Penelope Cruz, an actress «who illuminates simplicity»

We may believe that we know everything there is to know about a public figure from the hundreds of interviews, reports and documentaries that help us to outline what a singer, a group, a film director, an actress is like …, but the Atresmedia Player Premium format led by Iñaki López and directed by Alberto del Pozo, “Let’s say I talk about” is overcome week after week. If in the previous chapter they dissected the phenomenon of the musical group Mecano, they have raised the stakes and today they release “Let’s talk about Penélope Cruz.” Through three installments, which are released in full, we will see teachers and colleagues from their childhood, directors of their youth, such as Fernando Trueba, Julio Medem or Jaime Chávarri, and colleagues, such as Luis Tosar, Santiago, stand in front of the camera Segura, Miguel Ángel Silvestre or Aitana Sánchez Gijón. In addition, it will feature statements from the world of politics like José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Irene Montero, Borja Sémper or Alberto Ruiz Gallardón. As a surprise the participation of the actress, Mónica Cruz, who will try to make us closer to Penelope.

Order the chaos

The documentary takes a tour from its beginnings in “Alcobendas”, the man from the first chapter, its passage through “Hollywood”, and its return to “Madrid”. “It was always a continuous show at home,” says Mónica Cruz about the girl who first dreamed of being a dancer and then opted for acting from her native Alcobendas. Also, «Let’s say I’m talking about Penelope Cruz He will show some unpublished material such as his school notes offered by one of his teachers or one of his first performances, back in 1988 with the Indian Dance of “The Nutcracker”, mutated into a snake.

After this stage, Cristina Rota speaks, director of the academy who had to “organize that chaos” that was the young actress, who the drama teacher describes as “passionate.” Or how her first representative, Katrina Bayonas, chose her from among 350 young people, at least to the third test she did. He went through «The fifth march», appeared in a video of Mecano and he even did a bawdy piece called Serie Rosa en Francia directed by Jaime Chávarri. Bayonas was also the one who led her towards what would be her consecration in Spain, Bigas Luna’s film, “Jamón, Jamón”, where she would meet her later husband, Javier Bardem. “We were betting that he would end up with him”, reveals Mónica Cruz at one point, who also explains how her grandmother left the cinema white after seeing the tape.

In the second chapter, the show talks about his Oscar and the confession of loneliness that he made to Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, and the fears of working in Hollywood that he shared with Jordi Mollà. In the third installment back to Madrid, she will talk about her role as a producer and director of documentaries and advertisements. In short, and in the words of those who know her, Penelope is “a thug from Alcobendas” (Jorge Sanz); “You see Penelope enter a film set and there is something in the air that surrounds her that vibrates” (Luis Tosar); “Seduces musicians like Bono or Prince” (Luis Mollà); «one of the referents of Spanish culture at an international level and a feminist referent » (Irene Montero), and “an actress who illuminates simplicity”, according to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.