A Woman on the Verge

With her large, dark-brown eyes, silky black hair and olive complexion, it would be easy to imagine Spanish actress Penelope Cruz as an Andalusian lady, dancing a fandango, wearing a mantilla and playing castanets.

But born a Madrilena (from Madrid), and in an age when everyone wears Gap clothing, Cruz found a different way of becoming a lady from the south of Spain: acting.

Last year, the role she had dreamed about as a child materialized in Fernando Trueba’s “Girl of Your Dreams.” Playing a young Andalusian cabaret singer trapped in Germany during the Nazi era, Cruz could finally play out fantasies she created in her childhood.

The role was close to Cruz’s heart. Her grandmother is from Andalusia, an area in southern Spain where the passion of Gypsy culture, flamenco and bullfighting are as much a part of the landscape as the blood-red-colored hillsides speckled with olive trees. The vibrancy and passion of Andalusian music and poetry was ingrained in Cruz as a young girl by her grandmother.

Her transformation into the character was so complete, so real, that she won a Goya--Spain’s equivalent of an Oscar--for best actress.

“I always admired these women from the 1940s who were so open,” she said. “From when I was very small, I was always listening to these coplas [two-sentence refrains or verses]. I had been rehearsing all my life for this movie.”

Rehearsing comes naturally to Cruz--she’s been doing it since she was a young girl. Her acting career began when she was 15, and by her late teens she was a star throughout Europe.

Now 25, Cruz is on a roll. Her first English-language film, “The Hi-Lo Country,” came out at the end of last year; her second one, “Twice Upon a Yesterday,” opened Friday. Her most recent Spanish-language film, “Open Your Eyes,” was released in the U.S. last month.

Her next Spanish film, Pedro Almodovar’s “All About My Mother,” was the toast of Cannes this year--Almodovar won the best director award for it--and likely will be released in the U.S. later in the year. And soon to start shooting is another English-language film, “Woman on Top.”

For a young actress, Cruz has a surprisingly wide range. She has gone from a Mexican girl with an unrequited love for cowboy Bill Crudup in the drama “Hi-Lo Country” to a bookish writer in the romantic fantasy “Twice Upon a Yesterday” to a pregnant nun in “All About My Mother.” In the comedy “Woman on Top,” she’ll play a Brazilian chef.

But perhaps her best chance at stardom, Hollywood style, is about to come. She’s just completed shooting Columbia’s “All the Pretty Horses,” the movie version of the award-winning novel by Cormac McCarthy, directed by Billy Bob Thornton; she stars in the film with Matt Damon.

The buzz in Hollywood is that with her looks and acting ability, Cruz is primed to become a truly international star.

“She has that incredible sparkle that movie stars have,” said Amy Pascal, Columbia Pictures’ president, who compares her to another actor from Spain who’s gone on to bigger things. “Antonio Banderas had it. So does Penelope.

“She is very sexy but not threatening, vulnerable and strong at the same time--and, of course, being beautiful doesn’t hurt.”

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Landing a coveted role in “Pretty Horses” is all the more surprising given that five years ago she didn’t speak any English. Her English-language debut in Stephen Frears’ “Hi-Lo Country” won critical acclaim, even if the movie did not.

In “Pretty Horses,” Cruz plays the daughter of a wealthy Mexican rancher who falls in love with Damon’s rebellious American character. The minute Thornton saw Cruz’s demo tape, he knew she was it, he said.

“She was exactly what I had envisioned for the part,” Thornton said from the set of the movie then shooting in New Mexico. “There are very few actresses like her--she was head and shoulders above everybody else.

“There is something so sincere and serious about her as an actress, but then I saw her sense of humor. She has such a great little girl quality about her. She has this sense of innocence about her, and she is not afraid to show that.”

Though she is excited about her English-language debuts, Cruz has no intention of abandoning her native land. She can afford to be selective about what movies she will do.

“I don’t want to do whatever, just because it’s an American movie,” she said. “The bigger the field of work, the more options I will have. In Spain, I think they are doing beautiful things. Maybe they are movies that cost less, but that does not mean they are not good.”

Cruz doesn’t spend much time thinking about celebrity or fame. As a matter of fact, she doesn’t enjoy being the object of attention--she would much rather observe others. She thinks of herself now as a kind of voyeur, taking in the world and enjoying her time away from the spotlight.

“Before, when I was much younger, the only thing I wanted was for people to look at me. And now, I like to stand in a corner and watch,” said Cruz, over lunch in Los Angeles. “You see such interesting things.”

