Lights, camera, accion for Spain’s latest international star

Paz Vega

Spanish actress Paz Vega laughs that her English isn't too hot.

But you should have heard her before she was cast in Spanglish - director James L. Brooks' latest comedy for grown-ups which stars Adam Sandler as the hapless dad of a borderline dysfunctional Beverly Hills family.

She didn't speak any, she says from Sydney where she - and a patient translator - are out on the promotional trail.

"It was like a surprise when I made the casting - I had with me all the time an interpreter and even in the movie I didn't speak English. When I made the movie I just memorised my lines."

The language difficulties didn't stop there for the 29 year-old, who is now getting labelled "the next Penelope Cruz" and getting good notices for her first Hollywood role. Playing Flor the new housekeeper for Sandler's screen family, she had to speak Spanish with a Mexican accent.

"It was too much," she laughs.

Otherwise, she says making her first film in the States, didn't pose any communication difficulties.

"For me the language was ... no problema," she defers to her translator, "not a problem."

"My work as an actress is the same. The director says 'action' that's the same no? But everything is bigger there - bigger stage, bigger catering ... "

Seville-born Vega - her Dad was a matador - has had a solid screen career in her native land, having worked for Pedro Almodovar in Talk to Her and come to international arthouse notice as the sexually voracious senorita in Sex and Lucia. However, in Spanglish, she's a reserved mother of one who finds her new job as a maid means her teenage daughter comes under the influence of her employer's affluent lifestyle

Vega had few preconceptions about co-star Sandler - his usual, dumber comedies don't get much play in Spain.

"I think Adam Sandler is a great actor. When I went into the movie I didn't know Adam Sandler because in Spain he not so popular, but when I arrive in LA I can see how big a star Adam Sandler is. He's a great comedian but he can do drama very very well."

So far as Vega's own dramatic rise goes, she's cautiously optimistic about taking her career international. First things first.

"What I need is to learn English."