On tour promoting her new film, Penelope Cruz looks stunning, despite a sudden illness that has her interviews running late.
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“I love Sahara,” the Spanish film star says. “I always wanted to do an action-adventure movie that was good for the whole family.”
Cruz, 30, has managed to forge a career shuttling between international art films and the commerce of Hollywood.
“You have to follow your own integrity. For me, I don’t make less or more of a big studio movie. I take it seriously, whether I’m in a small independent film or a big super-action movie in America,” she says.
Cruz’s dark eyes sparkle at the mention of Oscar-winning director Pedro Almodovar, who featured her in “Live Flesh” and “All About My Mother,” jump-starting her career. Now, as her stock in Hollywood is rising, she will be returning to Spain to appear in Almodovar’s next three films.
“I think he’s a genius. I think the way he sees the world is amazing. No one writes the way Pedro writes,” Cruz enthuses.
The actress has a habit of getting romantically involved with her co-stars, most prominently with Tom Cruise on “Vanilla Sky” and now with Matthew McConaughey on “Sahara.”
Says McConaughey, “I like working with her because she’s so (long pause) innocently honest. She doesn’t have an affected bone in her body. She knows what she likes, knows what she needs.”
But Cruz refuses to discuss McConaughey, and she absolutely shuts down at the mention of Cruise. “I really don’t want to talk about anything that is going to take us away from talking about ‘Sahara,’ ” she says tersely. “I’m traveling around the world and working very hard to promote the movie because I really believe in it.”