Backstage Interview Transcript | 81st Academy Awards
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
CATEGORY: Performance by an actress in a supporting role
INTERVIEW WITH: Penélope Cruz
FILM: "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
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Q. Spanish.
A. Spanish.
Q. Hi Penélope. Congratulations. I just want to ask you, can you translate a little bit of what you said on stage earlier?
A. What I said in Spanish?
In Spanish.
A. I said that I want to dedicate it to all the actors of my country and that I want to dedicate it to all the people that are now watching there at home and that our feeling that this also belongs to them, I want to dedicate it to them.
Q. Spanish.
A. Spanish.
Spanish.
A. Spanish.
Q. Hi Penélope. Congratulations.
A. Thank you.
Q. Before you came today did you speak to Woody Allen to get some advice or guidance?
A. Today?
Q. No. But I'm going to go call Woody right now. He sent me flowers last week when I went to BAFTA, and we've been speaking sometimes during the week. But I call Woody sometimes to just say hello and I adore him. I think he's so funny and charming and so peculiar and unique. And of course, today I have to talk to Woody to thank him.
Q. How would you guys celebrate?
A. Well, I want to see the rest of the ceremony because it's just begun. And I have a lot of friends there that are nominated and I'm really excited for what else is going to happen tonight. And then, yes, celebrate. I don't know. I want good music.
Q. Penélope, congratulations.
A. Thank you.
Q. You have two wonderful performances this year, this one and also Consuela in ELEGY. What does that say to you? Is that just luck or are there just better roles for women now coming along?
A. Those roles are very well written, and I'm very happy to have those two in the same year. I'm grateful to those directors for giving me that material, the women that I have not played before and women that could not be farther from my own personality. And, yes, I'm very grateful to them and luck I'm sure is always part of everything. But you need more than that. In this case I'm talking about their faith and their trust in me.
Q. Hi Penélope. Congratulations. One of your co stars from the upcoming musical NINE. Sophia Loren is here tonight. Can you talk about working with her and the experience of doing a musical and also singing your daring number "A Call From the Vatican"?
A. I know that number. I did it for many months and the last day of shooting I was very depressed that I didn't get to do it again. I think that movie is going to be great. We're very happy and very proud of that movie and Sophia is incredible. She's one of the most special people I've ever met, and we've become very good friends and she's become like my second mom. She tells me what to eat. She's just so real and she has seen everything. You can sit down with her and she will tell you stories about De Sica, Mastroianni, Fellini and she knows everything about all of them. And she's a woman with a heart of gold.
Spanish.
A. Spanish.
Q. Congratulation. And one of the things you kept telling us at Cannes and later for this film that you were very insecure about your performance, and I'm wondering if suddenly getting an Oscar makes any difference to this struggle that you have every time you do a role in regards to that issue?
A. No. I mean, I'm always insecure on the set no matter what. When you're working with Woody Allen you know that you can trust the person that you're working with and if he doesn't like something he will tell you. If he likes it, he will tell you. He's not a man of too many words, but he's honest and that's what counts for me. We just trusted him. We did the whole movie in four weeks four and a half weeks, so I had no idea what it was to be.
But of course I was never doubting the genius of Woody Allen. And I was curious about the tone, because I laughed a lot about the script and once I got into Maria Elena's world, I didn't want to laugh at nothing or anything or anyone for all those weeks. And then I saw the movie with an audience in Cannes. And I remember thinking, why are they laughing? And it comes from the director making sure the actors are not too aware of the genre. And we all knew it was a comedy. It's time to forget about the genre of your movie once you're on the set. And to forget where the jokes could be and which line the joke could be, all of that has to stay out of it.
Q. Congratulations. You talked about the dream being very far away, impossible. Along the way nobody made it easy for you. There were times when they said you were too beautiful, times when they said you couldn't conquer English. What were the things that stood in your way? What were the things that encouraged you to go after this crazy dream?
A. Sometimes invalidations like that I have to keep climbing mountains and sometimes there are some things that are better not to listen, it's better not to engage in those debates. So could you work in America if you have an accent? Yes, you can. And that has been changing in the last 10 or 15 years. It was much harder before, but movies represent life, movies represent what happens in the streets. Then we are all in this together. In this room how many accents are here and not just people that are here this week, people, but maybe half of them or at least a quarter of them live here. And we are all mixed together more and more every day and that has to be reflected in cinema, so I'm happy that finally that door seems to be more open and not just to me and three other people. It's to a much bigger group.
Q. Congratulations. The new format where the actresses came out and gave a tribute to each of you, I don't think I noticed people tearing up as their categories were being read. You looked all very emotional. How powerful was that to hear those tributes?
A. It was amazing to see all those women up there, the women I admire so very much. And about all the things they said about all of us, all the nominees, and especially when that happens, that was a magical moment, and it happened a second before they opened the envelope, and I don't know if I was going to survive it.
Q. Great. Thank you very much and congratulations.
A. Thank you.
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