Penélope Cruz and Ben Kingsley in Elegy Courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films

Elegy protagonist David Kepesh's world is neatly compartmentalized. As a professor and a lover, Kepesh (Ben Kingsley) is brashly self-assured and smugly superior. He meets his academic friends (including poet George O'Hearn, played by Dennis Hopper) and colleagues regularly at swish New York soirees. He remains in touch but distant from his son, Kenny (Peter Sarsgaard). He has uncomplicated sex every three weeks or so with Carolyn (Patricia Clarkson). Every year, at the end of the term, he holds a party for his students. And every year one of his students is inevitably impressed by his art, book collection, and comfortable pad. He sleeps with her, and she drifts from his life as he moves on to his next conquest. That is, until he meets Consuela (Penélope Cruz), a beautiful Cuban-American student who ignites a passion and a jealousy in the sixty-something serial seducer that causes his tidy sexual and social life to implode.

Kepesh is an alter ego of author Philip Roth, renowned for his unapologetic hyper-masculine prose and phallocentric worldview. Directors Robert Benton (The Human Stain) and Larry Peerce (Goodbye, Columbus) have tackled the controversial author's work with varying success. Now Spanish director Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me, The Secret Life of Words), is taking a crack at Roth, with her adaptation of his novel The Dying Animal.

The director sat down exclusively with Premiere.com in New York to talk about her obsessions, her respect for Philip Roth's work and his reaction to her adaptation, and shooting Ben Kingsley in his first sex scene.

This is Penélope Cruz's year to shine with Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Elegy — there is a lot of Oscar buzz for her around both performances. Many nay-sayers have said that she can only pull out great performances in Spanish, but this film explodes that myth. I hear that Paz Vega was considered, but Penélope had apparently read the book and wanted this part for years. How did you both prepare for bringing Consuela to the big screen?
When Penélope read the book, she really wanted to make this movie. And I remember when I read the book, I thought that some director some day will do a film about this book, and I never thought it was going to be me. I have to say that she convinced me. When I read the script I thought, "Well, it's Phillip Roth, and it's a challenge." I know there's controversy; he's a misogynist, etcetera, etcetera. I know all that. I am a person who never thinks about doing literary adaptations because I think if a book is good, why would you want to adapt it? But then you have your swallow your words. When I read the script, I thought it was a very smart adaptation. Also, I thought that this is my territory, and I know these people. I know what is going on. I know who I am in relation to them. And I know how to do it. And [Penélope] convinced me. Everything is her fault.

Director Isabel Coixet on the set of Elegy Courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films

I want to talk about the fact that Roth's view of the world is unabashedly phallocentric. You just have to look at My Life as a Man (1974). Male sexuality is his great, overriding theme. There is a line in the film that David says that I thought was mind-blowing: "When you make love to woman, you get revenge for all the things that have defeated you in life." How do you reconcile that with your beliefs, understand a statement like that, and get into the psyche of David?
You know what. I really respect Phillip Roth. He is never apologetic for that, because a lot of authors of his generation are always making excuses and trying to make redemption. And I think the good thing with Roth is he [seems to say], "Okay, this is how I am. This is how most men of my generation are. So, there you go!" And, you know what, there is a predictability of men. There is a beauty of him saying that, because he is fooling himself. That is not true. You can feel what he says for a glimpse, for a second. But that is all. I think there is a void in the center of his infatuation with women. And I really think that The Dying Animal is him. But also, [David Kepesh] is a man who knows everything about poetry and music and books, but he doesn't know the most basic things in life: how to love, how to be loved. He doesn't even know how to talk to his kid. So, there is a gap. David Kepesh doesn't really know human nature. Philip knows more, a lot more.