Penélope Cruz revealed that she had concerns that the fragile relationship between the husband-and-wife leads of filmmaker Florian Zeller’s Bunker might bleed over into her rock-solid union with husband Javier Bardem.
“We’ve worked together every five or six years – we don’t plan it like that, but I think in a way we both want to protect and we feel like if we would be working together too often, it would be tricky and risky,” Cruz explained during a panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film Los Angeles event Saturday at the DGA Theater. “But when Florian came to us, even before we read the script, we looked at each other and we knew none of us would want to say no … because we were huge fans and now even more after working with him.
“There was no way we were going to say no. And we came into this adventure with him. And even if it was challenging at times, for example, for the big fight scene, we did that during three days and it was terrifying to me because we had to go into places that were really, really uncomfortable,” Cruz added, referencing the couple’s crucial confrontation in the film.
“Even if it’s not your real story, it doesn’t matter,” she said. “You know you are touching things that are delicate. And we always felt his protection and his guidance. And it was more the fear of the week before doing it than, actually, the process of doing that scene that I was obsessed with.”
Florian Zeller and Penélope Cruz
Rich Polk for Deadline
She told Zeller, who joined her on the panel: “And then you made us enjoy doing that scene. You made us enjoy every single step of the process, but you know how terrified I was of that scene the week before I became a total nightmare. I know.”
“They are extraordinary actors as we know,” said Zeller. “And it’s always such a joy for a filmmaker to have the opportunity to look at beautiful human beings and actors, but I have to say that I was also very interested to have them together onscreen, because as we know, you are in a couple in real life, and I thought it would be an extraordinary opportunity to explore something unique, something that has to do with the truth, with authenticity.
“Not to say that this is their story — because it is not, obviously — but because they are great actors, they are digging into themselves to find the truth, to find authenticity.”
“I’m sure you remember Eyes Wide Shut. At the time, Nicole Kimman and Tom Cruise, they were a real couple when they did this beautiful film with Kubrick,” Zeller explained. “And I remember that I mentioned this to [Cruz] and to Javier also when we first talked about the film, because I remember as a viewer, the excitement to be in a position when you do not know exactly what you’re invited to watch. Again, is it fiction? Is it the truth? Is it another version of the truth?”
He added: “But I also remember Javier saying, ‘You should not mention this film too often because at the end of the shooting, they broke up.’ And then I also realized that Kubrick soon died just after the shooting. So I was like, ‘OK, I’m not going to mention this.’
“But the real difference is in Bunker, the destination of what we tried to do is really the reconciliation, how to feel the reconnection between two people who love them themselves and have been disconnected,” the filmmaker said.
Check back on Monday for the panel video.
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