Penélope Cruz Biography
Penélope Cruz Sánchez is a Spanish actress and model. Signed by an agent at the age of 15, she made her acting debut at 16 on television, and her feature film debut the following year in Jamón Jamón 1992.
Actress Penelope Cruz studied classical ballet at a young age, later moving to Hollywood, California, to pursue acting. She soon landed roles opposite the likes of Matt Damon and Tom Cruise.
She won an Academy Award — becoming the first Spanish actress to do so — for her performance in the film Vicky Christina Barcelona (2008). Cruz married her Vicky Cristina Barcelona co-star, Spanish actor Javier Bardem, in 2010
Penélope Cruz Age
Cruz was born 28 April 1974 in the working-class town of Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain. She is 45 years as of 2019. She was raised as a Roman Catholic. Cruz grew up in Alcobendas and spent long hours at her grandmother’s apartment.
Penelope Cruz states she had a happy childhood. Cruz remembers “playing with some friends and being aware that I was acting as I was playing with them. I would think of a character and pretend to be someone else.”
Initially, Cruz aimed at a dance, having studied classical ballet for nine years at Spain’s National Conservatory. She took three years of Spanish ballet training and four years of theatre at Cristina Rota’s school.
Penelope Cruz says that ballet instilled in her discipline that would be important in her future acting career. When she became a cinephile at 10 or 11, her father bought a Betamax machine, which was then a very rare thing to own in her neighborhood.
Penélope Cruz Young
As a teenager, Cruz developed an interest in acting after seeing the film Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990) by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. She tried casting calls for an agent but was turned down severally because the agent thought that she was way too young.
At the age of 15, Cruz won an audition at a talent agency over more than 300 other girls. The same year She also made her acting debut in a music video for the Spanish pop group Mecano’s song “La Fuerza del Destino”.
Between 1990 and 1991, she hosted the Spanish TV channel Telecinco’s talk show La Quinta Marcha, a program that was hosted by teenagers, aimed at a teenage audience. She also played in the “Elle et Lui” episode of an erotic French TV series called Série rose in 1991, where she appeared nude.
Penélope Cruz Acting Debut
In 1991, Cruz made her feature film debut as the lead female role in the comedy-drama art house film, Jamón, jamón. In the film, she portrayed Silvia, a young woman who is expecting her first child with a man whose mother does not approve of the relationship and attempts to sabotage it by paying Javier Bardem’s character to seduce her.
People magazine noted that after Cruz appeared topless in the film, she became “a major sex symbol”. Charlie Rose of 60 Minutes noted that Cruz “became an overnight sensation as much for her nude scenes as for her talent”.
Jamón, jamón received favorable reviews, with Chris Hicks of the Deseret News describing Cruz’s portrayal of Silvia as “enchanting”. For her performance, Cruz was nominated for a Spanish Actors Union Newcomer Award and a Goya Award for Best Actress.
The same year she appeared in the Academy-Award-winning Belle Epoque as the virginal Luz. People magazine noted that Cruz’s role as Luz showed that she was versatile. From 1993 to 1996, Cruz appeared in ten Spanish and Italian films.
At 20, she went to live in New York for two years at Christopher and Greenwich to study ballet and English between films. She recalls learning English “kind of late”, previously knowing only the dialogue she had learned for the casting and the phrases “How are you?” and “Thank you”.
Penélope Cruz Vanilla Sky
2001 marked a turning point year when Cruz starred in the feature films Vanilla Sky an American science fiction psychological thriller film. Directed, written, and co-produced by Cameron Crowe. It is an English-language adaptation of Alejandro Amenábar’s 1997 Spanish film Open Your Eyes.
The film was written by Amenábar and Mateo Gil, with Penélope Cruz reprising her role from the original film. The film has been described as “an odd mixture of science fiction, romance and reality warp”.
The movie stars Tom Cruise, Penélope Cruz, and Cameron Diaz, with Jason Lee and Kurt Russell appearing in supporting roles. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song, as well as Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe Award nominations for Cameron Diaz’s performance.
Penélope Cruz Blow
Below is a 2001 American biographical crime film about American cocaine smuggler George Jung, directed by Ted Demme. David McKenna and Nick Cassavetes adapted Bruce Porter’s 1993 book Blow.
