Jacket, pants, brief, earrings, and belt CHANEL Ring and bracelet PENELOPE’S OWN
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PHOTOGRAPHY Greg Swales
STYLED BY Anna Castan
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More than three decades into her acting career, The Bride! star is making the most of her time, both onscreen and off.
What is this game? Penélope Cruz remembers asking herself at 5 years old, playing with a neighbor in her hometown outside Madrid. The game was pretend. “Pretending to be somebody else in a different life, a different situation, a different everything,” she says. The realization landed with startling clarity: This is what I want to do. Decades later, the actor, 51, still recalls the moment vividly. And to this day, she studies people. From the women at her mother’s salon, to restaurants, on set, everywhere. What began as a childhood game never truly ended. It became a career. Because, for her, pretending was never about escape. It’s about understanding the people. Understanding the world.
That sense of curiosity has guided Cruz ever since. It took her from dance classes in Spain to film sets around the world, and eventually to Los Angeles, where she arrived, barely speaking English, in 1994. By the early 2000s, she was suddenly everywhere, often making four to five films a year, moving easily between Spanish cinema and Hollywood studio movies. Her rise had the shape of an old Hollywood story: the mystifying newcomer with an undeniable presence and the ability to hold the screen opposite stars like Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky or Matt Damon in All the Pretty Horses without ever being overshadowed. She’s still chasing a dream, though: to work with legendary actor Meryl Streep.
Cruz is “a combination of things that don’t fit into a box,” says The Bride! director Maggie Gyllenhaal, who has known the actor for 20 years. “She’s so powerful, so vulnerable with a toughness. She has this wild, irrational quality about her.” Cruz won an Academy Award for Vicky Cristina Barcelona in 2009 and became one of Chanel’s most enduring muses (her first Chanel purchase? A pink bikini she thrifted in the 1990s), but her focus has stayed firmly on family. Married to Javier Bardem, her partner both on and off screen, Cruz is careful about her work and public life. Having children has made her more selective, more grounded, and uninterested in anything that pulls her away from home for too long.
That resolve has led her to The Bride!, Gyllenhaal’s bold gothic thriller that’s set in the 1930s and inspired by James Whale’s 1935 film The Bride of Frankenstein. Cruz plays Myrna, a detective who’s struggling for recognition in a man’s world. As she hunts down monsters—The Bride (Jessie Buckley) and Frank (Christian Bale)—and discovers who they are and what they want, Myrna confronts the unsettling possibility that she has something in common with the very creatures she’s chasing. It’s a role built on nuance, subtlety, and a woman’s experience. It also embodies Cruz’s essence as an actor: confident, unshowy, and deeply intentional.
And she’s still exploring new territory; in one of Cruz’s particularly memorable scenes in The Bride!, it feels like she’s “almost in a ’40s screwball comedy,” according to Gyllenhaal. “She told me, ‘No one has ever let me do something like this before,’” recalls the director. “There are many good actors. And there are a handful of really incredible ones. I think Penélope is one of those.”
Here, Cruz speaks to L’OFFICIEL about The Bride!, her intentionality in choosing projects, and how her relationship with acting and fame has evolved.
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L’OFFICIEL: How did The Bride! first come your way?
PENÉLOPE CRUZ: I met Maggie many years ago, and we always talked about wanting to work together. I have always loved her work as an actress, and I loved her first film (The Lost Daughter), which she did with Olivia Colman, based on an Elena Ferrante book. She’s one of my favorite writers. It’s very, very hard to make a great film out of Ferrante’s books, because they’re going to be so judged, since she has so many followers around the world. Working with Maggie really has been a great experience. She’s made a very special film.
L’O: It’s very unique, tackling serious topics in a strong, serious tone—and yet it’s also so fun.
PC: It’s very deep and has so many layers. But at the same time, it’s visually so attractive, so interesting, so rock and roll. There’s so much truth.
L’O: Was there anything specific that drew you to your character, Myrna?
PC: I thought it was so cool to play a detective at that time [in the ’30s]. Even her colleague, Peter’s [Sarsgaard] character, really believes in her and admits that she should be having exactly the same credit that he has. She has to fight with all the rules of society, and he knows that she deserves much, much more. They’ve probably been working together for a long time. That is never mentioned in the movie, but we all think that they have a platonic love. I don’t know, maybe they’ll find each other at some point later.
