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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.
Asked about their choice to speak up about politics as actors, Cruz pointed out that it would be “very contradictory” not to do so while starring in a movie like “Bunker.”
“We don’t have to agree with our characters, we don’t have to agree sometimes with the story, but this involves so many aspects of where the world is right now — things that affect all of us, future generations,” Cruz said. “There are so many things in this film that it would be really contradictory to then be here and say, ‘Oh, I don’t want to talk about that.’ It’s impossible. And that’s why a situation like [this press conference] is sometimes more scary than, I don’t know how many weeks of shooting that we did. But still, I don’t think it would make sense to say, ‘I don’t talk about politics.'”
Bardem added that it “doesn’t matter if you’re an artist, an actor, a plumber, a taxi driver, you have the right to expose your truth on what you think is important.”
“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.”
Zeller wrote and directed “Bunker,” which also stars Paul Dano, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Stephen Graham. The movie marks his return to Venice, where his prior film “The Son,” starring Hugh Jackman, competed for the Golden Lion in 2022. An acclaimed playwright, Zeller made his feature directorial debut with 2020’s “The Father,” which won Oscars for Anthony Hopkins and for adapted screenplay.
The director has cited Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut” as a key inspiration for “Bunker.” Like Kubrick, who cast then-married Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as partners on the verse of unraveling, Zeller described wanting to blend “fiction and reality” by spotlighting a real couple. Although Barden and Cruz have appeared in many movies together over the years, including “Jamón Jamón,” “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and “Everybody Knows,” Zeller said he was intrigued that they had never played long-wed spouses.
“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.”
Cruz laughed and added, “I know you for more than 30 years, imagine if we’d never had an argument.”
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.”
Cruz continued that working with Zeller made them both feel comforted throughout the filming process. “We knew we were going to be protected in that way, in terms of having someone in the middle who is inviting you not to bring anything from your personal life, but you are going to bring yourself and everything you have experienced in your life,” she said.
