♪ >> from our studios in new york city, this is "charlie rose." charlie: we begin this evening with a look at president obama's foreign policy. the president made history today and hanoi where he announced the u.s. would lift a decades-long arms embargo on vietnam. pres. obama: this change will ensure that vietnam has access to the equipment and needs to defend itself, and remove the lingering vestige of the cold war. it also underscores the commitment of the united states to a fully normalized relationship with vietnam, including strong defense ties

with vietnam and this region for the long-term. charlie: the visit comes at a moment of renewed concern over the regional aspirations and it raises questions about the u.s. pivot to asia as recent developments threaten to divert his focus once again. earlier today the white house u.s. strikethat a killed the leader of the afghan taliban. investigators continue to probe whether egypt flight 804 was brought down by terrorists. joining me from washington is tom donilon, he was national security adviser for president obama from 2010 to 2013. i am pleased to have him back on the program. tom, welcome. tell me what this trip is about in the significance of vietnam. tom: thank you, charlie. as you said, this is the president's 10th trip to asia and it's part of what is become known as the rebalanced asia. which is one of the most important geostrategic

initiatives of his presidency. it's rooted in the belief that the future of asia in the united states are tightly tied together going into the 21st century. it involves investment across the board in terms of all elements of national power, diplomatic security, and military. and in terms of his time which is the most important asset that the president has come day in and day out. it is meant to reinforce the leadership role that the united states plays in asia. it is meant to extend the fact that the united states has provided the platform for their social economic development for records of a century. the president came into office believing we were underinvested, and has gone about increasing the investment. the vietnam peace is an important part of the rebalanced. the balance involves a lot more attention and engaging with our allies but also with emerging nations in asia, including vietnam. rebalancing of the

northwest asia and south asia. vietnam we have had for the last years an increasingly close relationship. this takes it, as the president said, to a new level. and really pointed towards being , fully engaged in a normalized relationship. i was in vietnam in the summer of 1995 on the trip where we reestablished relations. we raised the flag over the embassy in hanoi. it has been a long process. president obama is the third president to go there. president clinton was there in 2000. president bush, number 43, when there in 2006. president obama is there today, trying to fully normalized relationship and take advantage of the fact that they have indicated their rate to engage in the deepest partnership with the united states. charlie: we are giving arms. what are they giving to us? it is a fully engaged

relationship. let me talk about that. vietnam is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and an important place for , investments, like the united states. they've engaged in a much closer security relationship with the united states in a variety of ways. 2014, we made a decision to provide maritime assets to vietnam. what this did was deep in the security relationship between the united states and vietnam. it is also getting rid of cold war vestiges. this doesn't mean that the floodgates are going to open up for arms sales to vietnam automatically or right away. each arms sale has to be looked at on its own merit and a different cause of conditions can be applied including human , rights conditions. the insight here is that the flat out full ban no longer

serves u.s. interests. saidie: the director president obama just gave vietnam are award they did not deserve. tom: i disagree with that. strategic -- key interests in asia, and in we've southwest asia, in particular. we've a strategic relationship and across the board. and we have an opportunity here to use the leverage of potential additional security relationships to leverage further progress on human rights. i am not here to defend the vietnam human rights record. i do not think anyone who was informed about it, could. but it does provide us with additional leverage going forward. and this is a strategic cap by the united states to take into account those elements i mentioned. there is a speech last

month that there was some progress on human rights. is our relationship conditioned on more progress in human rights? tom: i don't think we should over speak that progress. progress ins been terms of the relationship between the united states and and the security, economic, and other areas which are important to us. to rebalance asia is critical. the u.s. engagement in asia, is providing this platform to balance and provide assurance, particularly in the face of a rising china, it's critical to continue the stability and progress in asia. and what i said with respect to the arms sales to vietnam, those can be conditioned on human rights. so there is some opportunity here for leverage.

