“Parallel Mothers is a complete act of love from start to finish,” says Milena Smit
, she had no idea who had written the text she was reading, who would direct the film, or even what it was called. “I connected straight away with the character,” she tells AnOther over FaceTime, “but it was only after several auditions with the casting directors that my agent finally told me it was a Pedro project. The last couple of auditions were with him, and I only read the whole script once I got the part. That was a very emotional experience.
On his part, the celebrated Spanish auteur, who has a keen eye for spotting undiscovered talent – he famously cast Antonio Banderas in his first film role in 1982’s– knew that he had found another star in the making.
Smit plays Ana, a wide-eyed, sad-looking teen, who crosses paths with Almodóvar favourite Penélope Cruz – here in the role of Janis, a successful photographer in her late thirties – when they’re allocated the same maternity ward. The two bond over their impending motherhood, and their decision to raise their babies alone. They both give birth to daughters, who are whisked away for some perfunctory check-ups before the new mothers are allowed to take them home.
This level of exactitude, while presumably a prerequisite of Almodóvar’s impeccable world building, was perhaps all the more necessary in the case of, the first of his films to tackle the subject of the Spanish Civil War, and the thousands of victims who died under Franco, many of whom are yet to be exhumed from mass, unmarked graves.
There were many learning curves for Smit during the course of the shoot. “On a personal level, what was most challenging was living through, or acting through, things I haven’t yet experienced myself,” she explains, “like birth, motherhood, dealing with Janis’s reveal towards the end, the heaviness of all of these things that happen to Ana.
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