pretty woman. I feel like I have played a few characters that have made me able to demonstrate where I wanted to go as an actress. Of all the movies I’ve done, even the ones that have not been successful have taught me something, and I feel grateful because they helped me stay in the game.”
It was reuniting with Almodóvar for 2006’s Volver that reminded critics and audiences alike that Cruz could actually act when given solid source material to work with. Channeling the sultry spirit of Sophia Loren, Cruz’s passionate portrayal of a woman dealing with the death of her parents and the murder of her wicked husband by her daughter made her the first Latina ever nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. She credits her old friend/director with bringing out her very best performances.
“He knows that I trust him completely,” she says, “so I didn't need to read [the script] to say yes. However, when I read it I was so happy that he was giving me that character, and I knew it was an amazing opportunity. Every film with Pedro has been amazing, and he gets better and better every time. He’s very generous: If something is not working he will tell you the truth, and if something is working he takes the time to call you to tell you how grateful he is for what you did. It always surprises me, with how busy he is on a set, that he takes time for those things.”
Of course, it was her performance in Volver that led Woody Allen to cast Cruz as Javier Bardem’s mentally unstable ex in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Then her dynamic turn opposite Ben Kingsley in 2008’s critically acclaimed Elegy assured casting directors that her Oscar-winning turn was no fluke. But Cruz remains circumspect about the long-term impact winning an Academy Award might have on her career.
“You can be flattered about it,” she says with an air of practicality, “but in a sense it’s an award just to get appreciation from people for a movie they love so much. I've been on the other side too, you know? I’ve gotten some good reviews in my career and some bad ones, so I know what it feels like being on both sides. [Vicky Cristina Barcelona] was the most extreme experience in a positive way, so you can look at it for what it is and be flattered. But I cannot assume anything is going to happen as a result of it, because then you’re disappointed if it doesn't.”
Still, one could argue that things are already starting to happen for Penélope Cruz in a big way. She earned rave reviews for the 2009 Cannes debut of her latest collaboration with Almodóvar, Los Abrazos Rotos (“Broken Embraces”); provided a voice for Disney’s summer family flick G-Force; and will soon return to her singing and dancing roots in director Rob Marshall’s adaptation of the Broadway musical Nine. Based on one of Cruz’s all-time favorite movies (Federico Fellini’s 8½), the film casts her opposite legends like Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren and Dame Judi Dench, proving that the Spanish Enchantress can more than hold her own.
“I think every day changes you a little bit and makes you learn something new,” Cruz says when asked how she feels about this stage in her career. “I think we're constantly moving forward, evolving, changing and learning. When I started, my biggest aspiration was just to be able to be an actress with work. The best situation I could imagine was to be able to choose what I wanted to do. That counts more for me than the concept of stardom. I never want to lose that sense of excitement every time I go to the set.”
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