In an interview with Parade, the actor – who plays Hector Barbossa in the film franchise – credited Cruz’s varied career with helping to “raise the bar” on the project and to provide conflict for hero Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp).

“She is such an amazing actress. You look at Vicky Cristina Barcelona and that’s one of the high comedy acts onscreen. It certainly deserves an Academy Award,” he explained. “And you see her in a Pedro Almodovar film as a great dramatic actress. So to have that come in and raise the bar as a principal character, and with Ian McShane, it kept us on our toes.

Watch our recent interview with Geoffrey Rush below:

That surpasses the previous record foreign opening of the sixth Harry Potter film, 2009′s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which earned $236 million internationally.

Walt Disney co. said On Stranger Tides, the fourth Pirates installment, earned $90.1 million domestically. Its combined worldwide total is $346.4 million, the fourth largest global opening ever.

The new 3-D film jettisons co-stars Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, but brings back Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow. Chicago director Rob Marshall took the helm from Gore Verbinski, who directed the trilogy. Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane introduce new characters.

It was a risky reboot considering the popularity of the previous Pirates films. The last, 2007′s At World’s End, opened with $114.7 million.

But At World’s End was also badly reviewed and disappointing to much of its audience. For Disney, which has expansive merchandising and theme park tie-ins to Pirates of the Caribbean, it’s a crucial franchise. The first three movies earned a combined $2.7 billion worldwide.

“The whole play of this particular movie was based on a worldwide release because of our feeling of how strong the international marketplace would be,” said Chuck Viane, head of distribution at Disney. “Johnny is not just a domestic star. Johnny is an international star.”

Viane said the result vindicated the franchise’s new look, that audiences “loved the rebooted attitude.” Viane didn’t comment on whether this meant a subsequent fifth film, but that seems extremely likely. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer already has a script in the works.

On Stranger Tides was the only new film in wide-release on the weekend. In its second week of release, the acclaimed comedy Bridesmaids, starring Kristen Wiig, was second at the box office with $21 million. That was an impressively small decrease of just 20 percent from the Universal release’s opening weekend of $26.2 million.

The slight decrease was even less than popular comedies like The Hangover and Wedding Crashers, which had similarly sustained business due to strong word-of-mouth.

Last week’s top film at the box office, the comic book adaptation Thor, from Paramount, slid to third place in its third week of release. It earned $15.5 million, bringing its cumulative total to $145.4 million.

Making its limited-release debut was Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, which has received some of the best reviews for Allen in years. The Sony Pictures Classics release opened in just six theaters, but drew an exceptional per-screen average of more than $96,000.

Though On Stranger Tides had the best North America opening of the year, the international revenue was the larger story. The film traded on its foreign appeal by casting international stars like Cruz and setting itself in bright tropical locales.

“This proves the importance of the global marketplace,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for Hollywood.com.

The film performed especially strong in Russia, China and India, accounting for $52.6 million. It set an all-time record in Russia, taking in $28.6 million.

The film benefited from higher ticket prices for 3-D showings, but perhaps more importantly from IMAX screenings. “On Stranger Tides” set a global record for IMAX with $16.7 million worldwide.

Propelled largely by the Pirates installment and the continuing success of “Bridesmaids,” it was the second “up” weekend in a row as compared with box office figures from the same weekend last year. Next weekend, the three-day Memorial Day weekend, also appears bright, with debuts from The Hangover Part II from Warner Bros. and Kung Fu Panda 2 from Paramount.

Combined with the second weekend of On Stranger Tides, Dergarabedian expects it to be one of the biggest moviegoing Memorial Day weekends ever.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, $90.1 million.
2. Bridesmaids, $21 million.
3. Thor, $15.5 million.
4. Fast Five, $10.6 million.
5. Rio, $4.7 million.
6. Priest, $4.6 million.
7. Jumping the Broom, $3.7 million.
8. Something Borrowed, $3.4 million.
9. Water For Elephants, $2.2 million.
10. Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family, $990,000.

Source: Yahoo

Here are some reviews on the film and Penélope’s performance. Reviews are mixed, although not surprisingly pretty negative. I have also added production stills to the gallery.

From: The Hollywood Reporter

Angelica is Jack’s match for swordplay and sexy banter, and while the tone of the film, which deals with a search for the fountain of youth, is darker than the three directed by Gore Verbinski, its action, adventure and comedy will see it find a similar pot of theatrical gold.

… Cruz makes a splendid entrance in disguise but once revealed she brings her Oscar-winning vivacity to an irrepressible woman who claims to be Blackbeard’s daughter. McShane, too, grabs his first appearance on the bridge of a pirate ship with great panache.

… At 136 minutes, the film is marginally the shortest in the series and it profits from that. Cruz is a wonderful addition and a teaser following the credits augers well for more so long as Depp continues to get as much enjoyment from playing the role as he gives to his audience.

From: The Guardian

He finds himself confronting an old rival, or possibly an old flame: fiery buccaneer Angelica, played by Penélope Cruz, who has been trying to pressgang a crew of ne’er-do-wells among the city taverns to set sail with the terrifying Blackbeard – who she claims is her father.

Some might find their enthusiasm for the Pirates films sinking. I have to say that mine is still there, just about. Depp’s Sparrow is a genuinely funny character and Depp still puts the ho-ho into yo-ho-ho.

From: LA Times

The newest shipmates include Penélope Cruz as Angelica, a former lover of Capt. Jack whose paterfamilias is none other than the villainous Blackbeard, Ian McShane doing his witty wicked thing. She’s a lethal beauty who has a winning way with a rapier but suffers far worse battles with the bad lighting, which can be the only explanation for the fact that Cruz looks more sullen than sultry most of the time.

From: Daily Mail

As his romantic interest, Penelope Cruz manages to be neither romantic nor interesting. Depp and Cruz don’t strike sparks off each other, even though they are meant to be old flames. She looks feisty and Spanish, and evidently thinks this is enough.

From: EW

There is also a great deal of turgid scene-chewing devoted to the issue of whether Angelica (Penélope Cruz), Jack’s ”feisty” new love interest, is actually Blackbeard’s daughter. Cruz, rather than enticing, is testy and one-note, and Jack doesn’t seem all that sparked by her.

From: Roger Ebert

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is about what you’d expect. It is long, expensive and bombastic, and the beautiful mermaid has a tantalizing way of not coming quite far enough out of the water. For me, it’s too much of a muchness. The whole series was inspired by a ride at Disneyland. There’s a bright side to that. At least no movie has yet been inspired by It’s a Small World.

From: Variety

Cruz is a reliably welcome, gorgeous presence, though she too often falls back on the “feisty Latina” signifiers that have been the crutch of so much of her English-language work.

Pictures have been added to the gallery! New visitors, don’t miss all our recent premiere photos, as Pe has been globe trotting almost daily lately. Also remember you can follow us on Twitter, @penelopecruzorg for the instance updates to your twitter feed!

