How different is it to work with a director who is also an actor? Or is there even much of a difference?
No, because I've done it before. I've worked with people who've directed before. Take Sergio for example. He was directing, but he was acting in it too. So, I mean, I was always worried about his health because it was so intense what he had to do. I think that he did an amazing job for such a heavy workload that he had. And he managed to never leave the actors, to always be there protecting us. He really took care of me and is one of my favorite people in the world.
Do you have any weird quirks like your character? She sort of dances after having an abortion.
Yeah. Actually, that wasn't in the script. It's funny that you say that because for me that was the most difficult scene in the movie. She shows her pain and desperation in a way that is not suppressing those feelings. She lets those feelings out for the first time in the movie.
I said to Sergio, “You have to give me a song. Let me do something. I don't want to talk about it and put it into words. But trust me, there is a way that I see that this woman would express the pain in that scene.” And he was so great. He wouldn't even give me an explanation and he gave me a song, we chose a song together, and he gave me all that space to do it. He came to me at the end of the day and thanked me for that, because we were both on the same page creating the character. I couldn't see any other way of expressing that. It was a crazy, pathetic way that was like, “For me, I can't take this anymore.” So, for me, that's what I saw and that's what I wanted to do. It's great when you have a director that lets you do that, that gives you that freedom.
Is this the most physically transforming role you’ve done?
Yes. The character needed that. I mean, that woman has never been to the doctor or the dentist. [She] does her own hair. She has this image of herself and I think that she makes herself look even more ugly because of her own self-esteem.
How did the look come about? Did you have any input?
We did it together. Me and [Whitney James], the makeup artist and Sergio and his wife who write the book. There are four pages in the book that talk about the way she looks and why she looks like that, and her clothes. I went and I bought the clothes myself for the whole character with Margaret [Mazzantini], the author of the book. And every sweater that we bought was one dollar. That was one of the things that I got to do for the character. Then we were buying for ourselves.
How was working with Salma Hayek in “Bandidas?” What kind of fun did you two have in Mexico?
I love working with her. She's been my friend for seven years and is someone that I love very much. She's a great woman and we are now even closer friends after the movie. We had to do all of those actions scenes together, and my God, we worked so hard. We worked hard, but at the same time feeling so lucky that we could do that. We played bank robbers who give the money to the poor and I think that movie can be very funny.
What did you two do off the set?
I had the worst food of my life. The two of us together, especially after working 14, 15 hours a day, we felt like we really deserved to eat a lot of fried food and chocolate and all of it. We would have fried cheese and after the movie we said, “Okay. Now we have to change.” We were doing so much exercise that it was okay because of all of the action scenes.
And you’re also going to be working with Pedro Almodovar again?
Yeah. The situation is that because he's such a genius, he's written two scripts in the last four months and one is a comedy and one is a drama, and the two of them are brilliant. I'm in the two of them, fortunately. If not I would be very, very upset and worried. He said, “Okay, we're shooting in June, but I don't know which one we're doing yet.” But I said yes to the both of them because they are amazing. So whenever he decides which one we're doing, we'll do it. I'm a mother in the two of them.
Whenever he tells me, then I'm going to go. I'm going to work on an accent because I have to do an accent in both of them. I'm going to also interview a lot of interesting women that I'm going to have to meet for that character. He doesn't want me to talk about his story more though.
Are you excited about playing a mother?
I think that's crazy because I could have a fifteen year old son. No, I could. Physically, I could, honestly. And I love playing a mother. I want to have babies myself. I don't know when. I don't feel it at the moment, but for sure I want to be a mother. It's a great thing.
PAGE 3: Penelope Cruz on Riding Camels, "Sahara," and Researching Roles