i wouldn't overstate the progress to date but i would try , to put in the context of the whole relationship in the strategic interests of the united states. charlie: i left out japan in talking about the number of countries we look at to have good relations with. not to contain china, but to have a presence there. what do they expect from us with respect to aggressive behavior by china? tom: they expect the united states to be present. they expect them to keep their alliance obligations. they expect us to continue to provide the nuclear umbrella we have provided. -- in the region, for three quarters of a century. this is a thought experiment. think about what it looks like absent the u.s. engagement here. ther the prime minister,

alliance has been deep end as intense as it ever has been. the president will also visit the memorial at hiroshima. an attack on japan, south korea, and any other country, that will be met with what kind of response? at that point, we would stand together to defend against any attack and what is that do? that makes the likelihood of any such attack much lower. the fact that you would have to face the united states in a situation like that makes the percentage chances of such an attack much lower. it keeps stability in the region at a much higher level than it otherwise would be. there is one thing clear. no military in asia, including the chinese military could ever , hope to take on the united states. charlie: yet at the same time, they have taken aggressive actions. they have come to close to where

ships, they have buzzed our planes. many americans are saying, how far can they go, in one case rusher, in one case china, without us doing other than simply protesting diplomatically? in asia, russia is a different circumstance. we have overall generally constructed productive relations but china has been very aggressive in the south china sea and there are disputes in the south china sea that involve a number of countries, including vietnam, by the way. the key i think is severalfold. one is for the united states to remain present in asia. we have also indicated we will increase our overall aviation enable assets by 60% in it is 2020. important for the united states to enforce key principles. the settlement of disputes by peaceful means international law , is the way forward.

the united states has in the last year been quite present and has engaged in freedom of navigation exercises. it is close to some of the formations the chinese claim to be their own. it is important for the united states to be present and reinforce these principles. a couple of years ago, the chinese tried to put in place or declare an aviation zone, if you will, near japan. the united states said, we will not recognize it. we flew through it and that has gone away. it is important for us to maintain this balance and reassurance in southeast asia. the big security problem looming in asia is north korea. charlie: exactly. it's hard to know and ascertain exactly what the north korean leader is doing. should we expect the chinese to do more?

they obviously are doing more than they have done in the past. with all these kinds of belligerent acts by the north koreans, shouldn't we expect more from the chinese, who have the better relationship? tom: i don't know about the quality of the relationship. they certainly have more leverage. the relationship between the chinese leadership and kim jong-un has deteriorated, and the chinese have expressed frustration about that. he has not been invited to beijing nor has the chinese leadership been to pyongyang. i think that yes, the chinese have the most leverage. next, the chinese have engaged in pushing north koreans not to engage in some of the more outrageous provocations they have been engaged in. third, the chinese, after this last set of provocations did go to the u.n. with us and put in place the strongest sanctions that have ever been put on north korea.

but here is the problem. the problem is that this is a test of the u.s.-china relationship, going forward. we have to enforce sanctions, and there are loopholes that have to be closed. and a price has to be paid for the path they are on, it is continuing to develop missile technology. including their goal of developing missile technology that could reach the united states, developing more nuclear weapons and miniaturized nuclear weapons that could reach the united states. what is the red line? i hesitate to draw a specific redline, but as north korea moves toward having a capability where it could launch a nuclear weapon against the united states, the united states

will do a number of things. first, the united states will deepen the relationship with japan and south korea. secretary ash carter has already second, said that this is going to happen. we are going to have to build up more intensive missile defense systems there. more exercises, more presence, more pressure. including, i think, regime-threatening kinds of defense. so what is the chinese reaction to that? the chinese reaction to that is negative. the building up of intensive and more extensive missile defense systems becoming more deeply involved militarily and it makes the chinese more strategically accountable. that is the conversation to chinese leadership. this is not aimed at you, this is aimed at the regime in pyongyang and we have to take steps to protect ourselves. what are going to do together and what are you going to do pacific league to get these guys off the path they are on because

it's unacceptable. i think it's the biggest security threat in asia right now. the next president will probably face a crisis. charlie: the president told me in germany when i went to interview him -- he said essentially what you just said, and that they are even looking at the most technologically new developments in terms of nuclear shields that they can possibly develop. tom: again, this is the conversation that the united states is having, and needs to have more intensively with china. i also think we need to engage with china. we need to talk about what happens there if we in fact have a collapse of the regime. we do have these deeper conversations with the chinese. chinese, and the or the key test of the u.s.-china relationship is going to be what are we going to do about north

