Because Almodóvar shoots his films sequentially, Cruz was well aware of the tragedies that awaited her and began counting down the days until her most difficult scenes, even if Janis couldn’t.
According to her, “it was perhaps the most intensive shot ever,” she knew it would be “hardcore adrenaline.” Janis struggled to keep her emotions under control until a heartbreaking scene where Almodóvar had to help Cruz get up from the floor proved so agonising for the camera.
I want you to achieve it without suffering like this,” Almodóvar said at the time. Cruz, on the other hand, had a quite different view of the situation.
I don’t recall it as suffering because it was for Janis or for all the ladies who could be in a similar scenario of losing what they loved most,” she said. She was still alive to me. It’s true that he made her.”
As a result, when Cruz says “Parallel Mothers” is the most difficult project she’s ever undertaken, she means it in a positive light: Cruz’s portrayal of this woman took her farther away from herself than she could have imagined, despite their first resemblance. “It gave me so much and made me feel so alive creatively,” she insisted, “I have a smile on my face. “I was physically and mentally spent, but I relished every second of it,” says the author.
People who know Penélope Cruz best always use the same word to describe her. When Cruz spoke to me, he paused and said, “All my life, people have told me that I’m stubborn,” before continuing. Because of my zodiac sign, “I’m not sure.”
Whatever the reason, she has benefited from her persistence. Cruz applied for a new-faces programme in Madrid organised by Katrina Bayonas when she was just 14 years old and aspired to break into acting.
It was required that you be a minimum of 16, so Cruz lied. To test Cruz, Bayonas offered her an excerpt from Casablanca to read, knowing that the young girl would be unable to comprehend it.
