Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem have proven that they aren’t afraid to speak out about politics, with the power couple being especially vocal about their support of Palestine.
It was inevitable that the topic would come up at the Venice Film Festival press conference for their new film “Bunker,” which also doesn’t dance around timely issues. Directed by Florian Zeller, they star as a husband and wife whose 17-year marriage begins to unravel after Bardem’s character, an architect, agrees to build a survivalist bunker for a tech billionaire.
“Obviously I have more resources to do it than a taxi driver, because I have this thing [the mic] and I have you guys listening to me. So the responsibility is a different one,” he continued. “And that’s what I think is important, to have a responsibility towards the world that we live in and I don’t take it for granted. But artistically speaking, this movie speaks about that, about how much we’re willing to see, feel, welcome the other, or fear based on what we imagine, our pre-judgments, our fears. Based on that, how much are we going to isolate and criminalize the other? And I don’t know the answer, but it’s a good question.”
“I loved ‘Eyes Wide Shut,’ this ambivalent proposition presented to the audience where you’re not quite sure what you’re being invited to watch,” Zeller told Variety. “Is it fiction? Is it another version of fiction? Where is the line between reality and fiction? That permeability between reality and fiction seemed to me a truly fascinating project.”
Asked about what it was like to work together on “Bunker” and if they ever argue about work, Bardem said they “are very good at either creating fiction or reality, otherwise we would not survive in this job.” He then joked, “And if we do argue? No, no never.”
On a more sincere note, Cruz said: “We both really love this profession, but it’s true that there is a good balance in terms of how much you are speaking about work. Obviously if you are preparing a movie together, that is going to be very present in the conversations. But we haven’t done this very often. Naturally, it has appeared like, every five years.”