korea? charlie: let me make one last question about china. as a price is -- as a private citizen, not a member of the government, as you are the highest level, how do you assess jinping?et of she that is a big question, and a lot of people are working on it every day. i think a couple of things. the key observation i would have is number one he has amassed a large amount of power at the center of beijing right in his office across a number of issues. number two, he faces tremendous pressure. they are trying to undertake one of the great economic, social transformations ever tempted in history, to move away from this export-investment-led economy to a more domestic and

consumption-driven economy. and he is trying to do with national trends which he in some way has put in motion. what do i think the most important thing he thinks about every day, how to maintain control. how to maintain that monopoly control that the communist party has in china. because you think that's the way ahead for them in terms of the development and reforms that they have to have. i think he sits there and let's do another thought experiment. if we can see the thought bubble over his head like a cartoon, it would say, i'm not going to be gorbachev. that is what it would say. i'm not going to give up communist party control as we go through economic development. charlie: they essentially made that decision a long time ago when they decided to focus on economic change rather than political change. but clearly he is aware how , there is pressure against the party so he fights corruption and tries to make the party more efficient so it can maintain the , kind of control that it has. tom: that is corruption.

any corruption case in china is vast. hundreds of thousands of cases. the pressure at home that he has put on society and various organizations in china has been intense. they are trying to consolidate control of the communist party and ensure it continues to go through these various transitions which we talked extraordinary challenges for this country and for him, personally. charlie: it seems to me, that as the president with his presence in asia wants to enhance that relationship across the board, he wanted to pivot from the ,iddle east as was expressed you were part of that idea. and yet, he gets drawn back in. the talibanterms of and afghanistan. in terms of iraq, and supporting the prime minister.

back in syria, because of the events there, and the inability by anybody to figure out an alternative to assad. tom: i would say a couple things about that. the united states is a global power with global interests around the world. leadership and in action in these situations would have to be addressed. second, we have to deal with these problems like security threat in afghanistan, but he also has to keep his on what opportunities are, as in asia. he has to keep his eye on the most important relationships, which is clearly the chinese-u.s. relationship going forward. having said that, there is a big difference between us -- we have about 10,000 troops now in afghanistan, supporting the afghan government and taking action principally against isis and al qaeda. and having 150,000 troops there. charlie: in afghanistan, that is

not a threat. the threat is the taliban, they are the ones occupying the territory and are moving into places that they had not been able to hold. taliban has picked up additional territory in afghanistan. no doubt about that. they have had a relentless insurgent effort against the afghan government. forces afghan security have taken a lot of casualties and been under a lot of pressure. there are a couple of elements to it. it is a signal to the taliban that they should come to the table with respect to the peace talks that have been fledgling for the last couple of years. it is a signal that in fact the united states is going to act when it sees itself and nato allies under threat from the taliban. and not just the threats from al

qaeda and isis. the united states is under a number of threats, including kabul, where there was a massive bombing in april they killed 55 people or so. and it is a message to pakistan that the united states will continue to act against taliban leadership in pakistan if they continue to threaten u.s. and nato forces and if they don't show any interest in coming to the peace table. the action is part of that analysis. charlie: does this say that the united states is prepared to do whatever it has to do and pakistan is the longer a safe haven for the taliban? tom: i am not so sure that if we had been able to target the senior afghan leadership before, that we would not have taken action against them.

it is important to underscore continues toup target the united states and our nato allies, they will be subject to attacked by the united states. the president has made that clear from the time he ran for office. with respect to al qaeda, where he ran in 2008 and said if we knew where osama bin laden was, even if he were in another country that we would not hesitate to take unilateral action against him. charlie: the president has also announced that he would send special forces to syria and said to me the would be doing a lot of things and have eyes on the ground and talking to people a.ing in and out of raqq there seems to be in a effort on this president, that he has held