When Penelope Cruz revealed that she was pregnant halfway through filming her latest picture, there was no question of being made to walk the plank from Pirates of the Caribbean. “I just had a new costume fitting every three weeks,” recalls Cruz. “They were very good about it.” In fact, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Rob Marshall were so keen to keep Cruz aboard that they navigated their blockbuster movie around her condition. Besides swapping her corsets for stretchier fabrics, Cruz’s sister, Monica, a dancer and actress, was brought in to body double for the 37-year-old actress on the swashbuckling stunts and swordfights.

“Their reaction could not have been better,” says Cruz, who married Spanish actor Javier Bardem last summer and gave birth to their first son Leonardo in January. Motherhood is something Cruz has played close to her chest; in the past she had repeatedly claimed she was more likely to adopt, and she and Bardem didn’t announce Leonardo’s arrival for a full week. Today, her husband is nowehere to be seen and her son is safely stashed far from prying camera lenses, but above Cruz’s wedding band sparkles a diamond-encrusted “maternity ring”, a gift from Bardem.

“Things I had been worrying about before are suddenly incredibly insignificant,” she admits. “All that matters now is my family, and this little family I have started now.”

Since she first became famous, at age 18, Cruz has shied away from personal revelations. If anything, tabloid attention has made her even more reticent. In the past her on-set romances with Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey have been a source of speculation, while film critics judged both her career choices and her English skills and found them wanting. Yet the past few years have been transformative for Cruz: a three-time Oscar-nominated actress, she finally took home the award for her stunning diva turn in Woody Allan’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) and she’s become the first Mediterranean actress since Sophia Loren to earn a place on the Hollywood A-List. And she’s also learnt to shut out unhelpful opinions.

“I try not to read about myself on the internet,” she says. “You can get angry for no reason. The good and the bad – everything is out of proportion.”

Admittedly the balance of news is good right now: besides an Oscar, a marriage and a baby son, there’s Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides which opens today. The rebooted film is a return to form for the franchise following the lukewarm reception to the more recent outings. A couple of overlong and over-complicated sequels had made audiences a little seasick, so the studio decided to change the colours of the flags, marking a back-to-basics return to vigorous looting, and rapier wits.

From an early stage, producer Jerry Bruckheimer had a picture of Cruz on the drawing board: a feisty beauty more than able to hold her own against Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow. Unlike Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth Swann, there’s no swooning in corsets for Cruz, who stipulated that if she came on board the franchise, she had to be a pirate too.

Eventually Marshall, who had just directed her in a musical remake of Fellini’s Nine, took her out for dinner to try to persuade her to take up the role. “But I said yes before I read the script,” smiles Cruz, who had worked with Depp before, on 2001′s Blow. “I said, ‘Are you crazy? I would love to do this. With you and Johnny, I don’t need to read anything’.”

On Stranger Tides was filmed around the world – at London’s Pinewood Studios, the Royal Naval College in Greenwich and at Hampton Court, as well as on a tiny island in Puerto Rico in temperatures above 40C. The island, where Depp and Cruz are supposedly marooned for one scene, had nowhere to hide a portaloo for the stars, which caused temporary anxiety for Cruz who was by then well into her pregnancy. “In the end I would take off part of my costume and head into the sea every so often,” she admits. “Everyone thought I was cooling off, but in fact I just had to pee.”

Most of her scenes are with Ian McShane, who plays Blackbeard, her pirate father, or with Depp who alternately woos and feuds with Cruz’s Angelica.

In real life, Depp and Cruz are more like brother and sister than sparring lovers, sharing a goofy sense of humour that led to Cruz donning yet another costume on the final day when she lost a bet to Depp. During filming the pair of them had become obsessed with the animated adult comedy South Park, and Cruz’s penalty on the final day was a brown Depp-designed outfit which was supposed to resemble Mr Hanky The Christmas Poo. “Christmas Poo” sounds positively delightful in Cruz’s heavy accent, but apparently the outfit was not. “Johnny made me walk around in the costume while he took photographs of me” she says. “I hope they don’t see the light of day.”

Next for Cruz is a reunion with Woody Allen for The Wrong Picture in Rome.
Their last collaboration won her an Oscar, and a husband – although Cruz and Bardem had known each other for 16 years and started their careers together in Bigas Luna’s Jamon Jamon, it wasn’t until they played husband and wife in the Allan picture that they clicked in real life. Yet all Cruz can remember of the film is that “I was crying and screaming for the whole time. I had no idea what I was doing with that character.”

Cruz is often prey to doubts about her ability, and tormented Allen – a one-take director from the Clint Eastwood school – by requesting that he redo her scenes over and over again. This is perhaps a legacy of her early experiences of Hollywood; despite being a huge star in Spain, she struggled for years to crack the international market.

One of her first English-speaking roles was in a Lynda LaPlante series called Framed, where she played one of Timothy Dalton’s many girlfriends and ended up having her voice dubbed by another actress. On the set of her first English-language movie, The Hi-Lo Country, she locked herself in the bathroom, crying, because her lack of English vocabulary meant she didn’t understand what her castmates were saying. Even in the mid-1990s, films like Gothika, Sahara and Bandidas were failing to win hearts and minds.

Cruz could write off these movies now, but doesn’t. Instead she stoutly insists that “every movie I’ve done since I was 17 is important: the ones that are good; the ones that are bad.”

The big change is that she’s no longer someone who says yes quite so easily, and after years of signing up for what seemed like any movie that came her way, she’s now pickier about her projects.

“A few years ago I changed the rhythm a little bit,” she agrees. “I was a workaholic, and used to work on three or four movies every year, but that changed a while ago. Now I maybe do one a year, two if they are very short. It’s very important for me to have that equilibrium, to have that balance, because I was always tired before. I could never enjoy the work, because I was always tired. Now I think I have a more healthy equilibrium.”

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, is on general release from today

Source: The Scotsman

“Why not, if we find the right project? But that remains to be seen. Who I’d like to work with again is Pedro (Almodovar), (Alejandro) Amenabar, with Bigas and … with others with whom I haven’t worked in my country, like Julio Medem: I have a lot left to do and a lot to learn,” she said in an interview with Efe.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is an “adventure (film) and is filmed in 3D, a perfect marriage,” said director and choreographer Rob Marshall, who – among his other projects – directed the 2009 musical Nine, where he met Cruz.

“The filming was marvelous. We traveled for six months all over the world, we went to Hawaii, to Puerto Rico, to an island named Palominillo and then (to) London to shoot,” Cruz said.

The actress, whose main problem was not her pregnancy but rather the fact that she didn’t know how to use a sword, said that the help of her companions on the project – and even before the filming began – was very important.

“I was working for two months with the team that did the other Pirates films and they taught me a lot. Then, during the filming, we did what was safe. For the rest, I had a marvelous double who helped me a lot,” her sister Monica, Cruz said.

