Cruz did not know role was for her

Spanish actress wins Oscar for Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona

By Robin Rowe

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 2/22/2009 – “Has anyone ever fainted here?” asks Oscar winner Penélope Cruz as she accepted her Academy Award. Cruz spoke of growing up in a town in Spain where the dream of winning an Oscar someday didn’t seem realistic. She particularly thanked Woody Allen.

“Thank you Woody for this great character and for writing some of the greatest characters for women over the years,” says Cruz. “Art in any form is and has always been our universal Language. It must be protected.” Cruz also expressed her appreciation for the award speaking in Spanish.

“I just thought she was amazing,” says Woody Allen who had never seen Penélope Cruz in a film until he saw her Oscar-nominated performance in Pedro Almodovar’s Volver. “Of course, I couldn’t wait to get her for my movie. And then her agent called and said Penelope knew I was doing a movie in Spain and she called and said she wanted very much to be a part of it. To me, that was the greatest thing I could hear. Maria Elena is a force of nature, and that’s what Penélope is. She’s beautiful and amazingly sexy in a way that no other woman in the world is, a very special kind of beauty. She’s a tremendous actress, and she conveys it. It’s overwhelming.”

“With somebody else I would have been scared to play a character that approaches every situation with the same level of energy,” says Cruz. “When you have a character that is so extroverted and so loud and brings so much chaos, I think, maybe because of fear, I wanted to do some of the scenes a little bit quieter. And I tried a couple of times to make things smaller and he said, ‘No, she lives in that state permanently.’ He gave me a clear direction: ‘Be brave!’ And, I think he was right.”

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a story of two girlfriends on holiday in Spain dating the same painter, unaware that his tempestuous ex-wife is about to return. The film had a $4M U.S. opening weekend, has grossed $51M worldwide.