a strong position and will not reengage a large amount of american troops. he will get a lot of things done before he leaves office. tom: i think that is fair. there are a lot of things the united states can do between doing nothing and putting 100,000 troops on the ground and i think you're seeing that in both iraq and syria. the united states is focusing up on training those indigenous forces that can push back in defeat isis. it is a tough effort, but at the same time, becoming more closely involved in terms of the training and advising of these groups, in order to enhance their effectiveness. what has to happen, in my syria, andn iraq and i think is happening, is that the narrative of success that isis has had, that has allowed isis to recoup from all around the world, and allowed it to have 35,000 fighters come into this theater and syria and iraq has to be broken. the way to do that is to take back territory. decapitate their leadership, and

more portly, take back these cities which are very symbolic. iraqi governments announced on over the next months. there were be pressure and and syria.on raqqa also have to keep our eye on the external activities of isis. external meaning outside the , iraq-syria either. -- theater. that's a big challenge for us going forward because we are in a new phase here where isis as they get squeezed and they will get squeezed in iraq and syria. as they get squeezed they will act out externally from there. we saw that in libya and in europe. charlie: you have had some really good sources where these people are.

any isis leader or taliban knows or al qaeda leader there is nothing more the united states will like than to get them available for a drone strike. yet, we somehow find out where they are. there have been a significant number of successful strikes against top leadership in the aforementioned groups. tom: there have been, and i think that is a tribute to the u.s. military and our intelligence services. and it's an important message to send. that in fact, these groups are not infallible. that they cannot continue the unending narrative of success, and that we will act against them. that is an important message to send against these groups. it does not involve us sending 150,000 troops into a war theater. we have other methodologies and resources whereby we can , undertake these projects. we may have to intensify these efforts. i think that's what's going on in iraq and syria. we are intensifying these

efforts. i no longer have the responsibility for overseeing these things, but it feels to me like the top levels of the u.s. government are pushing hard to make progress against these groups. the president is pushing hard to make progress against these groups. --ause they do not present and they have to be defeated. there's not going to be a peace conference with isis. europe is where a lot of work has to be done, with respect to getting their act together among european nations, in terms of information-sharing, intelligence-sharing, and controlling the borders. they're making progress, but a lot charlie: more has to be done. we have to leave it there. thank you so much. tom donilon from washington. back in a moment. ♪ charlie: penelope cruz is here.

her collaborations with the acclaimed spanish director pedro almodovar put her on the radar. she became the first spanish actress to win the academy award for woody allen's "vicky cristina barcelona." here are a look at her most memorable roles. >>[speaking spanish]

>> what did they say in art school, they said i was a genius? >> i always encouraged your talent. >> i'm not talking about talent. i said genius. genius. >> i came close to killing for you. >> you came close to killing me. with a chair. >> ♪ my darling, who is afraid to kiss your toe i am not

♪ >> derek zoolander? >> yes. >> valentina valencia, interpol, fashion division. >> fashion police? harass somebody else. besides, i am out of fashion. >> i need to talk to you. charlie: i am pleased to have penelope cruz back at this table. it's good to see you. penelope: it has been a couple of years, but it is always great to see you. charlie: tell about "ma ma." penelope: what can i tell you about "ma ma"? there's so much. charlie: let's start with the has, and the magda relationships she has and what happens to her children and her , gynecologist. penelope: there is so much of this character that i love so much. from first time i read it, i felt this need to play her. charlie: over the last four or five years you have become a

mother. penelope: i'm sure it has some thing to do with that but also the subject, i felt it was really honest and the same time very original and peculiar because she is a peculiar character. charlie: and she is living with cancer. penelope: at the beginning of the movie her husband leaves, and she is a single mother looking for a job as a teacher. ks, and theyng as tell her, on top of all that, you have cancer. and you have to undergo treatment tomorrow. she says cannot wait a second, what do i do with my son and i have a hair appointment should i keep it or cancel it? when i read that i thought, this is so clever. that is constantly the character, how real that reaction of somebody telling you from this moment on -- i'm telling you that your world is upside down and nothing makes sense anymore. and she is in survival mode from that moment saying, i have a hair appointment. she is not listening because she can't.