In July, Cruz will film a movie with Woody Allen and perhaps, she said, with Roberto Benigni, in Rome and in Italian, something she said she’s looking forward to because at the end of the year she is scheduled to work once again with Italian director Sergio Castellito.

Source: Fox News

Izumi Hasegawa: Johnny, this movie is based on a ride at Disneyland. Have you ever been there and seen your likeness on the ride, and if so, what was your reaction?

Johnny Depp: It’s pretty psychedelic, actually. Yeah. I suppose you could make it more psychedelic, but we probably shouldn’t go into that now. The idea of wandering through this ride and suddenly there you are three times on the thing – I mean, Geoffrey [Rush] has a similar experience there. He has to go in and see his head in there as well. It’s quite an honor, in a weird way. It’s a great honor. Some sort of thing that you took part in creating becomes this forever object.

IH: Penelope, was there a lot of preparation for you doing an action movie, and did you get to go one-on-one with Johnny, or was that all a stunt double?

Penelope Cruz: We did have a lot of preparation. We started a couple of months before the shooting started, with Rob [Marshall] and John DeLuca and our teachers — a team that they had on the other three movies. They are amazing, and they taught me with patience. So I knew most of the choreography because they put them together like choreography, almost like when we were doing Nine together. So it was very helpful that I knew most of them before we started shooting. Then we did a lot of it together, and of course everything was safe because of my situation then. But they were really protective at every moment, and that meant so much to me.

IH: I know that some of this team is going to bring us The Lone Ranger. What kind of movie can we expect in that? Will it be funny like this?

JD: I feel like what we’re creating within these story meetings and script meetings, and in terms of character and in terms of story… I couldn’t say that you could compare it to Pirates, but I suppose, tonally, there is a relationship because there’s a kind of fascination with the absurd that’s involved in The Lone Ranger as well — somewhat of an irreverence. But you need that. You have to have that.

IH: Penelope, what was the key thing for you, in terms of creating this character — the clothes or learning the sword play…? And did you have anyone who inspired you in the way that Keith Richards inspired Mr. Depp?

PC: For shooting a character a like this, it really helps to have those costumes, to be in the real locations. It was very helpful that we didn’t go into a studio until after we shot already for two or three months in Hawaii. Then they built a beach at Universal Studios, and when they told me that, I thought it was my English — that I didn’t understand what they said. Then I went there, and there was really a beach at Universal Studios. Then we went to Puerto Rico to this deserted, private island, and then we ended up in London at Pinewood. But all of that helped me a lot to try to imagine what the pirate world at that time was, because it’s so far from our reality to create a character like that. It’s all about your imagination, and I think it really helped to be in those beautiful places.

IH: Johnny, you once said, “None of my movies will ever make any money.” Do feel really guilty now?
JD: It’s not my fault. I did my best, even to the point of trying to get fired from the first [Pirates], but they just couldn’t bring themselves to do it. It’s interesting to experience that kind of ride after essentially 20 years of enjoying a career based on failures. Suddenly, something clicks. The weird thing is that I never changed a thing. The process is still the process, as it ever was. The fact that people decided to go see a movie that I was in was probably the most shocking thing I’ve ever been through.

IH: Do you see yourself carrying on with this role for decades?

JD: Yeah. They’ll wheel me in. My dreads will get tangled in the wheels of my chair. I don’t know, sure. Interestingly enough, for me, a character like Captain Jack, you feel like you could just continue. The possibilities are endless and limitless. There is any possibility of madness and absurdity that could commence, so you feel that, with this character, you’re never really done.

IH: Geoffrey, what was it about this particular script and taking your character forward that really attracted you to come back?

Geoffrey Rush: I have to thank Johnny because, in the development of the screenplay, he said, “We must keep Barbossa and Sparrow as an old married couple, constantly bickering.” It goes back to the first film. The ownership of the Pearl is at the heart of the conflict. Early on this film, we decided to talk about the Black Pearl as a shared girlfriend, which made that plotline a little more interesting than talking about a boat. But they keep shape-shifting the character, which is quite good. I started out as the outright villain, spat out from the mouth of hell. And then, in Pirates 2 and 3, he became more of a diplomat. Now he’s really landed on his feet, or foot. Barbossa is vain, arrogant, and pompous enough to think that he actually does belong in the court. That gave me a terrific new set of variables to play with, which was a lot of fun.

IH: Johnny, what are your dreams for your future, both as an actor and as a family man?

JD: Smooth sailing! That’s what I hope for. I’m okay with no big ups and no big downs. That’s all right. I’m just full steam ahead, with all things well and good. As a family man, all you want as a dad is pure happiness for your kids. That’s a universal parent thing. Yeah, that’s it — that’s my dream. Happy kids.

IH: Penelope, where would you like to see the next movie go for your character in the future? You have the doll and Captain Sparrow’s memory with you…

PC: At least I hope she’s not going to die of hunger! I have the hope that, because she finds the doll, she has some of those voodoo powers from her father that she got from him. And maybe she’s going to be able to come back! But she can’t die alone out there! No.

IH: Johnny, what are the similarities between you and Captain Jack?

JD: We’re totally different. There’s nothing that I can relate to in Captain Jack, whatsoever. No, with every character you play, there’s a part of you that goes into that, in terms of the ingredients of making this stew. There’s most definitely a part of me in Captain Jack, and now, fortunately or unfortunately, there’s a great part of Captain Jack in me as well. Basically, I can’t shake him. He won’t leave me alone. He keeps showing up at odd times. In fact, he arrived this morning when I was getting my kids ready for school. I had to shoo him away.

IH: If you decide to direct again, would you take a lead role in the film?

JD: No, I tried that once. The first one’s free. No, if I ever thought of directing again, I don’t know. The idea of directing a film is a strange one for me. I feel anti-mathematical in that sense. I don’t like when things make sense. I prefer if they don’t. So if I made a film, it wouldn’t make any sense and no one would see it. Maybe I’ll just make little films at home with my phone, never to be released.

IH: Johnny, how was it to work with Penelope Cruz? Did she teach you any Spanish?

JD: She taught me the raunchiest Spanish that I’ve ever been told. It’s so foul that I couldn’t bring myself to repeat it here and now. It’s a bad idea. I would carry that on my back for the rest of my days. Going to work with Penelope again, having done the film Blow together 10 or 11 years ago, the weird thing was that, when we saw each other again, it felt like we’d wrapped Blow the week before or a few days before. It just clicked instantly. Whatever exists, in terms of chemistry, was just instantly firing on all cylinders. It felt completely right. It was Rob’s brilliant idea to bring her in, and when he brought up the idea to me, I went, “Great idea!” I was very, very excited to have Penelope come into this film. I knew she would be not only a worthy opponent, but someone who would just kill the scenes, and she did. She was incredible.