L’O: Their dynamic was refreshing—in another movie, Sarsgaard’s character would probably just be a sexist colleague.
PC: When she says in the car, You know what, if we get them, I want my name on this one, and he says, You know, it’s not up to me. She’s used to having to hold tears back because she’s working with all these men who never cry—because, especially at that time, it was a sign of weakness. She’s learned, in some ways, how to behave like one of them; but at the same time, she hasn’t lost herself. And she’s brave to keep fighting for what she thinks she deserves. She has to fight very hard. The same way women everywhere, in every profession, still have to work extremely hard to be valued.
I never regret the things that I say No to—especially if the reason is just to be with my family and to raise my kids in a very present way.
L’O: In this highly restrictive world for women, Myrna is so confident and resilient in a way that almost feels ahead of her time. Where does that strength come from?
PC: It’s the way it’s written. She knows it’s not fair, and she wants to fight for what is fair. She understands that it’s not something her partner can change by himself, but she’s not giving up. And you are seeing a woman in [the ’30s], when it was even harder than today. Today, obviously, things are far from being completely solved in terms of equality. But can you imagine what it would be like to be a detective [back then], surrounded by all those men? She has that strength.
L’O: How does Maggie compare to other directors you’ve worked with? Is she hands-on with actors on set, seeing as she’s an actor herself?
PC: She’s very respectful of the process of every actor. And she can see every little thing, because she’s such a great actress, and that gives me confidence and peace of mind. You don’t want to have a director who will be happy with everything you do, every single take, every single moment. She sees everything and tells you what works, what doesn’t. Seeing her work as an actress for so many years, every performance, I knew I was going to be protected and taken care of.
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L’O: Is there a little thing in particular she saw in you that helped your performance?
PC: No, it was an everyday thing. We had conversations months before we started to shoot. And then we got together in New York and did a lot of table work. We didn’t really rehearse, but it was just… talking about everything. I felt very comfortable with her and with Peter. I worked with Peter before in a movie about Pablo Escobar that I did with Javier (Loving Pablo), and I had a really good experience working with him. Peter and Maggie are two of my favorite actors; they’re great. And then Jessie [Buckley] and Christian [Bale]—I don’t have a lot of scenes with them, I just follow them around—but Christian, I worked with him when I was 25. We played boyfriend and girlfriend in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (2001) a long time ago.
L’O: You don’t have many scenes with Jessie Buckley, but her performance is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
PC: Yeah. You know, yesterday I saw Hamnet, and I can only say great things about her. She’s such a hard worker and so talented. And you see those two performances back-to-back. I also just love the monsters together. It’s such a romantic, beautiful love story.
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L’O: What do you think about Myrna’s relationship with the monsters she’s hunting?
PC: She’s a fighter, in the same way The Bride is a fighter. That’s why she loves these monsters. I don’t think my character wants them to die. It’s a very big conflict for her, because she has to give information about what they are, but at the same time, she thinks they are more sane and have stronger values than everyone else surrounding them. [Myrna and The Bride] are fighting for very similar things, and even though my character cannot say it, that is one of her secrets.
L’O: Do you think that the monsters embolden Myrna’s rebellious nature?
PC: One hundred percent. My character is suppressed in a different way, one that is maybe less obvious, but is an everyday thing that can eat up your self esteem. That was her life. And then she can see that multiplied by God knows how much in The Bride, who’s being treated like an animal. In Frank, she can see this childlike quality, this innocence that he has when he watches his favorite movies or musicals. That is his soul. And she can see that in him. Everyone else can only be afraid of them. They cannot see what they really are, but they don’t allow them to be themselves.
That is the great thing about this profession, you know? You can always feel like it’s day one and you don’t know anything.
L’O: At this point in your career, what makes you say yes to a role? Do you have the freedom to be more selective?