i thought, in most movies i have seen when characters get this kind of news, it is a very dramatic scene and they have a total understanding and acceptance of what is happening. it's never like that in life. i have seen the most crazy reactions when people get that news. and they are not crazy. onto your life, and the normality of things you have to do that day. and this person is telling you that everything has changed, and you might die in a few months. charlie: which would you be? instant denial? or would you say, i understand, how do we get on with it? penelope: i am very different from magda. she probably does her checkups once a year or once every two years. i think i have told you a little

before i am a little bit of a , hypochondriac, so my tendency is to try to do two checks per year. i would not want to leave that office. i would want to be there with the doctor and get all the answers. what i do even with a cold. then, she is pregnant. penelope: she gets cured, and then the cancer comes back. and in the middle of that, she is starting this new relationship with a man that is also going through the recovery of a huge tragedy in his life. charlie: he lost his wife and child. need eachyes, they other and recognize something each other, and start a relationship. she gets pregnant in the middle of that. her body is creating life. she has two hearts beating inside her, but she has this cloud on her, this monster trying to take her away from this world.

and she decides to try and create a family for her son. he has nobody else in the world. we are not going to say what happens, if she makes it or not, but she does great and huge things for this kid. she creates a family for him. penelope: -- charlie: but she also cares about her gynecologist? penelope: yes, she has a very special relationship with this doctor who sings to her. there are a lot of things that are very risky but in a great way because this is julio's world. he has a very special way to see the world in the way he tells his story. but have always been in love with his movies and i think this movie, when people tell me that it makes them go home and hug the people they love and tell them whatever they were not brave enough to say, this is like the best complement they can give us. it is an interesting backdrop, first there is a soccer, futbol.

she does not know anything about futbol. in my family everybody loves it. and i have people from different teams why feel like i don't want to pick one because it only causes a fight with all the members of my family. but i don't see all the games. of course imagine with the euro cup and the world championship, it was incredible. charlie: what does madrid mean for you? penelope: i have great respect for all the players and all the teams and i don't want to get to choose one. i don't have to choose just one team. charlie: have you ever gone to a game? penelope: actually i have never been. but it is notol,

something i do. charlie: you play any sports? do you play tennis? do you sail? penelope: i was a dancer for 17 years. all my free time went into that. i was dancing for four hours a day when i was training because i wanted to be a professional dancer. then, if i was going to go see i was going to see -- i was not going to see football or baseball or rugby, i was going to see ballet because that was my world for some years. charlie: do you continue to pay attention? penelope: yes, it was a part of my world for so long. it was my dream of becoming a dancer. you on: when i talk to 60 minutes, what it did your feet was cruel. penelope: i did not care. they teach you. and my feet young

were bleeding, and ask you to smile at the same time. but it felt like some kind of meditation that you go through that you learn to deal with pain in a different way. that is the only way that you can become a dancer. my sister is a professional dancer. i was never close to being a professional dancer, but i did enough years to know, it is the hardest thing. it is really tough work and i have so much respect for the dancers. charlie: how have children change your life? penelope: in every single way, from the first second. it is like a huge, internal revolution. everything seems different. you are reviewing your own again, and the kids become your masters, your teaching and they are teaching you constantly. they keep you really present. the way you look at things again, like christmas, or you sit down at the park and look at is picking -- an ant

food and taking it home -- things i never did for so many years, since i was a kid. there are some fears that you don't have anymore but you have so many new ones. charlie: but it's also something more than yourself. penelope: you care more about them than about anything else in your world. it is incredible. i could not believe it and you hear it from your parents, your grandparents, and your friends. when it happens to you, it's like, this is really magical. it's magical. but it is so raw. it is like they take you to mars. it is the most wonderful experience in the world for sure. charlie: how is the work right now? penelope: it is good. this movie that i produced with julio and we were really lucky

to pull it together. and we were rather -- really lucky is sold to most territories. people say you're the best thing in it. penelope: we all put a lot of love into it and a lot of effort. as you know, it is so hard to get a movie made, especially a little movie like this. and for me it is important to be here sharing it with this territory. with twoat age 42, kids, and all that is happened to you, do you feel you are in a great place? penelope: i do. i feel like every day you start again, and you will learn something new, and not all the lessons are easy. i am always up for the adventure. it is an incredible challenge. charlie: you were in zoolander 2. every time i turn around, there is a story about you and some movie.

