EYE WEEKLY caught up with Penelope Cruz, looking lovely (and not
pregnant) during a promotional blitz last September at TIFF for her new film with director Pedro Almodóvar,
Broken Embraces (in theatres today). A film-noir that oscillates
between great moments of comedy and tragedy, Broken Embraces features Cruz as Lena, a wannabe actress
trapped in a relationship with a possessive millionaire bankrolling a movie whose director she has fallen in love with. Based on her remarks, it would appear
that she’s just as enamoured with working with Almodóvar.
How does your relationship with Almodóvar change with
each film?
Like everything, it keeps growing and evolving and it’s
gotten to a point where we almost know what the other one is thinking. We get
to a set in the morning and if I look at him, I know if he’s slept or not. And
he’s the same with me and we can use that in the work without crossing the line
of ever losing respect for each other. We really have a strong friendship but
that doesn’t mean I get less nervous when I’m around him on the set. Or less
intimidated — because he’s so honest. You do a scene with him and if it’s good
he will tell you, and if it’s bad he will tell you. That’s what is so addictive
about working with him — the honesty. It’s so refreshing.
This is a film about a romance with filmmaking.
It was very interesting because we had the two crews — and
sometimes it was hard to know who was with us, and who was an actor. And the
set where we were shooting was the set where [Almodóvar] filmed Tie Me Up, Tie Me
Down! and Woman on the Verge of a
Nervous Breakdown. I was surprised that he
wanted to go back there; I mean, they were great shoots but there were so many
strong memories. It’s one of the oldest studios — and I think that’s the reason
he chose to shoot there, for all of those ghosts.
Is there any part of the relationship between the actress and director in the movie that reflects your own relationship with Pedro?
It is a different kind of relationship, but there’s the same affection for how much we love each other, because we’ve been friends since I was a little girl, that’s there. Sometimes Pedro would play Mateo. (The director Cruz’s character falls in love with, played by Luis Homar.) And when we were finding the looks for the character I play in the film within the film, he would sometimes play Mateo’s role and take my picture. We had a very strong moment through the mirror where he and I really connected and then he made a scene out of that.
What is the relationship between this film and Hollywood cinema?
I see it as a homage of all the people that he admires the most in movies. We went through so many different looks of different actresses — and then he decided that the Audrey Hepburn look was the best one because he wanted that sense of pop comedy. That was fun for me too because I love those women.
It’s clear that Pedro is a filmmaker who loves movies. Does he make you watch the films of the actresses he wants you to imitate?
He tells me the opposite: don’t try to imitate anybody. Focus on one person in particular. I watch the films he recommends on the first day. He gives us three months of preparation and he’s with us there every day. He can be there for hours and hours with the actors — I don’t know if I tried out 500 dresses until we found the one we liked, but he was there with me the whole time, taking pictures, trying out different angles.
Do you feel like Pedro creates characters for you, or do you create them together?
He doesn’t give you the script until it’s completely finished. I’m always surprised. The first time I was a whore giving birth in a bus. Then, a nun that gets pregnant from a transvestite. Every time, I have this moment of “Really? Isn’t this going to be too much? How are we going to make this believable?” And then he does it, every single time.
You have to be a bad actress in the film. Was that difficult?
Yes, because we thought we were going to have a lot of fun. Like, “oh, we can do whatever we want!” But Pedro wanted something so subtle. If you see the same scene that’s two degrees lower or higher, it’s like music — a little bit off and you don’t feel the connection. And it’s hard to explain what it is but he really wanted that subtle difference, and that can be hard to find.
It was a few years ago, when you talked about a scene he had written for you, in which you were going to be suspended upside down.
Yes — and naked, and bald. That’s one of the scripts he’s writing but he doesn’t know which one he’s going to do next. He hasn’t shared the story with anyone yet, but it’s a very good story.
How would you characterize Lena in this film? Is she less strong than the other characters you’ve played in Almodóvar’s films?
I think she’s very strong because she has one challenge after another. And she becomes a great actress in life. She has to be the best liar in order to survive. I feel a lot of compassion for her not to be able to be who she is. She has no freedom, she has no peace. And that’s why I see three women in one: who she is, the moment where she becomes a character in order to survive and then the character she plays in the movie. Some days, we would go from one extreme to the other: comedy, drama, film noir, comedy. Thank God we have Pedro there.