More than 20 years after making her name as Pedro Almodóvar’s muse, the Spanish actor and fashion icon is starring in his latest film, Julieta. She discusses age, glamour – and why she wants to play a kung fu superhero
Rossy de Palma’s left eye is a gentle sea-green, the lid softly hooded; her right eye is brighter and rounder, a sparkling hazel. As the sulky, menacing Marian in the new Pedro Almodóvar film, Julieta, the left eye seems to dominate, casting a melancholy spell. But today, as herself – a vivacious arthouse icon – the right takes over. She is positively radiant.
The skew of her features is softer in person than it looks on screen, her long nose more Modigliani-elegant than Picasso-strange. Still, her looks are such that it would be impossible for her to walk into a room without being noticed. In fact, as I am waiting in the green room of the British Film Institute on a quiet weekday afternoon, her imminent arrival is announced by a smattering of film students in the foyer, who break into polite applause as she walks past. She is statuesque in high-heeled sandals, with crimson toenails matching the painterly daubs on the silk shirt she wears open over a tight dress. The large, gold earrings (she is, after all, a glamorous Madrileño of a certain age) gleam under a leather pork-pie hat of the kind worn by the Specials.
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