For Penélope Cruz, Federico García Lorca is not simply a name in the history of Spanish literature. He is a presence that has followed her since she was studying acting, a writer whose work she has continued to return to and whose unfinished La bola negra has now become the inspiration for one of the most ambitious Spanish films of the year. At the Toronto Film Festival, Cruz described Lorca as “the most modern poet.” That connection gives La bola negra, directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, a particular significance for the actress. The film links three men and three different eras through sexuality, desire, pain and inheritance, drawing on one of Lorca’s unfinished works. It also confronts the historical silencing of homosexuality and the ways in which shame and fear can be inherited across generations.
Cruz arrived at Toronto after a year that has taken her from Cannes, where La bola negra won the directors’ prize, to Telluride and TIFF, where she received the festival’s Special Tribute Award. But some of the most revealing details about the actress have little to do with awards. She speaks with equal enthusiasm about Lorca, about the medical textbooks she has been studying every night for 12 years and about something she has fought for throughout her Hollywood career: allowing her English characters to speak Spanish.
In Olivia Wilde’s The Invite, Cruz plays a Spanish woman living in the United States with an American husband, played by Edward Norton. Their relationship exists in both languages. For Cruz, that was not a stylistic detail. It was reality.
“I had to fight for that at the beginning of my career here,” she says. “Why doesn’t this mother speak Spanish with her children? Why doesn’t this couple do it? Why, why, why?”
Q. You have described Federico García Lorca as the most modern poet. What is it about Lorca that continues to speak to you?
Penélope Cruz. I have been obsessed with Lorca since I was studying acting. There is something about him that feels incredibly alive. His work is so connected to desire, to love, to pain, to repression, to freedom. Those things don’t become old.
That is one of the reasons La bola negra is so important to me. It is inspired by one of Lorca’s unfinished works, but it is not simply a film about the past. It is about things that are still happening now. It connects different generations and different lives, and it asks what we inherit from the people who came before us.
Q. What did it mean to you to be part of a film so closely connected to Lorca?
Penélope Cruz. It was very special. La bola negra is a love letter to cinema, poetry and art. But above all, it is about humanity and empathy. Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi have made something very ambitious. They understand that you can speak about history and sexuality and pain and still make something that feels deeply human. That was very important to me. And Lorca is there all the time. His presence is not decorative. It is part of the heart of the story.
Q. You have said that you have studied medicine every night for the past 12 years. How did that begin?
Penélope Cruz. It’s my hobby. I study medicine every night of my life. No, no, no, it’s really my hobby. I read books this thick (making a sign with the hand) about the endocrine system and things like that make me very happy, very happy. Probably five or six nights a week, for the past 12 years, I have been reading those books for hours. I love it. And I cannot explain why I love it so much. Maybe I have another career as a doctor waiting for me. If I had started when I was little… I always played doctor. I would give the adults insulin injections. Insulin and things from my grandmother. That was my game.
Q. So medicine has been part of your imagination since childhood?
Penélope Cruz. Yes. And it also comes from the women in my life. My grandmothers, my mother. They didn’t have time to worry about what other people thought of them. I want to honor the women I knew.
Q. Do you see any connection between that fascination with medicine and acting?
Penélope Cruz. I don’t know. Maybe. I think I’m fascinated by people, by the body, by why we are the way we are. Medicine is incredibly complex. The more you learn, the more you realize how much you don’t know. And maybe that is also what I love about acting. You are constantly trying to understand another person.
Q. You have also spent much of your career fighting for your characters to speak Spanish. Why has that been so important to you?
Penélope Cruz. I had to fight for that at the beginning of my career here. I had to fight very hard. It was always, “Why doesn’t this mother speak Spanish with her children? Why doesn’t this couple do it? Why, why, why?” And the answer would be, “No, because of the audience.” As if people weren’t going to understand it. The audience is very intelligent. You don’t always need subtitles because it is clear.
Q. Is that what happened with The Invite?
Penélope Cruz. Yes. My character is a Spanish woman who lives in the United States with an American man. They are married, they are together and they use both languages. Obviously, 90%, 95% of it is English, but they use some Spanish because he wants to learn. That was important to me because that is how people actually speak. You don’t suddenly stop being Spanish because you live in America.
Q. And Edward Norton was keen to speak Spanish?
Penélope Cruz. I think Edward speaks some Spanish and he really wanted to play a character for whom it made sense to speak Spanish. Every time he tried something during rehearsals around that table or on set, I would run over to him and say, “Edward, you have to say that.” You don’t know how funny it is for our ears, too. It’s hilarious.
Q. You insisted that the Spanish should not be subtitled. Why?
Penélope Cruz. Because people understand it. It is part of what is interesting. You have to listen and read their faces. Sometimes you don’t need to explain everything. Sometimes you need to trust the audience.
Q. What attracted you to The Invite?
Penélope Cruz. I’m always looking for comedies because I love the genre, and it is very difficult to find intelligent comedies. I remember my representative telling me, “This is very good and very funny.” I started reading it and I knew it was based on a Spanish movie that I really like, by a director I really like, but it was something completely different. I thought, “Did this fall from the sky? What is this?” It was a gift to be given the opportunity to be part of this movie and to play this character, whom I love very much.
Q. What do you think comedy can do that drama sometimes cannot?
Penélope Cruz. I wanted to do this because I knew it was going to make people laugh, but also make them ask questions about themselves and their relationships. We shouldn’t underestimate the power of making someone laugh. It is also a way of helping keep this genre alive. Comedy is very complex. It is never easy to do. I have enormous respect for it. I think it is difficult to find a script that is funny and intelligent, one that can make you laugh out loud but can also touch your heart and make you ask yourself uncomfortable questions.
Q. What was it like being directed by Olivia Wilde?
Penélope Cruz. There are things you don’t even have to explain too much. You put them out there and she already knows what you are talking about because she has been in that place and felt exactly the same thing. I always hate the question, “Is it different to be directed by a woman or a man?” I would rather not talk about that because I hope that one day it won’t even be worth asking the question or giving the answer. But it is different when you are directed by an actor, because there are things you could never express or communicate with words if you hadn’t been in that position and experienced our insecurities or whatever it might be. You don’t have to explain it. You put it out there and she understands.
Q. What did you discover in your character?
Penélope Cruz. She could be crazier. At least that’s how I see her. And I like that she can be a very good therapist without constantly lecturing other people about how to be happy or how to have a lasting relationship. I like this movie because it manages not to fall into clichés, which is very difficult in a movie like this.
Q. You have three very different films this year.
Penélope Cruz. I always look for characters that are different from one another and different from me. An award like the one I received in Toronto is always an opportunity to thank all the people who have been there from the beginning, who believed in me and gave me interesting characters that were not alike, that were not like me. That is what I am grateful for.
Q. Do you ever manage to switch off?
Penélope Cruz. It’s important not to forget to rest sometimes, although that is a lesson that has taken me a very long time to learn. I know the theory, but I’m terrible at the practice.
