MY EGO HAS GOTTEN SMALLER OVER TIME: PENELOPE A

ctor Penelope Cruz says that after motherhood, her ego has “gotten smaller” and she does not care anymore about what people think of her.

However, the 43-year-old star says that she may have stopped getting affected by people’s perception, but has developed new fears, reports Interview magazine.

“I’m happy to say that my ego has gotten smaller over time. I used to be so afraid about what people were going to think of me, if I was going to be accepted, if I was going to be loved. I put a lot of energy into the perception of myself,” says Cruz.

All that changed when she had her first child. Cruz is married to another Spanish superstar, the Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem. He was her co-star in the film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). They married in 2010 and have two children, son Leonard and daughter Luna.

In an earlier interview, in 2013, when the children were toddlers, Cruz had said about being a mom, “It fills you so much it doesn’t matter that you’re always exhausted. It gives you so much happiness. You want to enjoy every second.” In this recent interview, she says, “When I became a mother — almost seven years ago — something very deep changed in me, where I really don’t care about a lot of the stuff I used to care about before. That’s part of growing up, and now I have to go through other tests that life will put in front of me. I have new fears now.”

When I became a mother — almost seven years ago — something very deep changed in me, where I really don’t care about a lot of the stuff I used to care about before PENELOPE CRUZ, ACTOR