Penélope Cruz ranges from drama to dance in two major end-of-year releases

Penélope Cruz and Pedro Almodóvar last teamed for "Volver," a haunting drama of mothers and daughters that earned Cruz her first Oscar nomination. Now the actress and filmmaker, both natives of Spain, are joining forces again for "Broken Embraces" (opening Friday at the Egyptian), a twisty, noirish tale of a blind filmmaker and the woman he once loved.

"I was involved from the very beginning, like in 'Volver,' " said Cruz, speaking about her working relationship with Almodóvar at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. "I was involved in some of the casting — Pedro would ask me to read with them. That's the way he works, you go in and start every day, every day is questions and answers and getting to a point where he feels like every department is ready, and then you start shooting."

"Broken Embraces" required months of rehearsal, said Cruz, "all kinds of directions, all kinds of trying the scene in many different ways." Her role, as the mysterious Lena, was multilayered — "like three characters in one" — and required a range of emotions: dramatic, comedic, melodramatic, and even one scene in which she's an actress in a movie, playing a scene that isn't working.

In her film career, which began in Spanish cinema as a teenager in the early '90s, Cruz has moved easily from drama to comedy, including winning an Oscar for her wickedly funny work in Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." Both moods, she said, are equally difficult. "Sometimes when comedy works, it has to seem very easy. Drama, I think it can sometimes be more interesting, it's more relatable and darker, emotions. Sometimes comedy is even harder. It's such a delicate thing, it's like music, if you are off two notes then it's over."

She'd like to do more comedy, and says she'd love to work with Almodóvar and Allen again — their particular brand of comedy suits her. "I'm more interested in that type of comedy — the moments when you laugh are the moments when you are seeing every detail of the character's desperation. The character is miserable, and their pain is very real, but that's what Woody does so well, and Pedro. To make you almost feel guilty, laughing at things when somebody is so exposed, at the irony of life and the irony of human confusion. It feels great to be able to laugh at that, because we all relate to it." Her next comedy role is a brief one: a cameo in "Sex and the City 2," in theaters next May.

Cruz will also be in theaters this holiday season with the musical "Nine" (also opening Christmas Day in Seattle), making her song-and-dance screen debut. New to the genre — she'd never sang or danced, except for some ballet training — Cruz had to do several auditions for director Rob Marshall ("Chicago") to prove she could handle the role of Carla, the mistress of a film director, who sings a sultry solo number in lingerie. "I actually auditioned for three different characters — the muse, the wife and Carla," she said. "I loved all of them, but I really wanted Carla." (Nicole Kidman landed the role of the director's muse; Marion Cotillard his wife.)

Making a musical was a new and stressful experience — and required extensive singing and dance training — but Cruz said she bonded with her castmates, who included fellow Oscar winners Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Sophia Loren, Kidman and Cotillard. "Such amazing people," she said. "Everybody was scared, and everybody would tell you the same thing. So, then you think, OK, if Judi Dench is scared, then I'm allowed to be very scared!"

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com