Penélope’s secret passion
Why she’s happiest at home
When we meet Penélope Cruz in a Madrid hotel, she’s dressed for the Arctic, wearing a padded jacket so huge it could double as a duvet, plus a denim boiler suit and sheepskin boots.
It’s a far cry from her usual red-carpet glamour, but beautywise, the 44-year-old is as immaculately made up as you’d hope for the daughter of a woman who once ran a beauty salon not far from where we’re sitting, in a working-class suburb of the Spanish capital.
Our location has been picked for convenience rather than nostalgia – we’re on the road to the out-of-town home she shares with her husband, actor Javier Bardem, 49, and their children, Leonardo, eight, and Luna, five.
Javier was Penélope’s co-star in her very first film, 1992’s Jamón,
Jamón. They got together 16 years later, after making VickyCristina
Barcelona, and share the big screen again in the upcoming thriller EverybodyKnows.
That aforementioned salon is where the actress spent much of her childhood. It’s where she came to understand the real power of beauty. “Seeing these women coming in and leaving feeling a bit better about themselves wasn’t just because of the physical transformation – it was because they took that little time for themselves, one or two hours, where they could relax,” she recalls. “It was a sacred space.”
The down-to-earth values and solid work ethic she learned in the salon run deep, and at this
point in her career, Penélope could hardly be busier, with four more films in production, plus her role as a Lancôme brand ambassador.
It all comes hot on the heels of the Golden Globe nomination she received for her role in the mini-series The Assassination of G ian ni Vers ace: American Crime
Story, in which she plays Donatella Versace, who took over the reins at the fashion empire after her brother’s shocking murder in 1997.
The Versace family was not involved in the making of the series and has issued statements condemning it as “reprehensible” and “full of gossip and speculation”.
Having worn Versace in the past, Penélope knows Donatella, so when the role came up, the actress called her. “I needed her blessing because I respect her. She said if someone was going to do it, she was happy it was me. I wanted to show the side of her I knew – the vulnerability, kindness and the humour.”
The show garnered enthusiastic reviews and, despite everything, Donatella reportedly sent flowers to congratulate the actress on the Golden Globe nod.
Ahomebody
Penélope and Javier’s home life is surprisingly quiet. Their children are never seen on the red carpet and the actress doesn’t go out much either. “I like being at home,” she insists. “I’ve never been a party person, even when I was 17.”
Penélope was an unusual teen, fiercely motivated to have an acting career, and it paid off. She was nominated for a Goya, the Spanish equivalent of an Oscar, for her film debut Jamón,Jamón. In it, she played a factory worker pregnant to the boss’ son, whose mother tries to break up the relationship by paying the thuggish Javier to pursue her.
In light of the #MeToo movement, the film is an uncomfortable watch, but Penélope insists she was never subject to the industry brutality so many actresses have reported. “I was very lucky because I was never into drugs and alcohol, and
I think that’s what saved me from danger.”
Hollywood took notice. In 2001 alone, she starred opposite Nicolas Cage in CaptainCorelli’sMandolin,
Johnny Depp in Blow and Tom Cruise (who she dated for a short while) in VanillaSky.
These were largely decorative roles, but back home in Spain, Penélope had begun a career-long collaboration with filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, resulting in films such as 1999’s AllAbout
MyMother, in which she played an HIV-positive nun pregnant by a transvestite.
In fact, it was her magnetic performance in Pedro’s 2006 film Volver that made Hollywood recognise she was more than just a pretty face, duly nominating Penélope for her first Academy Award.
But it was Woody Allen’s 2008 comedy VickyCristina
Barcelona that changed her life forever. As well as winning an Oscar for the role, she was reunited with Javier. Over the years, they’d done smaller projects together and would see each other around.
“We didn’t spend a lot of time together,” she says. “We were friends, just not friends who see each other a lot.”
They got together after the movie wrapped and in July 2010, Penélope pregnant with their first child, they married in an intimate ceremony in the Bahamas. Leonardo was born the following January.
“I wanted to be a mother since I was a little girl,” says the star. “It’s so amazing what happens when you see your kid for the first time. You then see the world differently for the rest of your life because you’re always going to think about somebody else first.”
Spain was the obvious place for them to make their home, where they have nights in doing karaoke. They get recognised on the streets of Madrid, but she insists, “It’s not a constant thing.”
Are their children aware that they’re famous? “I’m not sure if they understand, but we deal with it in a natural way. I explain that maybe that person has seen a movie we’re in.”