On Tuesday, October 5, the Academy announced what films will represent Spain at the 2022 Oscars. One of films in the running is Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers (Madres Paralelas)--which means, for the second time, Spanish actress Penelope Cruz could be nominated for an Oscar for her role in the film.
“The three times it has happened it has been a surprise and a great joy,” Cruz told EFE. “I still can’t believe it and I don’t expect it to happen again, but if it ever happens again I will live it like the first time, but don’t expect anything.”
She continued, “All the actors in their 80s and 80-somethings I know will tell you the same thing: they still have the same passion for their work, with the desire to keep exploring, to keep doing, to keep learning. That is what this job gives us, that you face a new character every time. And you are like a student, always starting from scratch.”
The actress is in the running among a number of possible actresses nominated at the upcoming Oscars. She has already received an Oscar for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the 2009 Woody Allen film, which is when she became the first Spanish actress to win an Oscar.
In her latest role for Parallel Mothers, Cruz plays Janis, a professional photographer raised by her grandmother and determined to fulfill her last wish: to find the remains of her great-grandfather who died at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. A pregnant Janis ends up crossing paths with Ana, a teenage single mother, like herself, with whom she shares the delivery room.
Something Cruz has continually talked about is her character’s honesty, saying, “She has been fighting all her life to give that grandfather a dignified burial because she is an orphan, she was raised by this grandmother to whom she feels she owes everything, but she never had a normal family.”
Penelope said she had to prepare for the role for four months, explaining, “Pedro gives me such interesting characters, so difficult and full of nuances, and he guides me and accompanies me in the creation process.”
Hopefully, Cruz gets the honor of another Oscar nomination--and win--for her hard work.