PC: I’ve been working since I was 17 years old, and I feel very lucky that I have the opportunity to choose my projects and that I never separate from my kids. I work more in the summer and love Spanish cinema. Also, luckily a lot of international films are shooting in Spain. Sometimes, if it’s a short period of time, we can organize things in a way where we don’t have to be apart. I feel like that is a blessing after working for so long. When I was in my 20s or 30s, I was making four movies per year. The rhythm is different now. And I don’t take it for granted, because I can choose projects that I really love and at the same time, I can be very present as a mother—that is my total priority. I also love my profession, so to be able to combine things is the biggest blessing. There is not one day where I don’t thank life for that. And projects that I feel motivated by and that represent a new challenge like The Bride!, or the movie (The Invite) that I just did with Olivia Wilde, Edward Norton, and Seth Rogen, which is a comedy that is so smart and funny.
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L’O: Is it constricting to manage your work in that way to be close to your kids?
PC: No, because I never regret the things that I say no to—especially if the reason is just to be with my family and to raise my kids in a very present way. I feel like it’s a blessing if I’m able to do something, and I’m very, very lucky to be able to do it that way. I don’t have the ambition of, Oh, let’s do four movies per year. Maybe I do one or two per year, if it works with the family schedule. I do have to work like everyone else, but I really value the fact that I can make a living from a profession that I love so much. I also feel like I’m lucky in terms of the material [that comes my way] and [shoot] dates. Right now, the movie I’m doing with Florian Zeller, Bunker, is shooting in Spain and London, but the London part is only like a week. The next movie I do will be in the summer, which means I can do it and we can all be together. I feel like that’s the payoff of working very hard since I was a teenager.
I think you learn how to protect yourself from believing too many of the good—or bad— things you hear about yourself.
L’O: How much of your work is planned, and how much of your performance happens in the moment?
PC: I like to study. I like to prepare. I like to do my research and spend time with my directors, but also by myself. Sometimes my inspiration comes from real people. Sometimes it can be from different films, music, ballet, opera, or even a specific trip to meet people who are related to whatever subject I’m dealing with. But the research time gives me a lot of happiness, and I never want to get rid of that. It was a problem when I was doing four movies per year, because you end up without time to really do the research—especially if you are working in different accents and languages. I’ve made movies in four languages with different accents, and if it’s Italian or Spanish, you need the time to prepare each one. That’s when you feel like a student again. I’ve had two theatre teachers in my life for many years, and I still prepare with one of them, Juan Carlos Corazza, in Madrid. I love going back to school with the script and my notebook and just trying everything there with him. That is the great thing about this profession, you know? You can always feel like it’s day one and you don’t know anything.
L’O: When work gets intense, how do you kind of come back to yourself?
PC: I try to do an exercise every day so that I don’t bring that energy home. Sometimes it’s easier than others, but I never take it home on purpose. I used to do that when I was younger. I also realized that doesn’t make your work better; you don’t need to be mixing things. The teacher I mentioned really taught me about separating the distance between fiction and reality—it’s not necessary to be in one specific state, really focused and concentrated, in one day where you are shooting for 12 hours and going back and forth from reality to fiction as many times as possible. Before I thought, No, you have to stay in that state for days or weeks. Then I realized that didn’t really help me. Trying not to force anything is always the hardest thing for me, and I think for anyone who does this. That’s why every little child is such a good actor, no? They’re not watching themselves from the outside. They’re just using their imagination to experience that feeling or what that situation would be like. That is my first memory of acting.
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L’O: Has your relationship with fame evolved along with your relationship to acting throughout your career?
PC: I was very young when I started working, and when I became well known in my country, so that was more challenging. But it made me stronger because I had to learn. And also for my parents and my entire family—everything, all of that, was very new for us. But I think you learn how to protect yourself from believing too many of the good—or bad—things you hear about yourself.
L’O: Really, it sounds like you’ve figured out how to live your life in the way that you’re meant to be doing it.
PC: That was always very important for me: to protect my family. I have this profession that is in the public eye, but that doesn’t mean you have to expose your parents or children to that. It’s very important to protect them. Sometimes it takes work and effort, but it’s always worth it.
HAIR AND MAKEUP: Pablo Iglesias
PRODUCED BY: David Alonso, Alexey Galetskiy, Elena Noain, Charli Rodrigo, and Isobel Sánchez
PHOTO ASSISTANTS: David Cruz and Huberto Valero
DIGITAL TECH: Pablo Leono
LIGHTING: Diego Gómez, Dani Torres, and Dani Wallwork
STYLING ASSISTANTS: Ching En Kao, Catarina Díaz, and María Requejo
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SWOW SWAG