IH: What was it like to work with Rob Marshall?
JD: What a gift, to have someone of his caliber and someone of his talent to come in and drive this beast and shape this strange animal into something. It was incredible to experience. Some filmmakers go into a film, and it’s already shot and cut in their head. I didn’t get that feeling from Rob. What I got from Rob was that he heard it as music, in a weird way. It was rhythmic. And he knew tempo and a way to finesse the sound, which became visual as well. It was an incredible experience. His timing, and not just his choreographic timing, but his sense of comedic timing is impeccable. He would have us just shave an eighth of a millisecond off of a beat, and it would change the whole dynamic of the scene. It was quite something. The only problem is that he’s really mean. He’s really mean! No. He’s the kindest man alive.

IH: What’s the timeline for Pirates 5 and 6?

JD: There’s a very clever idea that is being hatched, in terms of Pirates 5 and 6. We’re going to actually shoot them on the ride, just going around in circles, non-stop, kind of like Andy Warhol’s Sleep. It’ll just be close-ups on everyone.
IH: Can you talk about doing the London street scene — jumping on the heads and the carriages? How much choreography and rehearsal went into that, and how much fun was that to shoot?

JD: It was horrible! It was grueling. It’s a very strange little sequence. I’ve never thought of doing many things in my life under the influence of life, and I’ve never actually thought of straddling two carriages while they’re moving before. That was an interesting experience. And then I was jumping on people’s heads and onto another cart, and then the thing catches fire. It’s all a bad dream, isn’t it? And this is how daddy brings home the bacon.

Source: Buzzine

The actress showed off post-baby body in a custom Giorgio Armani Privé red organza, long-sleeved, fitted gown.

Penélope was joined on the red carpet by her co-stars Sam Claflin and Astrid Berges-Frisbey.

The Pirates cast Geoffrey Rush, Johnny Depp, and Miss Cruz in a stunning Marchesa Fall 2011 gown were in attendence. Can I just say, Penélope looks dreamlike pretty here, just gorgeous! Totally loving her red carpet looks these days during her globe trotting. A gold Swarovski clutch and subtle Chopard jewels, Jimmy Choo shoes completed her look.

Pe wore a navy dress with a velvet skirt contrasting bodice and a black back panel by Stella McCartney. Matching Casadei satin pumps with a pin heel and sleek straight hair completed her stunning look!

At the premiere Johnny Depp had this to say on Penélope:

“She’s very special, very talented, and also at the same time as an actress she gives you so much that you weren’t necessarily expecting, so you’re up on your toes.”

Cruz said she did not share the Hollywood obsession with eternal youth because she is Spanish. While her fellow actresses turn to Botox doctors and plastic surgeons, Cruz is content to let nature take its course.

“Birthdays are always something to celebrate. I’m looking forward to every step of the way,” she said during an appearance at the Cannes Film Festival.

“Maybe it’s because I’m from Spain, so I look at it in a different way than in a place like Los Angeles. I will always be a Spanish actress in Hollywood or wherever I work.

“There are a lot of things I keep from my roots and that is one of them – the way we look at ageing. I never want to be afraid of that. Change is good.”

Few Hollywood actresses share her view. Jane Fonda is also in Cannes and appeared on the red carpet looking impossibly youthful. Fonda, 73, admitted last year to having “work” done on her chin, neck and eyes, saying: “I swore in 2000 I’d never have anything done again but this year I got tired of not looking like how I feel… I wish I’d been brave enough not to do anything.”

Cruz was on the French Riviera to promote her latest film, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. She plays a pirate opposite Johnny Depp in a film which, appropriately enough, concerns a search for the mythical Fountain of Youth.

The actress wore a midnight blue dress to the film’s unveiling and displayed the 883 tattoo on her ankle. Cruz has always refused to disclose what significance the numbers carry.

In January, she gave birth to her first child, Leo, by fellow Spanish actor Javier Bardem. She discovered that she was pregnant on the eve of filming the swashbuckling adventure.

The director, Rob Marshall, found an ingenious way of hiding Cruz’s pregnancy: he hired her sister, Monica, as a body double. Monica is three years her junior and an actress and dancer in her native Spain. Luckily for the film-makers, the two women look strikingly similar.

“Towards the end of the shoot we asked Monica to help us out for some of the shots because we needed a different silhouette, so the whole family got to work on the movie,” said Marshall.

Cruz explained: “I did a couple of months of training and did what I was able to do, but I couldn’t do everything, just what was safe. Monica came at the end to do some scenes. She’s a dancer and very good with a sword because she’s done a film herself.”

On Stranger Tides is the fourth instalment in a franchise that has grossed $2.7bn worldwide. It was filmed in part at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich. Cruz is a replacement for Keira Knightley, who dropped out after the third film. It has met with mixed reviews but Depp said he had no fear of the critics and was itching to return for a fifth film in the role of Captain Jack Sparrow.

“With Captain Jack, I feel like there is much more fun to be had. As long as people still want it, I’m there,” he said.

Depp famously based the character on the Rolling Stones hellraiser Keith Richards, who has a brief cameo in the new film, as does Dame Judi Dench.

Depp said of Richards: “It was great having him and he was amazing to share a trailer with. I may write a book about that one day.”

Source: Telegraph

]]> http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/15/why-ill-never-go-under-the-knife-penelope-cruz/feed/ 0 http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/15/penelopes-swashbuckling-shape-up/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=penelopes-swashbuckling-shape-up http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/15/penelopes-swashbuckling-shape-up/#comments Mon, 16 May 2011 00:12:30 +0000 Mycah http://www.penelope-cruz.org/?p=1358 Johnny Depp’s a hard man to upstage, but at this week’s premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, one woman managed it.

Pirates’ newcomer Penelope Cruz stole the show in a Givenchy dress, perfectly framing her ­enviable cleavage and trim waist. Looking at the 37-year-old’s amazing body it’s hard to believe she gave birth to her first son, Leo, less than four months ago.

Most new mums hide their bodies under baggy clothes but not Penelope. As she braved the red carpet looking slim and radiant, it wasn’t hard to see why the Spanish star topped ­a poll of the world’s most ­beautiful women last year, and why actor Javier Bardem is such an envied husband.

In the new Pirates film, Penelope plays Angelica, an old flame of Depp’s character Captain Jack Sparrow, with whom he embarks on a mission to find the fabled Fountain of Youth. But unlike many of her contemporary female stars, Penelope’s not on ­a quest for eternal youth.

“I never want to lie about my age,” she says. “If I look around at other actresses I admire, they’re all women who haven’t fought against growing older, they’ve embraced it – people like Sophia Loren or Audrey Hepburn.”

Refreshingly, Penelope’s never followed Hollywood beauty fads and the curvaceous star has taken an active stand against the size zero trend. When guest editing an edition of French Vogue, she ­featured provocative and almost nude shots of size 12 model ­Crystal Renn.

How she perfected her curves

Unlike many Hollywood health food addicts, Penelope happily ­admits to the odd indulgence – even on the way to an award ceremony! “I ate a burger and then went on the red carpet,” she admits. “I do it, like, once a week. It’s my little treat.”

