Maggie Gyllenhaal hails 'very smart' Penelope Cruz
Maggie Gyllenhaal has lavished praise on Penelope Cruz, who stars in The Bride!.
Maggie Gyllenhaal thinks Penelope Cruz is "very, very smart".
The 48-year-old star directs Penelope, 52, in The Bride!, the new gothic romance movie, and she's heaped praise on the award-winning actress, describing Penelope as a "brilliant" performer.
Maggie told The Perfect Magazine: "I think there are many, many good actors, and I think there are a tiny handful of brilliant actors, and I think that Penelope Cruz is one of them."
The actress plays Myrna Malloy, a police detective working in Chicago, in The Bride!. The new movie draws inspiration from the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein, which was based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein.
Speaking about Penelope, Maggie explained: "She’s this incredible combination of fiercely powerful and extremely vulnerable and very, very smart, and also capable of a kind of totally irrational, wild thinking. I see that in all of her work that I admire. And I wanted Myrna to be all those things."
Maggie admitted to being wowed by Penelope's performance in the new movie, which also stars Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, and Jake Gyllenhaal.
The actress-turned-director said: "Although Myrna has to be contained emotionally in the world that she lives in in order to survive in it. I feel so many deep emotional things happening under the surface all throughout [her] performance."
Penelope also relished the experience of working with Maggie on the project.
The Oscar-winning actress shared: "I think she’s an incredible director and writer. She did something that is so modern, so rock ’n’ roll, but still with so many layers, so much depth, so much humour and emotion."
Penelope is married to fellow movie star Javier Bardem - but he previously revealed that they don't discuss their work at home.
The loved-up couple has been married since 2010, and even though they've worked together a lot over the years, they never discuss their work at home.
Javier told Variety: "At home, we don’t talk much about work.
"We don’t have posters or photos or anything that reminds us of what we do for a living. We don’t waste too much time talking about work, though we love what we do. We try to compartmentalise life and fiction."