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In person, Cruz projects a kind of girl-next-door normalcy--if the girl next door was stunningly gorgeous, capable of drawing glances from strangers even in jaded Los Angeles where beautiful women are not an uncommon sight. She is slight yet full figured, with luminous eyes that pull you into them. She’s unafraid to show her freckles and totally at ease wearing no makeup.

Yet her sincerity and sweetness belies a young woman who is extremely focused and ambitious. She is a perfectionist who has striven to be recognized more for her acting than her looks.

“I think she does put a little unnecessary pressure on herself,” said Thornton, noting that in shooting his film, it took awhile for Cruz to be comfortable in her takes. “She wants to do so well and please so much. She was never sure she satisfied herself or me.”

Born to a middle-class family in Madrid, Cruz is exceptionally close to her siblings and parents, who still live in Spain. Indeed, she considers her mother and sister to be her closest friends.

“The good thing is that I have always had wonderful people around me,” she said. “It’s dangerous when you start earning a lot of money and you become famous when you are too young. I still need them because you are never out of danger.”

Her mother, Encarna, was a hairdresser and now runs Cruz’s business affairs. Her father, Eduardo, is an auto mechanic. Her sister, 22-year-old Monica, is a professional flamenco dancer, and her 13-year-old brother, Eduardo Jr., dreams of becoming a professional soccer player.

Though acting does not run in her family, Cruz was a born performer. “I was always the little actress at home,” she said. “I was a little girl with a lot of imagination.”

By age 14, after enrolling in dance and acting classes, she felt she had found her calling. So, at 15, she tried out for a talent agency with 350 other wannabe actors. She was hired on the spot by Katrina Bayonas, now her longtime manager and friend.

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“She was absolutely magic. It was obvious there was something very impressive about this kid,” said Bayonas, from a cell phone in Cannes, where Almodovar’s film had its debut. “She was very green, but there was a presence. There was just something coming from within.”

Soon, she was cast as the lead in Bigas Lunas’ 1992 “Jamon, Jamon,” a film in which Cruz’s sex appeal exploded on the screen. Her character, Cruz noted happily, was a “very Spanish, very sexy hot-blooded woman”--never mind that Cruz was only 17 and relatively innocent in the ways of the world.

Her performance earned her a Goya nomination for best new actress and introduced her to the world of Spanish movie-makers.

Her versatility became apparent when Trueba, one of Spain’s hottest directors, cast Cruz as the innocent youngest sister in a zany Spanish family in 1992’s “Belle Epoque.” Her character, the virginal Luz, was diametrically opposed to “Jamon, Jamon’s” lusty Sylvia.

In addition to Trueba and Lunas, Cruz has worked with nearly all of Spain’s most noted directors. Because it is so small, the Spanish film industry is like a tight-knit family. Cruz counts Trueba and Almodovar as two of her closest friends.

Besides confirming her acting prowess, winning the Goya was all the more meaningful because while filming “Girl of Your Dreams,” she was struggling through some family problems. Trueba, she said, was her beacon, guiding her not only through one of her most challenging performances, but also keeping her spirits up.

“He is like family,” she said. “Because of the personal situation I was going through and because the character was so rich, I remember that movie in a very special way.”

Her award raised her profile in the film industry internationally, and it wasn’t long afterward that Hollywood came calling. Yet despite her growing fame, she remains a person with deep spiritual beliefs and a levelheadedness rare among those who have grown up in the spotlight.

After spending one week as a volunteer in Mother Teresa’s children’s sanctuary in Calcutta, Cruz donated her entire “Hi-Lo Country” salary to the organization. And during filming of “Pretty Horses,” in which animals figure prominently, she decided to become a vegetarian.

“She is a very loyal person,” said Bayonas. “She is also very humble and is grateful to everybody who has helped her.”

As her career progresses, Cruz hopes to avoid typecasting--to keep as many acting options open as possible. So far, she’s been remarkably successful in that pursuit, playing diverse roles in Spanish- and English-language films. Her looks allow her to play many nationalities: “I think I can look Mexican or Spanish or French or Italian or Brazilian,” she said.

“I was trying to look Japanese the other day because I am reading “Memoirs of a Geisha,” and I heard that [Steven] Spielberg wants to make that movie,” she said. “So I was asking everybody, ‘Do you think I can look Japanese?’ But nobody thinks I can look Japanese. Do you think I could look Japanese?”