Penelope Cruz: The "Babe" of Barcelona

She's sultry, slinky, feisty and takes no prisoners. Hot tamale Penelope Cruz has conquered many a leading man. Tom Cruise and hot Matt McConaughey come to mind. She's rumored to be dating Vicky Cristina Barcelona co-star Javier Bardem but won't confirm this. She keeps her private life as private as possible. If true, what a hot, talented Latin duo!

We got to chat with the actress recently in Beverly Hills. Like on her new Glamour magazine cover, Penelope was dressed in red; a sleeveless, empire-waisted frock accessorized with high wedge heels and gold hoop earrings; all fired-up class! We talked about everything from her process in creating a character, working with Javier and the legendary Woody Allen to filming in her beloved Barcelona.

In the film, Penelope plays Maria Elena, an emotionally imbalanced artist who has a volatile love/hate relationship with her ex, played by Javier.

TeenHollywood: We hear that you and Javier just launched your characters into some wild arguments in Spanish and even Woody, your director, had no idea what you were saying. Is that true?

Penelope: He was trusting us. He was trusting all the actors to improvise sometimes in English, sometimes in Spanish. He'd say 'do what you think Maria Elena would do going back from the English to the Spanish, whenever you feel it's natural. I did a lot of swearing [she laughs] and sometimes too much and I was a little bit worried about what he was going to think when he discovered some of the things that were said but I think he was happy.

TeenHollywood: Woody is famous for doing very few takes on a scene. Would you ever say, 'I want to do it again'?

Penelope: Every single time [laughing]. I drove him crazy with that! The last day I think he ran out of patience because he was so sweet and so kind and he always said 'yes to one more take' but the last take, the last day, it was a difficult scene, and I said, 'please one more', 'okay, do it one more', and then we finished the last take and he was nowhere in sight! [She laughs]. We said, 'okay, cut', and I was looking for Woody and he was hiding from me!

TeenHollywood: Why do you want to do scenes so many times?

Penelope: I'm like that on the set. As soon as I finish the take, I come up with something that I think is better that I should have done but I didn't, and if I don't get to do another take I torture myself for the rest of the day. So I have like a machine, the Avid, the editing machine in my head [laughing] and I don't think that's good for my health, or for my work. Since my first movie I've been like that, probably [it's] the insecurity of the actor and what happens when you relax after the take, then always you come up with something that you couldn't see when you were tense because you were in the middle of it.

TeenHollywood: In the film, your character and Javier's have had a relationship that has gone on for years and years and we don't see that. Did you build a backstory for that?

Penelope: You mean Juan Antonio and Maria Elena? Woody is very open to whatever method the actors have, very respectful, but sometimes I would go up to Woody with a book of notes on the past of Maria Elena and he would laugh at me [she laughs] but not in a mean way. I'd drawn monsters and what happened when Maria Elena was told she was a genius, and who told her that, and how that ruined her, and how that has made her live for so many years stuck in this victim role, because she thinks she's too special to be happy. She thinks that if she stops suffering, she won't be as talented, because she needs to be the tortured artist and self destructive.

TeenHollywood: You had it all worked out!

Penelope: I had a whole thing about all these theories, and he would look over the notes, he said, 'I think it's great that you do this, but really, things are going very well, I think you don't need to' but he's so charming and adorable and kind.

TeenHollywood: Did Woody write this part for you? It seems so.

Penelope: I don't know. I think my agent called him and said, 'we heard you're shooting in Spain, do you want to meet Penelope because she would love to work with you'. Something like that happened, and then we met in New York and we had a forty second meeting...

TeenHollywood: Only forty seconds?