Penelope Cruz W Magazine September 2012

It’s still 1980 on the cover of W Magazine September ’2012′ for which Penelope Cruz is being windswept back to the future while wearing a turtleneck. The cover’s even prettier than it looked in the preview photo because the preview photo was also taken in the 80s (Instagram in real life). Inside the issue, the 38-year-old talks about how she approaches comedy since, apparently, Hollywood lets her be beautiful and thoughtful.

On her first audition: ‘It was for the woman who became my manager and still works with me. She was testing around 300 actors. I was 14 years old, and she had me read a scene from Casablanca, which is impossible to do when you are that age. But my manager asked me if I wanted to work with her, and she sent me on some castings. When I was 16, I got Jamón, Jamón. Of course, I had to lie about my age. And I had to lie to my parents about the content of the script.’
On the key to being funny: ‘I don’t play comedy as comedy. That would be the biggest trap. I think about the characters and their situations. Then you don’t have to worry where the laugh is going to be. But comedy is harder than drama.’
On filming death and sex scenes: ‘I don’t like dying. I die in Don’t Move, and I can’t really look at it because it reminds me of my grandmother when she was very old. But sex scenes are very strange. Absurd, really.’