The actress credits her curvy figure to sticking to the fish and vegetable-packed meals she grew up with, such as tapas and paella. “I love Spanish food,” she explains. “My diet’s Mediterranean. I eat well but try to eat healthily.”

However, since giving birth she’s had to work that little bit harder ­to regain her figure and has ­reportedly been following the high-protein Dukan diet.

Penelope’s lifelong love of dance has also helped to ensure that her ­muscles soon snapped back into shape – she trained as a ballerina from the age of four to 18.

“I love ballet and dancing. It’s a little boring for me to go to the gym because I’m used to dancing. It’s really hard but much more fun,” she says.

Her trainer Gunnar Peterson encourages her to use kettlebells to improve her strength, ­posture and flexibility, and she learned to sword fight on set.

However, her final secret weapon is to simply get more shut-eye! “Sleep is the best way to happiness and beauty,” she says. “My record is 18 hours!”

Penelope’s food rules

1. Have treats

Why it works: Studies show banning ‘naughty’ foods makes dieting more likely to fail as you crave them and end up bingeing.

Try it: Pick one day to ditch the diet and eat what you want.

2. Head for the Med

Why it works: Countless studies show that following ­a traditional Mediterranean diet keeps you slimmer – and protects against heart disease.

Try it: Eat more fish, beans, olive oil, fruit and vegetables.

3. Protein power

Why it works: The French Dukan diet is a high-protein diet similar to Atkins, but the focus is on low-fat protein. This makes your body produce ketonic cells that are an effective appetite suppressant.

Try it: Eat fewer carbs and lean proteins like fish and low-fat dairy.

4. Sleep easy

Why it works: Studies, including one published this year in the International Journal of Obesity, have shown that lack of sleep can slow down your metabolism.

Try it: Aim for six to eight hours each night. Many people find following a bedtime ritual helps ­– a hot bath, then a warm drink and some light reading in bed.

5. Love food

Why it works: Don’t think of food as bad – it’s fuel and one of life’s pleasures. Associating it with guilt can lead you to cycles of overeating and purging.

Try it: Look forward to your mealtimes and savour them.

Source: Mirror

]]> http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/15/penelopes-swashbuckling-shape-up/feed/ 0 http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/12/pirates-of-the-caribbean-russian-photocall/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pirates-of-the-caribbean-russian-photocall http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/12/pirates-of-the-caribbean-russian-photocall/#comments Thu, 12 May 2011 04:52:06 +0000 Mycah http://www.penelope-cruz.org/?p=1353 Penélope Cruz and Johnny Depp popped up at the Ritz Hotel in Moscow this morning at a photo call before the Russian premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. The duo are traveling the globe to promote the latest installment of the franchise, and were in LA just last Saturday for a huge Disneyland screening.

]]> http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/12/pirates-of-the-caribbean-russian-photocall/feed/ 0 http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/10/i-knew-two-english-phrases-and-one-was-i-want-to-work-with-johnny-depp-cruz/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=i-knew-two-english-phrases-and-one-was-i-want-to-work-with-johnny-depp-cruz http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/10/i-knew-two-english-phrases-and-one-was-i-want-to-work-with-johnny-depp-cruz/#comments Wed, 11 May 2011 02:40:19 +0000 Mycah http://www.penelope-cruz.org/?p=1344 Spanish beauty Penelope Cruz has revealed that she only knew two phrases in English when she moved to the U.S. to try and make it in the movies – and one of them was ‘I want to work with Johnny Depp’.

The star, who turned 37 last month, revealed that it was her dream to work with the 47-year-old star – and that the only other English words she knew when she arrived in Hollywood were ‘How are you?’

Penelope, who was born in a suburb of Madrid, first worked with Johnny a decade ago in movie Blow and they have remained close friends ever since – so she explained she jumped at the chance to work with him again on Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

She explained: ‘When I first came to America I only knew two phrases in English. One was, “How are you?” and the other was, “I want to work with Johnny Depp.”

‘Then after I worked with him on Blow, I learned how to say, “I want to work with Johnny Depp again!” He’s very addictive and he just gets better and better over the years.’

However, she explained there was a slight problem with working with him again – trying not to laugh during shooting.

She told the Mirror: ‘The only problem is he has a very peculiar sense of humour – and even though I know all his tricks, he can still crack me up.

‘I can’t stop laughing when we are working so we had a few problems on the set. One time we were stuck for two hours and couldn’t finish the scene because we couldn’t stop laughing.’
Oscar-winner Penelope also revealed that they have a shared love of animated comedy show South Park – and Johnny created a fancy dress outfit based on the show’s Mr Hanky The Christmas Poo that she had to wear as a forfeit on set.

Penelope laughed: ‘Johnny made this outfit for me and we had a bet which I lost. And I had to wear the Poo outfit on the set.

‘He was on the floor laughing and crying and he took a thousand pictures of me which I hope never come to light. But, of course, now that I’ve said it, I’m sure they will appear somewhere.’

In the new Pirates film, Penelope, who’s married to actor Javier Bardem, plays Angelica, the daughter of Blackbeard, played by Ian McShane, and an old flamed of Depp’s character Captain Jack Sparrow.

The pair embark on a mission to try and find the fabled Fountain Of Youth.

Penelope said she’d had a blast making the film, even though she was pregnant at the time, giving birth to son Leo three months ago.

‘This is a great adventure for any actor. I’m a big fan of the first three movies and of what Johnny did in them.’

However, being heavily pregnant made filming some scenes in Puerto Rico difficult.

She said: ‘It was extremely hot and because we were doing some overhead shots from a helicopter there was nowhere to put a bathroom. You had to keep going in and out of the water every 15 or 20 minutes.

‘Those days were interesting but even then we just laughed the whole time.’

As for being a first-time mother, she said: ‘It’s hard to explain because it’s so deep. But it’s the most beautiful feeling I have ever had.’

Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides opens in cinemas on May 18.

Source: Daily Mail

]]> http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/10/i-knew-two-english-phrases-and-one-was-i-want-to-work-with-johnny-depp-cruz/feed/ 0 http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/10/pirates-of-the-caribbean-on-stranger-tides-world-premiere/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pirates-of-the-caribbean-on-stranger-tides-world-premiere http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/10/pirates-of-the-caribbean-on-stranger-tides-world-premiere/#comments Tue, 10 May 2011 19:06:29 +0000 Mycah http://www.penelope-cruz.org/?p=1340 Penelope Cruz looked every bit of the Spanish Enchantress that she is at the world premiere of Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, held in Anaheim, Calif.

Cruz wore a stunning off-the-shoulder black gown, embroidered with jet crystal jewels and feathers was a custom Marchesa creation. Chopard jewels, a high ponytail and nude lips completed her look.