The blow was the final theatrical film directed by Demme to be released in his lifetime. In the movie, Penelope Cruz portrays Mirtha Jung and stars alongside Johnny Depp who acts as the lead role George Jung.
Penélope Cruz Paul Walker
In 2004, Cruz appeared in the Christmas film Noel as Nina, the girlfriend of Paul Walker’s character. The Movie is a Christmas-themed drama film written by David Hubbard and directed by Chazz Palminteri.
It stars Penélope Cruz, Susan Sarandon, Paul Walker, Alan Arkin, Daniel Sunjata, and an uncredited Robin Williams. It was filmed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Penélope Cruz Bandidas
Cruz appeared alongside her good friend actress Salma Hayek in the 2006 Western comedy film, Bandidas a 2006 French-Mexican-American Western action comedy film.
Starring Salma Hayek and Penélope Cruz directed by Norwegian directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg and produced and written by Luc Besson.
It involves the tale of two very different women in late 19th century Mexico who become a bank-robbing duo in an effort to combat a ruthless enforcer terrorizing their town. This is the first film that Cruz and Hayek starred in together.
It was a co-production among France, the United States, and Mexico. Filming took place in Sierra de Órganos National Park in the town of Sombrerete, Mexico, Durango, Mexico, and San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Randy Cordova of the Arizona Republic said the film “sports” Cruz and her co-star Salma Hayek as the “lusty dream team”
Penélope Cruz Movies And Tv Shows
Film
1992 – Ham-Ham Silvia Nominated—Goya Award for Best Actress
1992 – Belle Epoque Light
1993 – For Love, Only for Love Mary For love, just for the love
1993 – The Greek Labyrinth Elise The Greek Labyrinth
1993 – The Rebel Enza The Rebel
1994 – Alegre but not too much Salome
1994 – Everything is a lie Lucia
1995 – Between red Lucia
1995 – The butterfly Effect Party guest The film title literally means “the butterfly effect”
1996 – The Celestine Melibea Adapted from the Spanish literature of the same name
1996 – Witches Patricia
1996 – More than love, frenzy
1997 – Love Can Seriously Damage Your Health Diana Love seriously damage health
1997 – Open Your Eyes Sofia Open your eyes
1997 – Live Flesh Isabel Plaza Caballero Trembling meat
1997 – A corner of paradise Helena
1998 – The Girl of Your Dreams Macarena La niña de Tus Ojos
Goya Award for Best Actress
Nominated—European Film Award for Best Actress
1998 – Talk of Angels Pilar
1998 The Hi-Lo Country Joseph
1998 Don Juan Mathurine
1999 All About My Mother Maria Rosa Sanz Everything about my mother
1999 – The Man with Rain in His Shoes Louise
1999 – Woman on Top Checkerboard Knower
2000 – All the Pretty Horses Alejandra Villarreal Blockbuster Entertainment
Award for Favorite Actress – Drama/Romance
2000 – Woman on Top Isabella Oliveira
2001 – Blow Mirtha Jung Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Female Performance
2001 – Don’t Tempt Me Carmen Ramos Blessed hell
2001 – Captain Corelli’s Mandolin Pelagia Nominated—Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress
2001 – Vanilla Sky Sofia Serrano Nominated—Golden Raspberry Award
2002 – Waking Up in Reno Brenda
2005 – Chromophobia Gloria
2006 – Bandidas Maria Alvarez
Penélope Cruz Family
Cruz was born in the town of Alcobendas, Madrid, Such great parents who loved and cherished her. Her parent’s names are (mother) Encarna Sánchez, a hairdresser and personal manager, and (father) Eduardo Cruz, a retailer, and car mechanic.
Penelope Cruz has two siblings, Mónica who works in the entertainment industry she is a spectacular actress, and Eduardo, a singer. Cruz also has a paternal half-sister who goes by the name Salma.
Penélope Cruz Sister
Penelope has a striking resemblance with her little sister Mónica Cruz who is three years her junior. Just like her big sister, Monica is also a Spanish beauty and brunette bombshell, obviously, beauty runs in their genes.
