From a couch beside their translator, she sips orange juice in a pink-and-blue Fair Isle sweater.
Did the pair purposefully dress to complement each other, or are they just that in sync?
It’s hard to tell.
Penélope Cruz and Pedro Almodóvar working on ‘Parallel Mothers’.Sony Pictures Classics
It’s the kind of actor-director relationship thespians dream of in Hollywood.
“It just happens,” Cruz says.
“With a look, we know how the other one is feeling that morning.
Pedro Almodóvar and Penélope Cruz.Jamie McCarthy/WireImage
Are we nervous about something?
I can never lie to him.”
She came to a rehearsal forParallel Mothersone day, upset over something going on with a friend.
She didn’t want to tell Almodovar.
She didn’t want to bring that energy into their creative space.
And I started crying," Cruz recalls.
“And then he hugged me and we talked, and the rehearsal was fine.
I thought I was hiding it well.
Almodovar laughs over his cappuccino.
“I think it’s also important to establish a kind of distance.
It doesn’t mean that I treat her just like an actress.
I was thinking about immediately makingThe Human Voicebecause Tilda Swinton was already in Madrid.
But after, I was thinking about a long feature.
I had the script already done forParallel Mothers, but I didn’t like it.
PENELOPE CRUZ:In the middle of the lockdown, we talked once in a while.
He told me that he took out this script again and was starting to finish it.
I couldn’t be more happy to hear the news.
Does he share all the scripts that are sitting in his drawer, Penelope?
CRUZ:I don’t ask too much.
I know if he has something to share with me, he will.
He’ll call whoever he thinks is the right person for that character.
He mentioned to Antonio [Banderas] and I about a remake ofMarriage Italian Style.
Of course, Antonio and I were like, “Is he joking?
It would be a dream for us!”
I feel we haven’t done our comedy yet.
ALMODOVAR:It’s true.
You have worked together for a very long time.
Are there still things that you’re learning about each other?
ALMODOVAR:I knewParallel Mothershad one of the most complex characters I had ever written.
How did you unlock your character, Penelope?
CRUZ:[Pedro] gave us three, four months to prepare together.
With him, I arrive from zero to do it together from the beginning, from the root.
And I enjoy that process very much.
[Janis] has to be a professional liar in life for survival.
She has to be tough.
I identify with her in many ways.
But if it was me in that situation…
I would have been able to lie in life like her, probably yes.
Out of also survival mode.
And I don’t judge her for taking the time that she takes to speak the truth.
I don’t think anybody can.
Many actors and directors would kill for the longtime collaboration you two have.
What’s been most important in maintaining your relationship?
CRUZ:You cannot force those things.
The connection with someone to grow together, experience things together you keep understanding each other.
We never talk about this, but our relationship is different on the set.
We create, like, a veil of distance.
We are not like when we go out to a restaurant and we are gossiping and laughing.
We know we need that to protect the relationship and the work.
It’s not about resetting a power relationship, but actually setting up a functional work relationship.
