Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem have achieved what very few couples in Hollywood

One of the fascinating edges that everything related to the Oscar has is not so much the merit of the films nominated in their categories, but trying to predict who is going to win and who is not going to win in this competition that is already 95 years old.

In this case, the surprise has been that Javier Bardem —who already has an Oscar in the category of supporting actor for his impeccable work as the hitman Anton Chigur in ‘No Country for Old Men’ by the Coens—and his beautiful and elegant consort, mother of his two offspring, Penélope “Pe” Cruz, an Almodóvar girl par excellance for 20 years, and who also holds an Oscar for a film by the highly canceled Woody Allen — ‘Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona’—, have been nominated. Her for best actress (inexplicably according to some) for Pedro Almodóvar’s most recent film, ‘Parallel Mothers’, which has not received a very good response from critics. Him for her portrayal of Desi Arnaz Jr. in the movie ‘

Actually this is not the first time that a married couple has competed for the ceremony, the Bardem-Cruz are the sixth couple nominated in the same year, but the first non-Americans.

And it is very striking how, despite being acting heavyweights both in Europe and the US, they are the most discreet marriage possible (Penelope famously starts her interviews with the phrase “Hello. I’m not talking about my private life, okay?” ?”. Thus they have maintained a decade of zero scandal and many professional successes.

These nominations put them in the company of Hollywood greats like Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor (it’s impossible to imagine the ’60s zeitgeist without them married and drunk) who were nominated for their performances in Mike Nichols’ adaptation of Edward’s brutal stage hit. Albee ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ in 1967. She (who gained 30 pounds for her performance and stayed drunk most of the time to “be in character”) won and he didn’t, losing to the enormous Paul Scofield for his portrayal of the martyr Thomas More in ‘A Man for All Seasons’ (that is, by the way, an almost obligatory viewing film for anyone interested in the history of modern religion) and Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, who were nominated years later for ‘Rachel, Rachel’ (he in his directorial debut and she as lead actress)

Bardem is in luxury as Desi Arnaz, the famous Cuban musician and actor who immigrated to North America with his father and made a career playing the bongos, later marrying Lucille Ball and having a successful and stormy 20-year relationship. Starring in ‘Being the Ricardos,’ directed by Aaron Sorkin and co-starring a radiant Nicole Kidman as Lucy (she’s also nominated), Bardem delivers a fresh and confident performance, recreating and giving humanity to a very interesting character who for years had been treated as a ‘footnote’ and here it gets its rightful place in history.

The Spaniard made a remote control in which he thanked the nomination, but it went so well when he had the folly to say that Spanish characters never appear in Hollywood movies and therefore are a minority.

In any case, all Latinos are a minority. And in fact the Spanish characters that appear (when they appear) are mostly upper middle class or professional because they are European and do not have the stigma that Latin American characters usually carry.

But beyond the blunder caused by enthusiastic chauvinism, Bardem has shown that his drive to go far has propelled him to go far.

Penelope’s case is more controversial: she is nominated in the same category as Kidman, whose marriage to Tom Cruise ended in part because of the fling he started with Cruz on the set of ‘Vanilla Sky’ — and led to one of the divorces. most scandalous of their time—and not only that, both compete with that force of nature that is Olivia Colman and with the popular favorite, Kirsten Stewart, who put on a Diana Spencer wig and impressed almost everyone—although personally the I find it as flat as in Twilight, only with an aristocratic accent.

The other problem is that Penelope’s nomination left many speechless, as Frances McDormand was expected to receive one for her impeccable work on ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’, replicating the irigote of 2011 when the fabulous Tilda Swinton was arbitrarily ignored for her masterful performance in ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’, for the customary Meryl to be nominated for her gruesome caricature of Maggie Thatcher.

Bardem clearly deserves the nomination for her impeccable work, while Penelope, who is fine in a very minor Almodóvar film (there is no shortage of people who say that it should have been titled ‘Instant Lesbians’ due to a whimsical and unwarranted plot twist in itself poorly written) but it is clear that she is there in a position of commitment of some kind (political, social, activist perhaps) and not because of the talent that the actress has and that in this film never shone. Be that as it may, they are the two, the most attractive and mediatic couple in Spain, in a shortlist that not everyone achieves. And that is remarkable.

Surely, almost 30 years ago, on the set of ‘Jamón Jamón’ by Bigas Luna, where they met, no one imagined that. Now it will be necessary to see if they manage to make history.