]]> http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/10/pirates-of-the-caribbean-on-stranger-tides-world-premiere/feed/ 0 http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/10/pirates-of-the-caribbean-on-stranger-tides-press-conference/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pirates-of-the-caribbean-on-stranger-tides-press-conference http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/10/pirates-of-the-caribbean-on-stranger-tides-press-conference/#comments Tue, 10 May 2011 19:01:18 +0000 Mycah http://www.penelope-cruz.org/?p=1338 A few days ago, Penélope was in California for the Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Press Conference.

]]> http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/10/pirates-of-the-caribbean-on-stranger-tides-press-conference/feed/ 0 http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/09/jay-leno-may-3-2011/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jay-leno-may-3-2011 http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/09/jay-leno-may-3-2011/#comments Mon, 09 May 2011 20:30:26 +0000 Mycah http://www.penelope-cruz.org/?p=1329 Miss Cruz was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on May 3, 2011 to promote the release of Pirates of the Caribbean. Check out her interview below!

]]> http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/09/jay-leno-may-3-2011/feed/ 0 http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/07/penelope-cruz-screamed-when-offered-pirates-role/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=penelope-cruz-screamed-when-offered-pirates-role http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/07/penelope-cruz-screamed-when-offered-pirates-role/#comments Sun, 08 May 2011 02:30:13 +0000 Mycah http://www.penelope-cruz.org/?p=1324 Penélope Cruz “screamed” when she was offered a role in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

The Spanish actress had previously worked with the movie’s star Johnny Depp on Blow and director Rob Marshall on Nine and was overjoyed to be given the chance to team with the pair again.

She said: “Rob and I were eating together and he turned to me and said, ‘I have this question to ask you but I don’t know if I’m brave enough to ask as you may say ‘No’.

“‘Well Rob, you have to ask me,’ I said. And he turned and asked, ‘Would you like to do Pirates with me and Johnny?’ I heard this and screamed. A very good scream.

“I really love Rob and have longed to work with him again. I want to kiss his feet.”

Penélope also described her previous experience working with Johnny as “very rock ‘n’ roll.”

She said: “Johnny is a great friend, so genuine and unique. My memories of ‘Blow’… Wow that was such an extreme period. It was a wild set, very rock ‘n’ roll. I had missed working with him.”

Penélope also spoke of how her career choices have changed as she has established herself as an actress, admitting in her early days she never turned down work.

She explained to GQ magazine: “When I started, when I was 16 or 17, I never even considered not doing a project. I just wanted to work. I knew who some of those I would work with would be pleasant, and others would be these huge assholes.

“But now, if there’s one thing I can afford to do, having worked so hard for all of these years, it’s that if I go into a meeting with someone that is offering me a movie and I can clearly see they are going to be an asshole, I will not do the movie. No matter what it is.”

Source: CTA

]]> http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/07/penelope-cruz-screamed-when-offered-pirates-role/feed/ 0 http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/06/talking-pirates-with-penelope-cruz/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=talking-pirates-with-penelope-cruz http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/06/talking-pirates-with-penelope-cruz/#comments Sat, 07 May 2011 01:03:16 +0000 Mycah http://www.penelope-cruz.org/?p=1310 When Penélope Cruz signed on to play Angelica in Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides she was excited—and for several very good reasons.

In the movie Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) finds himself on an unexpected journey to the fabled Fountain of Youth when a woman from his past (Penelope Cruz) forces him aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the ship of the formidable pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane).

First of all, it was her first role in a high-budget action movie. “I love working in Europe and most of the times when I’m working in America, I tend to choose smaller projects with less action, because that’s where I find the most interesting characters,” Cruz says, “but I have to say that here I found both. I found a very interesting character in a movie that is really big and it gave me the opportunity to see how those movies are made. And I love the pirate world because it’s so attractive and so interesting.”

Then there was the opportunity to reunite with both Rob Marshall and Johnny Depp on a film. Cruz last worked with Johnny Depp ten years ago on Blow, where she played his character’s wife. “When we were together in Blow, we got along really well,” Cruz recalls. “We became friends. Then I didn’t see him for a long time, but now that I’ve spent a lot of time with him again, after all these years, it just gets better and better every day.

“He’s so kind to everyone and so sweet and he has a really brilliant mind—smart, really clever, fast, really funny. He’s one of the funniest people I know and he has a very big heart. When you work with somebody like that, it’s special. He’s a very unique human being.”

The first time Cruz was in a film directed by Rob Marshall was when she starred in the film version of the musical Nine. Her standout portrayal of Carla garnered her Screen Actors Guild®, Golden Globe® and Academy Award® nominations and Cruz has nothing but praise for the award-winning director.

“I love Rob,” says the Academy Award®–winning actress. “He creates this beautiful family of people working in the same direction, and everybody wants to make him happy because of the way he is, the way he treats everyone.

“Rob can really handle an enormous amount of pressure and he will never lose his temper. He will never be disrespectful to anybody. I’ve never seen that and I’ve done two very long movies with him. So I really respect him for that,” concludes Cruz.

Cruz plays Angelica, the first-ever female pirate in the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise, and says she enjoyed being a pirate every bit as tricky and cunning as Captain Jack Sparrow. “They are both trying to find The Fountain of Youth and Angelica has information that Jack Sparrow needs, and he has information that she needs,” explains Cruz. “And for many different reasons, they need each other. So there they are, stuck on a boat, trying to play this card.

“The whole time they are tricking each other but at the same time, they are helping each other. They have this dance with dialog that is very clever, very well written. I think we had a great script to work with.”

Angelica isn’t an ordinary pirate by any means. She handles a sword as well as anyone, including Captain Jack, and can go toe-to-toe with him in any situation. Perhaps this is because she is the daughter of the most feared pirate of all time—Blackbeard, played by Ian McShane.

Cruz feels that McShane was the perfect choice to play Blackbeard. “I think it’s very clever to cast Ian McShane because he’s such a great actor and he brings something to the character that is completely anti-cliché,” Cruz comments. “He brings truth to everything he does. And there is something in the eyes of that character that really makes you feel real fear.”

Describing Angelica, Cruz says, “Angelica is a pirate and she has the pirate mind; tricky, manipulative, dangerous when she has to be. She loves games, but she has a good heart and her motivation is always a good one. But she has a religious background and very strong values.

“Angelica doesn’t want to admit that she cannot trust her father. She wants to give him a chance to change and she keeps fighting for that, but it’s very hard.

“So she’s full of contradictions and I think that’s what makes the character so interesting. She knows that to get what she wants, she has to be tricky and she has to manipulate, for example, Jack Sparrow. And she knows that to be his equal, she has to be a very good liar, a very good actress in life, a very good manipulator. So to get what she wants she’s capable of tricking anybody, but at the end, what she wants is something good.”

To prepare for her role, Cruz had to learn how to sword fight. “I trained for two months before we started shooting,” she says. “So I knew all the choreography. I trained with all the specialists and all the stuntmen and with

my double…she’s amazing.”

