Oscars Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz will compete as best actor and actress at the Oscars 2022
Oscars Oscars 2022: complete list of nominees
Like
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
, but without that fondness for eternal air fights.
Like John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands, but with less alcohol-soaked nicotine maybe.
Like Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, but without that slightly arrogant wince.
Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem
are like all the eternal couples who at some point were nominated for the Oscars in the same year, at the same time and in the same moment of clarity.
But, yes, in another way.
They talk loudly, they hug each other when they get emotional and, when it comes down to it, they don't hesitate to admit that they cried.
"I fell to the ground and cried for an hour and a half,"
she says.
"We were hugging each other watching TV and we were shocked," he says.
She confesses that she is happy, fundamentally, for him.
And for Peter.
And he is convinced that if someone wins, it will be her.
In addition to feeling that neither Fernando (León de Aranoa) nor Pedro (Almodóvar) are with them on the same list.
Pimpernel, please say something.
Good morning in Los Angeles (at noon here) the news was known.
And this was not so much that the most international Spanish actors are candidates for the Oscars (she for her role in
Pedro Almodóvar's
Parallel Mothers , and he in
Ser los Ricardo
, by Aaron Sorkin) as that two people, up to now, flesh and blood they ceased to be.
Not people, but the other.
It is so.
Suddenly, the glory transforms the bodies;
Suddenly, as soon as a sign with a few names appears, the material evaporates and becomes a myth.
They are alive, they hug, cry and laugh out loud, but, in reality, they share a kingdom and fortune with
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward,
with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, with Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton.
Penélope tells
in the kitchen
of the producer of El Deseo that all but one of the times that she has been a candidate she witnessed live the moment in which her name was pronounced.
Even if she was in Los Angeles and even if that meant getting up at five in the morning.
«The first time my father forced me;
the second, the one that pushed me was Salma Hayek (she would end up winning it for her role in
Vicky Cristina Barcelona,
by Woody Allen);
the third, I fell asleep... And this one».
And here, she has already been said, she hugged herself, threw herself on the ground and cried.
«I knew», he says at the Hotel Urso in Madrid, «that, if I went out, it would be clear that I would go out first, because of the B of my last name, and I was left with a silly face, which is what happens in these cases» .
Penelope's, on the other hand, was more exciting.
Strictly speaking, the C doesn't go much after the B.
«Chastain came out first, Jessica, then Colman, Olivia...
And I said to myself: 'How much C'.
And from so much C Cruz ended up coming out ».
At first, neither of them starts as a favorite.
Bardem will face Benedict Cumberbatch
(The Power of the Dog),
Andrew Garfield
(Tick Tick Boom),
Will Smith
(The Williams Method)
and Denzel Washington
(The Tragedy of Macbeth)
.
On paper, Cumberbacht seems untouchable in Jane Campion's volcanic display of him as a cowboy wounded to the depths of his manhood.
Not in vain, remember,
The Power of the Dog
is the film to beat with its 12 nominations.
Bardem's is an interpretation to the limit.
How he likes it
.
As was the one in
No Country for Old Men,
of the Coens, with which he already won his Oscar.
He plays Desi Arnaz, the former husband of Lucille Ball, in a verbose and free-falling drama in which the Spaniard is capable of absolutely everything: from singing to dancing to tracing the Cuban accent with frightening clarity.
Will it be enough?
And what else does he give?
In Penelope's case, it seems there are more options.
Her opponents are the aforementioned Jessica Chastain (
The Eyes of Tammy Faye)
and Olivia Colman
(The Lost Daughter),
alongside Nicole Kidman
(Being the Ricardos)
and Kristen Stewart
(Spencer)
.
That is to say, none of them champion any of the most visible bands and with more options.
Perhaps
Nicole Kidman
, if what prevails is the wisdom of an interpreter who perfectly reads the gestures of an icon such as Lucille Ball, or perhaps
Kristen Stewart,
if the option is to surrender to the unfathomable suffering of Lady Di.
Or Pe and point.
Javier, of course, remembers his mother Pilar who passed away in September.
«Here I have his ring.
There is not a moment when I do not remember her, the eternal love I feel for her, the need to tell her everything about her».
And he continues: «My mother was very excited about these things.
She prayed to her saints for good things to happen to us.
I know my mother is enjoying it right now, I've been talking to her and I've dedicated it to her."
Penelope, for her part, does not stop mentioning Pedro Almodóvar,
"to whom she owes so much and loves so much."
But she also (and here she gets emotional) remembers that friend of hers who has gone through almost the same thing as Janis, her character in
Parallel Mothers.
And she cries.
no shame
She is excited to see a giant get excited.
She says that the first time she read the script for Almodóvar's latest film, her heart skipped a beat.
"Because he impressed me that once again he trusted me for so much and so different and so complex."
And happy, she gets excited.
Again.
Never before has an actor achieved as much as Javier Bardem.
And never before has an actress come as close to heaven as Penelope Cruz.
The two are a couple.
Like Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.
Like Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston.
And both are, by conviction and birth, Spanish.
Are they considered a Spain brand?
"I dont know.
I don't dare that much.
The only thing I can say is that I love Spain, I live in Spain and I have always tried not to stray too far from Spain».
Not in vain, rarely, an actress is nominated for an Oscar for speaking in a language that is not English.
"That's why I think the excitement is twofold," she concludes.
On March 27 at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood it will be known if what is a nomination today will be something else.
And the question is: what else can it be?
30 years ago they met on the set of Jamón, Jamon.
Three decades later they are still embracing.
Forever.
The ham became a myth.
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Pedro Almodovar
Penelope Cruz
Pedro Rodriguez
Javier Bardem
Barcelona
Woody Allen
movie theater
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