Penélope Cruz has a lot to say about the one actor she’d most like to work with.
The “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” star was asked as much Monday in London during a Life in Pictures interview for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, according to Deadline.
Cruz, who won a BAFTA award as well as an Oscar for “Barcelona” in 2009, answered without hesitation.
“Meryl Streep,” she said. “I’m always begging my agents to take me to her set, just to bring her coffee or anything.”
She added: “Every time I see her, I run to hug her. ... The other day she received a very, very important award and then she named me in the speech and I could not believe it. And I watched it twenty times to make sure. It was like she knows that I exist, you know? She is my number one number one hero.”
Streep did indeed mention Cruz in a recent speech while praising “great” Spanish artists.
“Penélope Cruz said, ‘You cannot live your life looking at yourself from someone else’s point of view,’” Streep said in Cruz’s accent while accepting Spain’s Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts last month. “That’s my bad Penélope imitation.”
Like Streep, Cruz has been recognized in recent decades as a major talent.
The actor started out with bit parts on Spanish-language TV before working with regional filmmaking talent like Alejandro Amenábar and Pedro Almodóvar — and becoming a Hollywood A-lister opposite Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp and Daniel Day-Lewis.
While appreciative of her peers, Cruz was also drawn to Old Hollywood when asked on Monday who would be at her dream dinner, listing past stars like Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Marlon Brando.
Perhaps most intriguing of all, the actor said she is directing a documentary, without providing further details. Cruz, who shares two children with fellow Spanish actor Javier Bardem, said the COVID-19 pandemic made her realize that the project was the most important thing in her life, aside from her family.
“I need to do this in this lifetime,” said Cruz, per Deadline. “That’s what made me start, and I’ve been now working on it for like a year. And I need two more years. It’s not a short or easy thing, but it’s happening.”