you are working all the time. penelope: i don't work as much as before. i used to do four movies per year. i was working nonstop in my 20's and part of my 30's until i said i know these characters well, but where is my own? i was starting to worry about that, and change my rhythm way before i became a mother. i was ending up with no time to prepare those characters, to explore who they are. that's the part of the process that makes me more happy. i want to play this person and let's have the time to breathe it and see who this person is. in "mama," i worked with a lot of cancer patients and doctors and i needed a few months to do that. charlie: what did you learn in that preparation? penelope: i learned to much, and not just for the movie. these fighters, these women, and their strength. not only about how hard and cruel the illnesses, but

emotionally what they go through. they showed me their scars on their bodies, they shared everything with me. for me this movie is for them. , charlie: an homage to all of them. penelope: it is tough. charlie: you came to los angeles at one point in your life, and it was not the best part of your life, because of the roles, but then you are picked up and won an oscar, -- i do not have good memories from that. i was really young and i did not speak english and somebody gave me a roll and i came with my ticket. i felt safe to do a movie, and then i got another role and another role. it was like one after another coming the possibility to have my career here and there. at the same time, you

are not as the field by acting as you would become? gradually, you get more trust from directors and producers imagining you in roles , they have not seen you do before and we depend on that. as actors we depend on that trust. thanks to people like pedro and many other directors i have worked with, they decided to imagine me and things i had not done before. even if it was through casting -- i never had a problem to do those tests. it's part of it. but i remember that period as a normal part of the process. also for somebody who did not speak english. charlie: you were not running around unhappy? penelope: no, i was very surprised that they were giving me opportunities to work in france, in italy, in america in my own country to be a lot of work in all these places. i never dreamed of being able. charlie: are you surprised about

how huge you are now? are you surprised by how good life has been to you? penelope: i am always very grateful that i can wake up in the morning and do a job that i love. because how many young people wake up and say, what do i do with all the hours? charlie: how many people wake up and do not have a job? charlie: -- penelope: that is what i mean. they're prepared to have a great job and they don't have it. because i come from a humble family who had very little money, my family had to work so hard to raise us. those values are what i have been raised with and i feel like the job that i lost since i was a little girl, i've had the privilege to make a living out of that job. and this i will never take for granted, every day of my life when i wake up i feel like i can go in do this, that i dreamed

when i was a little girl. charlie: your mother had a hair salon, which i saw. penelope: i remember. and you saw the street from my grandmother's house. charlie: and people had windows and they would all say, penelope. penelope: i have great memories from that walk that you and i took. charlie: if you had to, could you cut someone's here well today?. penelope: i could. r.ayek's haialma charlie: she had complete trust in you. penelope: she had no lights in her house, but she let me do everything. i learned how to do everything in the hair salon of my mother. that could be my other job it seems. and i love it because i told

you, that hair salon for me was really my first acting because to see these women. the way the women behaved with my mother, how they told her all their secrets with their relationships and all of the different personalities, the ones pretending to be something they were not. i was there pretending to study, but i was really studying human behavior. ♪

charlie: the same thing

happened to me because i grew up in a store. my parents owned the store. i had to work in the store. i learned everything about the people in the custom, and you become comfortable with people. and you understood how to ask questions of people, and how to be outward with your curiosity. all of that comes at a very early age, from being put in an environment where if you're paying attention, you can learn a lot. penelope: it is a great school for life. because i have always been fascinated by human behavior, i thought, there is always something more to learn. that is why in my job, i always say it is day one. every role is your first movie, because you're playing somebody you have never played before. charlie: does understanding those rules shape you? you inhabit the character but you take something from a character that adds to your own life. because it is an awakening.

