14 DAY TRIAL // When word got out that Penelope Cruz, the hottest addition to the latest installment in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, “On Stranger Tides,” was pregnant and shooting was not done yet, everyone wondered how she’d pull it off. It was a piece of cake really, she now says.
The star is featured in the upcoming edition of Vogue magazine where, among other things, she talks about reuniting with director Rob Marshall (who also directed her in “Nine”), getting to work again with Johnny Depp and, of course, doing an action movie while pregnant (all quotes via here).
Of course, getting to do a movie with Rob and Johnny was like a dream come true, Penelope admits. In fact, she’d wanted this so badly she didn’t even dare dream about this, she says.
Shooting for “On Stranger Tides” began two months before she got pregnant, and the actress insists that nothing really changed once she was with child because she was never at any risk when doing more challenging action scenes.
“It helped that I was a dancer for so many years and worked on the fight choreography for two months before I was pregnant,” Penelope says.
“I really knew all the fights because [director] Rob [Marshall] put them together almost as a dance the way we had trained for Nine. That helped, and when we shot, I never did anything dangerous,” the actress explains.
At one point after Penelope’s pregnancy was confirmed, word online was saying that Disney was thinking about bringing her sister, Monica Cruz, as a stand-in for some scenes – and shooting only close-ups of Penelope.
No word yet whether the studio went ahead with the plan. If it did, Penelope is not saying anything about it.
As noted above, in the same interview, the Spanish stunner also talks about her relationship with Marshall and Depp, both of whom she truly loves, admires and respects.
“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” premiered at Disneyland over the weekend and will arrive nationwide in US theaters of May 20.