{"id":884668,"date":"2026-09-08T17:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T17:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/884668\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T17:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T17:06:11","slug":"javier-bardem-penelope-cruz-talk-playing-couple-in-bunker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/884668\/","title":{"rendered":"Javier Bardem, Pen\u00e9lope Cruz Talk Playing Couple In ‘Bunker’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA-list couple Pen\u00e9lope Cruz and Javier Bardem<\/a> touched down at the Venice<\/a> Film Festival on Tuesday for the competition world premiere of Oscar-winning French director Florian Zeller<\/a>\u2019s highly anticipated thriller Bunker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tBardem plays an architect who takes on an ethically questionable project to build a survivalist bunker for a tech billionaire, in a move that will lead his wife of seventeen years (Cruz) to question their relationship.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt marks the first time the stars who wed in 2010, and share two children together, have shared the big screen together in the role of a fictitious married couple.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe couple were asked at the press conference for the film whether they had put any of their real-life marriage into the roles, and if they sometimes argued about work.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are very good at really creating fiction and reality; otherwise, we won\u2019t survive in this job,\u201d replied Bardem.<\/p>\n

\n\tCruz said it would be unimaginable that they had never argued once over the course of their 30-year relationship but that they rarely got heated over work.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe both really love this profession, but it\u2019s true that there is a good balance in terms of how much you are speaking about work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cObviously, if you are preparing a movie together, obviously that is going to be very present in the conversations. But we haven\u2019t done this very often\u2026 it has appeared like every five years because all the things that we were offered, we didn\u2019t think they were for us, or for us at that specific moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBut with this, there was no question because it was with Florian. When we had the first meeting with him about it, because we both loved the script, we knew that we were going to be protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCruz suggested Zeller had a way of getting an actor to bring their life experiences to their performances, without bringing in their personal life.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHaving somebody like him in the middle, you feel safer because you know there are going to be days that are more tricky, big arguments in the movie\u2026 emotional scenes\u2026 and I\u2019m very grateful to Florian because he was always watching us, always feeling and seeing everything, without invading, he was a real protection for us in that way, and it was really beautiful to have that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBunker is Zeller\u2019s second film to play in competition at Venice after The Son in 2022, while his Oscar-winning first feature The Father premiered in Sundance. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe director said he had approached the couple for the film simply because he \u201cadored them\u201d but also admitted he was intrigued as to how the fact they are a real couple would impact the film.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey are among the greatest actor actors working today, and so obviously it was an honor for me to work with them,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBut I have to say that from the very beginning, I was also interested in having them together on screen, because I thought it would be a unique way to capture something special as a real couple, to give layers to all the scenes of this film, to blur the line, between reality and fiction, but to try to approach something that I\u2019m interested in, which is the burning authenticity of the truth, and to do that for actors, you have to be very bold, you have to be very fearless and ambitious, and this is what they are, and that\u2019s why they are such great artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAuthenticity in the film also comes from the way the couple speak their native language Spanish at home, and English in the outside world.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s amazing how much that has changed. Because even if you look back 10, 15 years, it was always so challenging to get financiers to accept something like that. It has really changed over the last three decades that we\u2019ve been working and sometimes really struggling, trying to convince producers or sometimes even directors to try to do things that way,\u201d said Cruz.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe audience was always ready for that, but there was a fear\u2026 This is what kids grow up used to now, seeing original films with people speaking the language they are supposed to speak, and multilingual films, which is the way the world more and more becomes, and it has to be reflected in film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tZeller revealed inspiration for the film had come from an article he had read about an underground survivalist bunker being built in secret by a \u201cfamous tech billionaire [Mark Zuckerberg].<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was a secret project, meaning that everyone involved in this project had to sign an NDA\u2026 and for some reason, the information went public, and I thought it was like a fascinating paradox because this man who was who made a fortune based on the idea of connecting people together was working on a plan B to isolate himself from the rest of the world, and I thought a lot about that,\u201d he explained. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe more I was thinking about it, the more I realized that all of us, to some degrees, we are all tempted to live in a bunker-not a real bunker, but an invisible bunker. The lifestyle that we are embracing more and more, without questioning it, the lifestyle that is basically the one these billionaires are promoting, is a world of illusion where you believe that somehow you don\u2019t really need the others anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBardem and Cruz acknowledged that Zeller\u2019s intent with the film chimed with their own sense of political responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u2018Bunker\u2019 stars Javier Bardem and Pen\u00e9lope Cruz on the importance and responsibility of talking politics as artists: \u201cIt would be very contradictory to be a part of a movie like this\u2026 and then say \u2018I don\u2019t talk about politics.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018Bunker\u2019 tells the story of an architect who\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/7t8OI4Lot2<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Deadline (@DEADLINE) September 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs an artist, you have a responsibility to make a story happen and to tell the story that the director, the author wants. And then you as an individual, it doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re an artist, an actor, a plumber, or a taxi driver. You have the right to expose your truth or what you think is important,\u201d said Bardem, who is known for his outspoken support of Palestinian rights.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0\u201cObviously, I have more resources to do it than a taxi driver because I have this thing and I have you guys listening to me. So the responsibility is a different one, and that\u2019s what I think is important to have a responsibility toward the world that we live in aand that I don\u2019t take it for granted\u2026 This movie speaks about that. Speaks about how how much we are willing to see, feel, welcome the other, or\u2026 how much are we going to isolate ourselves and criminalize and dehumanize the other?\u201d<\/p>\n