Director Rob Marshall approached the fight scenes like a dance number, and according to Cruz, that method helped the actors learn the movements more easily. “In ‘Nine’ we had a couple of very big musical numbers, and the same way we trained for those is how we trained for the fight scenes,” says Cruz. “Rob choreographed the fights almost like a dance. So that helped all of us to get it quicker.”

Cruz had a chance to act with some of the scariest characters in the film—the zombies who make up Blackbeard’s crew. But she’s quick to point out that they didn’t scare her one bit. “I cannot really get scared of the zombies because they were all such great guys and we were together for six months. They were in makeup for five or six hours a day, some of them, and it’s amazing what the makeup department has created.”

According to Cruz, everyone on set was enamored of the mermaids, who play an important part in the quest for The Fountain of Youth in the story. “Everybody wants to see mermaids. We all fantasize about how mermaids would be if they were real,” Cruz says. “And the mermaids in this movie are beautiful, but they are dangerous. I remember on the set everybody wanted to see the girls, the mermaids, and to see the drawings of the pictures of how they would look at the end after all the special effects were finished. And now that I have seen it, it’s really beautiful. It’s very attractive and very sexy, and mysterious.”

Filming On Stranger Tides took Cruz to many exciting locations as well as onboard Blackbeard’s pirate ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge—an experience that Cruz fully enjoyed. “It was so beautiful and we were shooting in the middle of the night sometimes until the sun came up. It was really magical to shoot on that boat.”

“But we were lucky we were in so many beautiful locations in Hawaii, in Puerto Rico, on that little island, Palominito, that was beautiful, in London, Los Angeles. We went to so many places with the movie,” Cruz adds.

Academy Award®–winner Penélope Cruz has proven herself to be one of the most versatile actresses in the world by playing a variety of compelling characters, and becoming the first actress from Spain to be nominated and win an Oscar®. Cruz won the Oscar®, a BAFTA, a New York Film Critics Circle and a National Board of Review award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Other credits for Cruz include Blow, opposite Johnny Depp, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, opposite Nicolas Cage, Vanilla Sky, with Tom Cruise, Sahara, with Matthew McConaughey, Elegy, opposite Sir Ben Kingsley, Nine, opposite Daniel Day Lewis and Nicole Kidman and Pedro Almodovar’s Volver and Broken Embraces, and many others.

Q. Were you a fan of the first three films and how exciting was it to be offered the part?

A. Yes, I had seen the three of them and I loved them. I laughed out loud watching them. I was amazed by the character that Johnny created. I remember when I saw the first one, I was, like, “Wow, that’s so brave and so brilliant.” And I was very happy when Rob told me about the possibility of doing this together. We were in London finishing Nine and he asked me, “Would you like to be part of Pirates 4 with me and Johnny?” And I said, of course. I have never done a movie like that and to go back to work with them again was something that made me very happy. Of course, Johnny and I hadn’t worked together for ten years.

Q. What did you like about reuniting with Johnny and working with him on this?

A. When we were together in Blow, we got along really well. We became friends. Then I didn’t see him for a long time, but now that I’ve spent a lot of time with him again, after all these years, it just gets better and better every day. And when I met him, one of the things that I was most surprised about was how humble he is. He’s so kind to everyone and so sweet and he has a really brilliant mind—smart, really clever, fast, really funny. He’s one of the funniest people I know and he has a very big heart. When you work with somebody like that it’s special. He’s a very unique human being.

Q. You mentioned also reuniting with Rob. What is it about him as a director that you enjoy so much?

A. I love Rob. I had a great experience working on Nine. I had always wanted to do a musical. He comes from the dance world. He’s a dancer and a choreographer, and I’ve been a student of dance. I’ve never been a professional dancer, but I danced for 17 years, so I know the discipline and the sacrifices that are required to become a professional dancer. And he was one, plus a choreographer, so the work ethic that he has, he brings to the movies. He brings it to the movie set and that affects the whole tone of the movie, affects the whole crew. He creates this beautiful family of people working in the same direction, and everybody wants to make him happy because of the way he is, the way he treats everyone.

Rob can really handle an enormous amount of pressure and he will never lose his temper. He will never be disrespectful to anybody. I’ve never seen that and I’ve done two very long movies with him. So I really respect him for that because I know how hard it is when you are in charge of such a huge movie like this one and you have 400 people every day asking you questions and driving you crazy. And he has this sweet, soft tone all the time with everyone, and even when he was just sleeping three hours a day, he’s a gentleman, and it’s real, what you see from him.

Rob has brought a lot of new things. He has brought more humor; also the movie is 3D for the first time and he’s brought romance for Sparrow for the first time. I play the first female pirate and that’s a tone that feels very fresh and very new, and very, very funny, and I’m very happy about that. I’m happy that I sat down to watch the movie and it really makes you laugh and it flies. It’s like a bullet. And then it’s over and really? That’s two hours? I don’t know exactly how long the movie is, but it goes by as if it was five minutes, and that’s all because of Rob.

Q. You mentioned the first female pirate. Tell me about her character and what she’s like.

A. Angelica is a pirate and she has the pirate mind; tricky, manipulative, dangerous when she has to be. She loves games, but she has a good heart and her motivation is always a good one. But she has a religious background and very strong values. So she’s full of contradictions and I think that’s what makes the character so interesting. She knows that to get what she wants, she has to be tricky and she has to manipulate, for example, Jack Sparrow. And she knows that to be his equal, she has to be a very good liar, a very good actress in life, a very good manipulator. So to get what she wants she’s capable of tricking anybody, but at the end, what she wants is something good.

Q. She’s particularly good at tricking Jack. Tell me about the dynamic and what we find out about her.

A. Angelica wants a type of personal revenge with Jack. But at the same time, she needs Jack because they are both on a mission where they need each other.

So the whole time they are tricking each other but at the same time, they are helping each other. They have this dance with dialog that is very clever, very well written. I think we had a great script to work with. It was great to create that type of relationship with Johnny, but he and I are always fighting in the movies we do, because in “Blow,” where we were married, we fought in every single scene. And in “Pirates” we fight a lot, too, so we have to find one someday where we are not enemies. But it’s always enemies that love each other, you know.

Q. Why does she need him? What’s the mission? What’s going on?

A. They are both trying to find The Fountain of Youth and Angelica has information that he needs, and he has information that she needs. And for many different reasons, we need each other. So there they are, stuck on a boat, trying to play this card. And that was a lot of fun, very fun to do, to create that relationship.

Q. What did you think when you first saw the ship; when you first stepped onto a pirate ship?

A. It was incredible to shoot on that huge ship. It was so beautiful and we were shooting in the middle of the night sometimes until the sun came up. And it was really magical to shoot on that boat. But we were lucky we were in so many beautiful locations in Hawaii, in Puerto Rico, on that little island, Palominito, that was beautiful, in London, Los Angeles. We went to so many places with the movie.

