Euro Express

• Share

As a teenager back in her native Seville, Paz Vega made up her mind to become famous. Another Spaniard and fellow Andalucian, Antonio Banderas, had made it big in Hollywood, so why couldn't she? "I had always loved theater and cinema," says Vega, 29, over the phone from Miami, where she's promoting her latest film, Spanglish. "So one day I said to myself that I would become an actress."

Vega's breakthrough role came in 2001's Lucía y el Sexo (Sex and Lucía), in which she plays a luminous, besotted lover. Thinking her boyfriend has died in an accident, she travels to his favorite island where she uncovers a secret about his past. Her performance — tender, impassioned and real — won her a Goya award (Spain's Academy Award) for best new actress. Her early career had its memorable nude scenes, but it was Vega's ability to inject her characters with a fiery sensuality that kept Spanish eyes on her. Moments like the one in 2003's Carmen where Vega, all sweat and bosom, dances for a group of soldiers, consolidated her reputation for sexually charged performances. Now she is trying to seduce the U.S. with her first Hollywood film, Spanglish, a romantic comedy in which she stars alongside funnyman Adam Sandler and Téa Leoni. It opens this week in Spain and next week in Britain.

Vega plays Flor Moreno, a Mexican woman who moves with her daughter Cristina to Los Angeles and ends up working as a maid in the upscale home of successful chef John Clasky (Sandler) and his high-strung wife Deborah (Leoni). They don't speak Spanish and Flor doesn't know a word of English — it's a comedy of confusion. But with a message: Between the laughs, Flor struggles to protect her humble values and shield her daughter from the corrupting power of money. Vega's faltering English didn't deter director James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, As Good as It Gets) from casting her. "I knew [Brooks] had been looking for somebody for a long time," says Vega. "They called me to do the part, but I told them I couldn't do it because I don't speak English. A friend of mine insisted I try, so I prepared a tape and sent it." Brooks took one look at the video and was sold.

In the end, says Vega, "the language issue was hardly a problem in the film. I speak mostly Spanish with a Mexican accent. That helps the story with all the idiomatic misunderstandings." In fact, the only real surprise Vega found in Hollywood was the scale of things. "In front of the camera, it's the same," she says. "The difference is in the surroundings. In America, for every single thing there are many more people involved. But it doesn't intimidate me; it makes me feel more supported, more protected."

If all goes well, Vega could have another comedy out before the end of the year: Di que Sí (Say I Do), in which she plays Estrella, an aspiring actress who agrees to star in a TV reality show. The rules: she has to spend a week at a beach resort with a nerdy cinema usher she despises — and pretend to be in love. In the film, Vega will do anything for the spotlight. Luckily for her, in real life, the world is already watching.

Cecile De France isn't, strictly speaking, from France. But that hasn't prevented the 30-year-old Belgian from becoming a favorite with her southern neighbors — and among the most promising actors in European cinema. With two films set for release in the U.S. and Europe this year, her popularity looks set to spread even further.

De France is best known for her role as Isabelle, the lesbian confidante and romantic tutor of French actor Romain Duris in the 2002 film L'Auberge Espagnole (The Spanish Apartment). The Barcelona-set tale of a group of European exchange students learning more about life from one another than from their course work was a global hit, thanks, in part, to De France's performance. It earned her a César (France's Academy Award) as best new actress. In the same year, she also showed she had a deft comic touch in the French romcoms Irène, the story of a lonely, uptight woman's search for love, and A + Pollux, as the elusive love interest of a man determined to find and claim her for good. "It wasn't planned that way, but being in three films in a single year produced maximum exposure," De France recalls.

That interest hasn't waned since. In 2003, she won the lead role in Haute Tension (High Tension) — an aptly titled, gore-drenched thriller successfully released in Europe as Switchblade Romance and set to appear in U.S. theaters in June. She has also clocked up an English-language debut in Frank Coraci's 2004 remake of Around the World in 80 Days, starring Jackie Chan. It was, says De France, a "big door of opportunity thrown open to my career." Yet she had to be coaxed into accepting the part. "I was already involved in a wonderful stage production of [August] Strindberg's Miss Julie with very close friends when the call from Los Angeles came saying I had the part — so I turned it down," admits De France. "It wasn't until several sleepless nights later, after a lot of urging from people, that I heard this voice say, 'Hey, Cécile, this is life knocking with a big opportunity.' Then I thought, maybe I'd better reconsider."