The two Cruz sisters are inseparable and way too close, they have collaborated on a couple of commercial projects. Actually when was to appear in her biggest Hollywood turn to date in Rob Marshall’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the fourth installment in the film series, opposite Johnny Depp.
During filming, Penelope Cruz discovered she was pregnant, leading the costume department to redesign her wardrobe to be more elastic, and the producers had to hire her sister Mónica Cruz to double for Penélope in risky scenes. Though Monica, may not be as successful as her sister she does have an impressive resume.
Monica Cruz, She is a star dancer and actress. A very common and known fact about her is that she made a bold decision to have children alone. In other words, she is a single mother by choice.
The Spanish beauty who believes that motherhood is too important for her to risk running out of time, brought her five-year-long plan to fruition a few years back. In 2013, she welcomed a daughter named Antonella Cruz Sanchez, who was conceived through artificial insemination by an anonymous sperm donor.
Penélope Cruz Javier Bardem
Penelope Cruz is married to her longtime Spanish lover and actor Javier Bardem. The dual began dating in 2007 exchanged their vows on July 2010 in a private ceremony in the Bahamas.
They are blessed with two children together, a son Leo, born in 2011, and a daughter Luna, born in 2013. Having endured as romantic partners in a notoriously fickle industry, the superstar actress and her Academy award-winning husband are an A-list super couple.
The couple also has similarly lauded résumés as each actor has been working for decades, has earned three Oscar nominations, and won one Academy Award (Cruz is the second Spanish actor to win an Oscar award after her husband Javier Bardem).
Interestingly, Bardem and Cruz have also been acting opposite one another, on and off, in several movies such as Jamon Jamon (1992), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), Loving Pablo (2017), and Everybody Knows (2018), among others.
Though the couple has starred together in several films, they, however, don’t actively seek out roles together. Having learned the value of setting boundaries for their screen collaborations, the actors hope it is something they get to do once in a while.
Not only are Cruz and Bardem equals in their marriage, but they are also the same with their paychecks despite Hollywood’s long-troublesome wage gap. They were paid equally for Asghar Farhadi’s 2018.
The movie is a Spanish psychological thriller, [Everybody Knows] a movie which chronicles the life of a woman Laura (Cruz) who returns to her hometown in Madrid, only find herself relying on her ex-boyfriend Paco (Bardem) after a crisis arises.
Javier Bardem was born on 1st March 1969, in Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria. Despite coming from a family with a long line of Spanish actors, and making his first on-screen appearance at age 6 in Fernando Fernán Gomez’s El Pícaro, Javier’s initial passion was painting.
He later enrolled at Madrid’s Escuela de Artes y Oficios. He only decided to try out a few acting gigs in order to earn money to support his painting. That decision has paid off as Javier has grown to be a multi-talented and A-list actor.
Some of his successful movies include the role as Reinaldo Arenas in Before Night Falls (2000), the 2007 film No Country For Old Men, where he played the role of psychopathic assassin Anton Chigurh. The movie earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also starred as Uxbal in the critically-acclaimed Spanish movie, Biutiful (2010), etc.
Before Bardem fell in love with Penelope’s feisty personality, the superstar actress dated Tom Cruise for three years but the pair split in 2004. She was also linked to having dated her Sahara co-star Matthew McConaughey, but the relationship was also shortlived as it ended in May 2006.
Penélope Cruz Measurements
The slim and hot Spanish star has a sensational figure such that she was once ranked as one of the Sexiest Women in the World. Penelope Cruz stands at an average height of 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m) and weighs 62kg (137 lbs). Her other body measurements are 35-27-35 inches for hips, waist, and bust respectively.
Penélope Cruz Net Worth
Penelope Cruz is a world-famous Spanish-born actress and producer who has a net worth of $55 million. Cruz also owns a clothing store in Madrid and designed jewelry and handbags with her younger sister for a company in Japan.
In her lifetime she has won a number of awards and honourees including the popular oscar award.“The Assassination of Gianni Versace.” Cruz received her first Emmy nomination for the show as Best Movie/Limited Series Supporting Actress.
Cruz has received three Oscar nominations throughout her career. Her first nomination was for Best Actress for the film “Volver” in 2006. She subsequently received two Best Supporting Actress nominations for “Vicky Christina Barcelona” in 2008 and “Nine” in 2009.