Q. What was it like getting to do that? Is it like being on an adventure to make this movie?

A. One of the beautiful privileges of our work is that we get to travel so much to discover beautiful places. All the places we saw in Hawaii were so beautiful. And sometimes they take you to places that you would never see if you didn’t have this job or places where it’s hard to get to, or places where you need a special permit, like all the buildings they shot in England. We also get to learn to do other strange things like sword fighting.

Q. Tell me about learning the sword fighting. How do you prepare to be a female pirate?

A. I trained for two months before we started shooting. So I knew all the choreography. I trained with all the specialists and all the stuntmen and with my double…she’s amazing. I couldn’t do anything that was dangerous, and I was very protected by Rob and Johnny and Jerry and the studio and everybody.

Q. Do you like the physicality? Do you like doing that kind of stuff?

A. Yes. We approached the fight scenes like a dance number. In “Nine” we had a couple of very big musical numbers, and the same way we trained for those is how we trained for the fight scenes. Rob choreographed the fights almost like a dance. So that helped all of us to get it quicker.

Q. You mentioned Blackbeard. What do you think makes Blackbeard such an interesting villain?

A. Well, he’s really

dangerous. I think it’s very clever to cast Ian McShane because he’s such a great actor and he brings something to the character that is completely anti-cliché; he brings truth to everything he does. And there is something in the eyes of that character that really makes you feel real fear. It’s never, “Oh, there’s the bad guy.” He created a very complicated personality and I love that and it’s very, very clever on Rob’s part to cast him for this. I think Ian’s great. I couldn’t imagine anybody better to play that because he’s really an amazing actor, and what a great voice he has.

Q. Your character wants to save him, but he also has edginess about him. You don’t know where he stands, correct?

A. Yes. Angelica doesn’t want to admit that she cannot trust her father. She wants to give him a chance to change and she keeps fighting for that, but it’s very hard.

Q. What do you think about this film? What is it that you enjoy about it? What is so special about this film?

A. Well, there are not a lot of movies like this being made and I think there will be maybe less and less because it’s such a big production to put together. As an actor, to be part of one of these is a big privilege. Because first of all, you get to see from the inside how these movies are made. I love working in Europe and most of the times when I’m working in America, I tend to choose smaller projects with less action because that’s where I find the most interesting characters, but I have to say that here I found both. I found a very interesting character in a movie that is really big and it gave me the opportunity to see how those movies are made. And I love the pirate world because it’s so attractive and so interesting. So, for many reasons, it was great. I feel so lucky that I can be part of this movie.

Q. Can you comment on the new things that people get to see, the mermaids and zombies, and how exciting those characters are?

A. Everybody wants to see mermaids. We all fantasize about how mermaids would be if they were real. And the mermaids in this movie are beautiful, but they are dangerous. I remember on the set everybody wanted to see the girls, the mermaids, and to see the drawings of the pictures of how they would look at the end after all the special effects were finished. And now that I have seen it, it’s really beautiful. It’s very attractive and very sexy, and mysterious; really, really beautiful images that the filmmakers created.

Q. And the zombies? What did you think when you saw them?

A. I cannot really get scared of the zombies because they were all such great guys and we were together for six months. They were in makeup for five or six hours a day, some of them, and it’s amazing what the makeup department has created. All of them worked hard to get that look; they would wake up at 3:00 a.m.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides opens in theaters May 20, 2011, in Disney Digital 3D

Source: MyFoxOrlando.com

]]> http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/06/talking-pirates-with-penelope-cruz/feed/ 0 http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/06/pirates-of-the-caribbean-clips/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pirates-of-the-caribbean-clips http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/06/pirates-of-the-caribbean-clips/#comments Sat, 07 May 2011 00:59:14 +0000 Mycah http://www.penelope-cruz.org/?p=1308 The fourth film in the franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides, doesn’t open until May 20, but these four brand new clips, featuring stars Johnny Depp, Penélope Cruz and others, should tide fans over.

Check out the other scenes here.

]]> http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/05/06/pirates-of-the-caribbean-clips/feed/ 0 http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/04/21/pirates-wallpapers-and-new-banner/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pirates-wallpapers-and-new-banner http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/04/21/pirates-wallpapers-and-new-banner/#comments Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:35:28 +0000 Mycah http://www.penelope-cruz.org/?p=1302 Today some official wallpapers and new international banner for Walt Disney Pictures’ upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides has turned up online, courtesy of IMP Awards. The new design combines the previously-released character posters into one, enormous image.

The film, which opens in 3D, 2D and IMAX 3D theaters on May 20, features the return of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow and Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbosa. New to the franchise are stars Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane, Kevin R. McNally, Astrid Berges-Frisbey, and Sam Claflin.

]]> http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/04/21/pirates-wallpapers-and-new-banner/feed/ 0 http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/04/19/pirates-of-the-caribbean-trailer-posters/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pirates-of-the-caribbean-trailer-posters http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/04/19/pirates-of-the-caribbean-trailer-posters/#comments Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:14:16 +0000 Mycah http://www.penelope-cruz.org/?p=1267 For the past few weeks a lot of promotion for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides has been gearing up. Such as the new full length trailer and posters. Check out the posters in the gallery and watch the trailer after the jump.

The fourth film in the Walt Disney Pictures/Jerry Bruckheimer Films franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides puts Jack on a quest with Angelica (Cruz) to find the Fountain of Youth. On his path, he crosses zombies, seductive mermaids and the fearsome Blackbeard (McShane). Pirates sails into 3D, 2D and IMAX 3D theaters on May 20.

]]> http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/04/19/pirates-of-the-caribbean-trailer-posters/feed/ 0 http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/04/14/pirates-disneyland-premiere-date/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pirates-disneyland-premiere-date http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/04/14/pirates-disneyland-premiere-date/#comments Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:31:15 +0000 Mycah http://www.penelope-cruz.org/?p=1282 Fans of Captain Jack Sparrow can catch a glimpse of the rugged swashbuckler all cleaned up and moonlighting as actor Johnny Depp at the world premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, happening May 7 at Disneyland.

Depp, along with co-stars Penelope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush and Ian McShane are expected to attend the “black carpet” event, a dinner soiree anchored by an outdoor 3D screening of the film. Watch out for flying swords!

Tickets for the premiere are a wild $1,000, though all proceeds will benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Those who can’t shell out that type of cash can still try to see the celebrities by purchasing a ticket to the park and lining up ridiculously early.

From Disney blog Inside the Magic:

Admission to Disneyland on May 7 allows guests to stand on the sidewalks of Main Street USA. Disneyland gates will open at 6:30 am that day, at which time guests will be able to line up at the red carpet (black carpet!) to wait for the events to begin. No saving spaces will be allowed. The Mickey & Friends Parking Structure will open at 5:30 am on May 7th for Guests to park. Guests will not be encouraged to line up at the Disneyland Main Gate prior to 5:30 am.

Source: OC Weekly

]]> http://www.penelope-cruz.org/2011/04/14/pirates-disneyland-premiere-date/feed/ 0