Penelope Cruz read Enzo Ferrari’s love letters to play his wife Laura in a new biopic.
The 49-year-old actress appears opposite Adam Driver in Ferrari, which tells the story of the sports car boss’s rise to fame, and she said she gained a better understanding of Enzo’s relationship with his wife Laura Ferrari after reading their private letters. which were given to her by a doctor they both knew.
Speaking during a Q&A session at the New York Film Festival, Penelope explained: “(The Doctor) shared with me a lot of love letters (between Enzo and Laura) – letters that have never been published anywhere. I have to understand a lot better who she was and what that relationship was about.”
She added that she felt “a lot of responsibility” for Laura’s role in the film.
The film also stars Shailene Woodley as Enzo’s lover Lina Lardi, and the actress agreed that she wanted to create an accurate portrayal. Shailene said, “We were all very conscious of the honor that you were talking about and we just wanted to make sure that when these people’s families saw the film, they felt what they were all about.”
The film is directed by Michael Mann, who has been friends with Enzo’s son Piero Ferrari for more than two decades, and the director said he had many conversations with his pal about Enzo’s family life.
Mann added: “There were all sorts of conversations. What was his mother like? Did his mother cook it? This house in the countryside was the only place where Enzo vacationed, where he relaxed and behaved at ease. or informal somewhere else. His father never made coffee, he never shaved his whole life – he always went to the barbershop, and the barbershop we rent is run by the barber’s son Enzo. Nothing changed”.
The actors were able to attend the film festival and quality control session as the film was released from an ongoing strike by actors union SAG-AFTRA, whose members walked out in July over a dispute over wages, balances and artificial intelligence technology with the Alliance of Motion Picture Producers and television (AMPTP).