Penelope Cruz's New Role

'Four different languages in four different countries'

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Penelope Cruz may have stayed away from Los Angeles early in her career because of the difficulty actresses can have finding roles that combine beauty and brains.

Or maybe, as she puts it, it was simply because dinner arrived at the wrong time.

Whatever the reason, the Spanish beauty is back in the United States with the recent Hollywood action flick "Sahara," co-starring her current flame, Matthew McConaughey.

For fans who'd rather watch her brainy side, Cruz, who turns 31 this month, is showing that off in the Italian film "Don't Move," playing in art-house theaters.

She said she was energized by her global career, if a bit tired.

"I've been shooting in four different languages in four different countries," she told reporters in recent interviews to promote the film.

"I wanted to create that for myself," she said. "The bigger the space, the better chance you have to find more interesting work."

"Sahara" may not be the most challenging role for Cruz, but she said she always wanted to perform in a big-budget Hollywood spectacle.

"I just couldn't find an action-adventure with a woman who was strong enough," she said.

Cruz plays a doctor -- described in the press notes as "beautiful and brilliant" -- tracing the origin of an African plague when she gets caught in a shoot-'em-up adventure with treasure hunter Dirk Pitt (McConaughey).

The movie is based on a novel by Clive Cussler, who created swashbuckling hero Pitt and whose books have sold more than 125 million copies.

'I so admire that woman'

"Don't Move" ("Non ti muovere"), by contrast, is far removed from the fistfights, gunbattles, helicopter crashes and gold-digging in "Sahara."

A thoughtful romance that deals with the nature of love, commitment and family, it starts with a chance encounter between Cruz's impoverished and lonely woman, Italia, and a big-city doctor, Timoteo, who is frustrated with his life. Timoteo is portrayed by the movie's director, Sergio Castellitto.

In their first meeting, Timoteo rapes Italia. But instead of going to the police, she accepts him back into her life when he returns. From there, the two emotionally wounded individuals begin an affair that will alter their lives.

For the role, Cruz shed her long dark hair and perfect smile for streaked locks and a gap between her teeth. Critics swooned.

Cruz's performance earned her best actress honors at Italy's David di Donatello awards and she was compared with Italian film legend Sophia Loren.

When asked how she felt about the comparison, she replied: "What do you say? It's such a huge compliment, what do you say? I so admire that woman."

When it comes to old boyfriend Tom Cruise and questions about McConaughey, whom she met on the set of "Sahara," she's not talking.

She waved her finger in the air and said she had been doing interviews since she was 19 and her one absolute rule was to say nothing about her private life.

Still, she lets go one detail. She once spurned Los Angeles for her home in Madrid, mainly because she thought people in Los Angeles ate dinner too early. Now she has had a change of heart.

"I didn't like Los Angeles at the beginning," she said, "but I do now because I created my own lifestyle."