Penelope Cruz Shoot published in December, 2000 Interview from http://looksmartjrhigh.com On the night that photographer Ellen Von Unwerth shot the actress Penelope Cruz in New York for this issue of interview, the last view we had of her was as the elevator doors shut at the tony Carlyle Hotel. In truth, we were lucky that we weren't all thrown out. We'd had a shoot that was so funny and lively and wild and full of surprises we kept thinking we'd fallen into a Pedro Almodovar movie. To call Cruz (whose story begins on page 126) a good sport doesn't get to the half of it. We'd started out earlier that afternoon at the club Nell's on 14th street. Right from the beginning it was obvious that Von Unwerth and Cruz were a great match of humor, spirit, and willingness to give all to the pictures. Von Unwerth has a lightness when she's working, almost a casualness that allows people to relax and have fun, as well as leaves room for spontaneity. She also has ideas of what will give a picture the feeling that she thinks is representative of the person or situation she is portraying. On this occasion, her thought had been that after she took plenty of images of Cruz inside she'd end the shoot by taking her for a spin through Manhattan in a vintage, pale yellow Cadillac convertible, circa 1967. It was still warm out that day and Von Unwerth's plan with the car had something to do with some loose evocation of the characters Cruz had played in Almodovar's movies. Little did she know of the high jinks that lay ahead. Our production team managed to find just the right car, one which had the added bonus of a faux zebra-skin interior--but then two unexpected problems arose. First, it turned out that Cruz, who was only in town for about forty-eight hours, and who at this juncture is piping hot in terms of demand, was expected at another appointment uptown arranged by her agent, and we were suddenly told that a car was coming to pick her up so she could be there by 8:00 P.M. It wasn't just any rendezvous--but one with Tom Cruise, who (we were further told), had flown in specifically for this meeting with the actress before she left for Calcutta at the crack of dawn. See what I mean about an Almodovar film? Cruz herself seemed to want to finish the shoot the right way, which was to stick it out until all the pictures were done. Cruz's agent then had a brainwave. Why didn't the convertible we'd ordered take Cruz uptown to her meeting? That way Von Unwerth could get her pictures, and Cruz could make her appointment with the other Cruise, and thereby not blow her potential big-time Hollywood career. Everybody was happy with the compromise; but then we were stumped by the next problem. Who knew that prop cars can't go anywhere--or that, at least, this one couldn't (it had no license plate)? Happily, this was not a give-up group. Thanks to yet another ingenious idea we ended up putting the convertible--with Cruz and Von Unwerth in it--on top of the flatbed that had delivered the car to the shoot. If you could have seen the scene on 14th Street with the crowd cheering on our protagonists as they were suspended high up in the air in a lit-up car that was tipping up and down like a rocking horse! Off they went uptown, with the rest of us following this surreal scene in various taxis and cars. When Von Unwerth and Cruz got to the Carlyle and were helped down from their carnival ride the shoot kept going. Von Unwerth wasn't about to stop until the very last second--she just kept snapping, snapping, snapping whatever was going on. This included the hotel doormen trying to stop the sudden appearance of a photo shoot. Cruz stayed game every step of the way, almost hilariously so, while her people were worrying that she had to hurry and get upstairs. When she finally did get into the elevator it was an exit befitting the night. She waved and laughed. So did we. Happy holidays. -- Ingrid Sischy copyright 2000 Brant Publications, Inc. copyright 2000 Gale Group