penelope: i think so. you have a feeling of what that experience could have been. i don't look for characters to be therapy, but so many times they become therapeutic. i don't like forcing that to happen, but when it happens, that is such a great feeling. because so many of your own goals and things you cannot talk to about anybody are going to be released. from all the emotions of that character. when it happens in a natural way, -- when it is forced, the audience can tell. and it becomes more of a narcissistic game of my own feelings about the subject. but when it's done from another place and it just happens, it's a very huge release of many things that are stuck. charlie: pedro, when you work

with him, and you to begin to work together he could imagine , you and all kinds of roles. he had that much confidence, and gave you that kind of freedom. penelope: yes. he has been so important. he's one of the most important people in my life and for my career. the first role that he gave me was this woman who was a prostitute who was giving birth in a bus and a woman -- charlie: i remember the movie. penelope: this character was for 10 minutes in the movie but it opened a lot of doors for me because it was so different from everything i did before. and then "all about my mother," and everything have done together. we hope to do more, i am grateful for working together. i am so grateful to him for his trust. he saw something. charlie: he liberated you, in part. penelope: what we were saying

before about giving materials that nobody else has imagined you would do before. and in many ways, he was one of those people that for me have represented a very big change or push in terms of getting more diverse material. but also woody allen. charlie: which did woody do? penelope: well "vicky cristina barcelona" and that character was very important to me. i was not getting characters like that. i think many in my career -- luna who is not with us anymore he give me, they gave me others -- characters that were like day and night.

that was different, and i was starting to get offers and starting to get work. charlie: do you see the roles that you really want to do? penelope: javier and i are going to do a movie about pablo escobar. these are very interesting characters. charlie: it is based on a book. he will play pablo and fernanda leon wrote the script and directed it. this is truly the movie about escobar. the movie that tells who this man was and who virginia was. a life, she lives in miami now and has the rights for the book and this is a very interesting project. i think i will work with another director in his next film. i don't know when the script will be finished, but he is running a treatment that i

loved. it is a very intense drama. he does not want us to tell the story yet, but it has a credible actors. and i think he is one of the greatest directors that the world has right now. but i am also interested in producing more and directing. i directed some short films for -- we have a lingerie line that we design, my sister and i. i directed short films for the company. charlie: to sell the product? penelope: yes. i just directed a documentary about children with leukemia. "mama," and then almost a year in between, and half a year with the documentary with very young children, that are now in my heart or ever. they are such masters. it's like an 80-year-old man in the body of an eight-year-old.

these kids have changed my life. what a lesson. i have learned a lot about the lack of investigation for cancer in children. there is so much to talk about and we only have 30 minutes in try toumentary, but we give out a lot of information, and find ways people can contribute to a foundation in spain. we want to donate everything that we raise to this foundation called one in 100,000 that focuses on investigation for children with leukemia. so this project, i am very passionate about. charlie: are they making medical progress? penelope: i spoke to a lot of doctors, they said they could if they had more help. but there is less investigation when it is related to children because the number of cases is much lower than in the adult group.

this is not me saying it, they say that themselves. charlie: one of the nice things about being young and intelligent with the experiences is that people will respond to you. if you call up a researcher or a doctor, or someone living with cancer, they will talk to you. that is the power of being penelope cruz. penelope: it is just my small contribution, but i would rather put my time into something like that. this came because i worked with a company in spain that does jewelry. they said they wanted me to work with this foundation and said why don't you direct the documentary about what they are doing? and these children, you can work with. i met them and completely fell in love with them. i jumped into this and spent time with families and the kids and the doctors.

i created a space where they could share what they go through. the mothers lost their kids because of this illness. and the kids who have survived this have gone through the most -- it's really a crazy treatment. they suffer a lot. and just them sharing with the audience the experience that they go through, and i just wanted to create ways that when somebody sees the documentary, they can contribute, even if it's just a little bit. but everything will go to this foundation and investigation. i like when i do things like this that it is specific, for this foundation, and for this investigation. purpose, andow the even if it helps one person, i don't care, but we will make a difference. charlie: god knows that you have purpose. it's great to see you.

much success. penelope: thank you for everything. charlie: thank you for joining us, see you next time. ♪ mark: i'm mark crumpton.

you're watching "bloomberg west." let's begin with a check of your first word news. the justice department will seek the death penalty against dylann roof, charge for killing nine black parishioners and a south carolina church. in an e-mailed statement attorney general loretta lynch , wrote the nature of the crime , and resulting harm compelled the decision. president obama says he has concerns about vietnam's human rights records. he made his comments during a speech in hanoi. obama: the united states does not seek to impose its rights on a vietnam. the right i