acting - Jezebel

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Character Study
Did Pedro Almodóvar Save Penelope Cruz's Career?
Natasha Richardson's Death Reduced To "Redgrave Curse."
Hooray For Bollywood
Can A Self-Respecting Porn Star Ever Succeed As A Mainstream Actress?

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moonwalking
10/08/09

In reply to Character Study
In an interview, Essman stated that people often approach her on the street and ask her to cuss them out, Susie Greene-style. And she quite often obliges.
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If_I_Had_a_Poodle
10/08/09

In reply to Character Study
i like her style, which is, of course, an illusion
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Highsmith
10/08/09

In reply to Character Study
Larrrrrrayyyy! YOU FOUR EYED FUCK!!!
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willwriteforfood
10/08/09

In reply to Character Study
I love Susie Greene as a character in a (slightly) fictionalized TV show. I love that she is blunter than just about anyone in putting Larry in his place and she'll just go from 0 to 60 mph so her dialogue is like, "Hey Larry, whatcha doin'?...Oh yeah, fuck you, Larry!"

But Susie Greene would be one scary-ass person to be around in real life. You could only trail in her wake, never lead. Susie Essman, however, rocks.
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ritualtheory
10/08/09

In reply to Character Study
I love Susie Essman. She's like my loud, brash, unselfconscious, shameless shadow self.
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colormeroutine
10/08/09

In reply to Character Study
I've known some people like that. They were actually pretty unpleasant to be around
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Maritsa
10/08/09

@colormeroutine: Also, reality TV is full of people like this, and they aren't fun to watch.
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mmj200
09/28/09

In reply to Did Pedro Almodóvar Save Penelope Cruz's Career?
She's an unconventional knockout beauty and a lucky bitch to be screwing that hot piece called Javier. My heavens does that man put exy in sexy.
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Beets.Go.On is the Fat Yogini
09/28/09

In reply to Did Pedro Almodóvar Save Penelope Cruz's Career?
I didn't realize that Vanilla Sky was considered a "terrible movie." As far as transhumanist concept films go, I thought (and still think) it was excellent.
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birminghamdrunk
09/28/09

@Beets.Go.On is the Fat Yogini: for real. i know a lot of people didn't like it because there aren't any OMG SPECIAL EFFECTS SHIT EXPLODING, but conceptually speaking, the story line, and how it was shot was superb. Vanilla Sky is, hands down, one of my favorite movies.
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lavenderstain
09/28/09

In reply to Did Pedro Almodóvar Save Penelope Cruz's Career?
"Schnoz" really? a raised nose makes you not "pretty" now?

ooookay
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GreyCat
09/28/09

@lavenderstain: I have seen many references to and jokes about her nose and I really don't get it.
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whynotshesaid
09/28/09

@GreyCat: I actually appreciate that her nose is not the typical little ski-jump nose. I have a larger nose myself, and it's been the one part of my body I am super-sensitive about ever since I was a little girl, so seeing gorgeous women like Penelope Cruz and Anjelica Huston rock their noses makes me feel better about my own.
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Hippopotame begs you to promote her comments.
09/28/09

In reply to Did Pedro Almodóvar Save Penelope Cruz's Career?
She has been great in several Almodovar films. I don't get why this article you're reporting on seems to make it seem that it was only Volver that showed her talent. All About My Mother was exquisite and Live Flesh was good, too. She was also in Belle Epoque. Woman On Top was an awful film, but she did fine acting in it. Bandidas, a more recent film, was also pretty silly. So, basically, she's had some good roles, some crap roles and some excellent roles.
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ytuhermanotambien
09/28/09

@Hippopotame: That's a good point. Although you could make the argument that Almodovar launched her career, Volver is way too late. She'd been starring in his movies for years, and All About My Mother was both more critically acclaimed and more of a commercial success.
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Calraigh promoted this comment ytuhermanotambien was starred

parangaricutirimicuaro
09/28/09

@ytuhermanotambien: I do think Almodovar gave her the platform to show her talent, then she made really bad decisions that were burying her career and it wasn't until she went back to work with Almodovar that she "shined" again.
So I think both you and the article are right. :)
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topsy
09/28/09

In reply to Did Pedro Almodóvar Save Penelope Cruz's Career?
I'm so glad that I no long have to defend my Penelope Cruz love. I never really bothered with her American movies but Cruz and Almodovar are a match made in heaven. Actually, Almodovar and anybody is a match made in heaven. The man can direct!
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BlondeGoddess
09/28/09

In reply to Did Pedro Almodóvar Save Penelope Cruz's Career?
She's just a mediocre actress in English. When she speaks Spanish: a whole different league.
There are so many nuances in a language, it's hard to sound natural when it's not your own mother tongue.
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cait98
09/28/09

@BlondeGoddess: That's exactly what it is. She isn't a very good actress, in my opinion, in English. She's incredible in her native language.

I mean, look at her in Vanilla Sky/Abre Los Ojos - same role, same plot, same movie and she is so much better in one.

Also, I've loved Almodovar forever, my favorite director, and they make a good team. He's made me fall vicariously in love with his other muses too.

The man makes really excellent movies about women.
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Calraigh promoted this comment Edited by cait98 at 09/28/09 11:19 AM cait98 was starred cait98 was unstarred

kemperboyd
09/28/09

@BlondeGoddess: I totally agree. I saw Broken Embraces and said to my mother; "you forget how good an actress she really is until you see her in Spanish"
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hfree
09/28/09

In reply to Did Pedro Almodóvar Save Penelope Cruz's Career?
Her two biggest problems in her early English speaking career were that a) she couldn't actually speak English yet (and neither could Antonio Banderas when he started btw) and b) she was cast as any all kinds of non-Anglo ethnicities (Greek, Brazilian, Italian, etc.). That would have been an incredible challenge for anyone, and one almost impossible to pull off. By going back to Spain and playing the parts of Spanish women she could act within her comfort zone and really shine. Hopefully this will inspire some more appropriate parts for her in the future.

And she was hardly the worst thing about Captain Corelli's Mandolin (I'm looking at you Cage!), a terrible movie made from a pretty good book.
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SmaženýSýr
09/28/09

In reply to Did Pedro Almodóvar Save Penelope Cruz's Career?
And yet VF apparently felt the need to Photoshop her. WTF?
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whynotshesaid
09/28/09

@SmaženýSýr: OMG you are right. They totally shaved off a third of her nose. WTF, Vanity Fair?
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Raederle
09/28/09

@SmaženýSýr: She's almost unrecognizable on the cover. I had to do a triple-take.
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LaFemme
09/28/09

@Raederle: I think she kind of looks like J. Lo here.
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ytuhermanotambien
09/28/09

@whynotshesaid: The Photoshopped nose makes her almost unrecognizable. Also, I've read before that she had to wear padding in the butt for a role before, so if that's her real ass on the VF cover, her body type must have drastically changed.
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Calraigh promoted this comment ytuhermanotambien was starred

Katxyz
09/28/09

@SmaženýSýr

I think Penolope is one of the most beautiful people I have ever seen (well, seen pictures of) in my entire life and that cover looks totally wrong. Everything looks off. I don't know how or why someone would do that to someone so absolutely stunning.
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Vixen5
09/28/09

In reply to Did Pedro Almodóvar Save Penelope Cruz's Career?
I've been a fan of Ms. Cruz since I saw her in Woman on Top which makes me want to get on a flight to Brazil every single time. I think she's fantastic and I loved pretty much every Almodovar flick she was in.
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