One or two summers ago, at Pedro Almodóvar ’s house, while Milena Smit’s sister and nephew swam in his pool, the young actress suddenly found herself sitting alone with the host. In the middle of his soiree, the Spaniard had crept away from the other guests to tell Smit some exciting news. “He [said], ‘I have a character in my new film for you,’ ” Smit remembers. “He told me, ‘I wrote this character especially for you, inspired by you, your tone of voice, how you walk, [how you] breathe,’ ” she continues. “I was in shock. I said, ‘I’m in a dream!’ ” It was no dream. The 29-year-old Smit fell into this business entirely by chance. While working as a model in Madrid, the casting team for David Victori’s 2020 thriller Cross the Line  happened upon her Instagram and asked that she join the Mario Casas-starrer. Her performance caught the attention of a certain cult director, who would then make Smit a co-lead in 2021’s Oscar-nominated Parallel Mothers , opposite Penélope Cruz.…