Sure, Penelope Cruz just won a Oscar for her Best Supporting role in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” after her ever second nomination, that’s fantastic, right?
But she also won the same award at the Independent Spirit Awards that happened also over the weekend. When it was first announced that Woody Allen was making a new film with Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz as his female leads, we rolled our eyes and pretty much thought: but of course! When we found out that Cruz and Johansson would get involved in a steamy three-way and a girl-on-girl kiss than we pretty much screamed, perv! The rest of the interweb basically said the same.
Then Woody Allen tried to play it off like it wasn’t a big deal, he wasn’t trying to be exploitative and he wasn’t trying to be salacious for publicity’s sake. We thought, suuuuuure and most importantly we thought: no you’re just shooting this scene for your own personal titillation that’s much more noble, huh?! Even if the scene-in-question did turn out to be rather tame, we still thought: sex peddler!
But during Cruz’s acceptance speech at the Indie Spirits, she revealed one almost shocking and crucial piece to this story. The day she and Johansson had to kiss on set? Allen took off to get a freckle checked out at the dermatologist.
“I feel so privileged to have had that time with [Woody Allen]. He’s really the symbol of independence in our industry. I mean he really does whatever he wants at all times. Including just leaving the set, deciding he has to go to the dermatologist on the day I had to kiss Scarlet Johansson. That’s what really happened. He discovered a new freckle on his hand and he decided the end of the day could be too late. And he just left, and I love him for that. And then he came back and all the attention was on his freckle. But I love him. He’s so genuine and himself at all times.”
Say what you will about Allen’s past, but dude not only didn’t have a closed set, he left the set, because he had, you know… more important things to take care of. We see the director in a whole, new odd and strange light. What a curious man.