She won the Oscar for “Vicky Christina Barcelona” making her one of seven actors to win an Oscar for a Woody Allen film.
Penélope Cruz Philanthropy
Cruz has donated money and time to charity. In addition to work in Nepal, she has volunteered in Uganda and India, where she spent a week working with Mother Teresa that included assisting in a leprosy clinic.
That trip inspired Cruz to help start a foundation to support homeless girls in India, where she sponsors two young women. She donated her salary from her first Hollywood film, The Hi-Lo Country, to Mother Teresa’s mission.
In the early 2000s, she spent time in Nepal photographing Tibetan children for an exhibition attended by the Dalai Lama. She also photographed residents at the Pacific Lodge Boys’ Home, most of whom are former gang members and recovering substance abusers.
She said: “These kids break my heart. I have to control myself not to cry. Not out of pity, but seeing how tricky life is and how hard it is to make the right choices.”
A pregnant Cruz showed her support for the battle against AIDS by lighting up the Empire State Building with red lights in New York City on 1 December 2010 on International AIDS Day, as part of (RED)’s new awareness campaign, ‘An AIDS-Free Generation is Due in 2015,’
Which aims to eradicate the HIV virus from pregnant mothers to their babies. In 2012 and 2018, she posed for ads supporting PETA’s anti-fur campaign.
Penélope Cruz Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/p/BqRr6lOFVFm/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Penélope Cruz Interview
In anticipation of her next big moment, Cruz had an intimate phone conversation with a friend who has been there since the early days, before she made history: Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow.
GWYNETH PALTROW: I was trying to remember when we first met, but I’m afraid I can’t.
PENÉLOPE CRUZ: We had lunch at Madeo in Los Angeles. We were alone and talking about our deepest secrets as if we had known each other for 20 years. It was around the time I was doing All the Pretty Horses [2000].
PALTROW: Wow. We’ve been friends for a long time. We’ve been through so much together.
CRUZ: And even though we live so far away and don’t spend nearly enough time together when I see you, it’s like it was only yesterday.
PALTROW: I was thinking the other day about how you used to study dance. Was your goal to become 
a ballerina?
CRUZ: That’s what I wanted as a little girl. By the time I went to ballet school at age 4, I was already asking to play the role of Carmen. I didn’t realize then that the reason I liked dancing was that it was just another form of acting.
I was hard-core, training something like five hours a day, six days a week. But when I did my first movie, when I was around 17, I just fell in love with acting. That’s when I stopped dancing.
PALTROW: Do you miss it?
CRUZ: I miss the freedom I felt when I was dancing. I remember it as some kind of trance. I imagine singing is like that for you. You have such an amazing voice.
PALTROW: It’s totally like that. How did you get your first job?
CRUZ: I got an agent when I was 15, and she sent me to a casting for Jamón Jamón [1992]. And I got the job. For both Javier and I, that was the movie that actually started both our careers.
PALTROW: You were 17 when you did that?
CRUZ: I think I was, but I was lying so much about my age that I can’t be sure.
PALTROW: Most actresses try to make themselves younger, but you were making yourself older.
CRUZ: I’ve spent most of my career trying to make myself older, for different reasons. Journalists have been asking me, since I was, like, 22, “Are you afraid of aging?” That is such a crazy question for a 22-year-old girl or, for that matter, for a 42-year-old. I combat that craziness by refusing to answer the question.
PALTROW: It’s amazing, Hollywood’s obsession with the aging of women. And how much scrutiny we get for being whatever age we are.
CRUZ: My mom worked very hard to raise us, as did my dad, without bullshit. I’ve always had a real sense of rootedness in family and reality. It’s not like I’m proud of the values I have, because I don’t feel like they’re up to me—they just come from the way I was raised.
I’m rooted by the things I’ve seen in my mom, the things I admire in her. And in my father. When it comes to talking about aging as an actress, I feel like, “What the fuck? I’m not going to give you even two minutes to honor your question.
It doesn’t deserve that.” Something changed when I gave birth to my daughter. I started thinking, “Come on, it’s 2017. Why do women still have to be talking about this? It’s crazy.” That sense only got bigger when I had children.
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