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Penélope Cruz Sánchez (born April
28, 1974), better known as Penélope Cruz, is a Spanish actress. She
gathered critical acclaim as a young actress for films such as Jamón,
jamón, The Girl of Your Dreams, and Belle Époque. She has also starred in
several American films such as Blow, Vanilla Sky, Vicky Cristina
Barcelona, and Nine. She is perhaps best known for her work with acclaimed
Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, in Broken Embraces, Volver and All About
My Mother.
Cruz has been awarded three Goyas, two European Film Awards, and the Best
Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2009, she won an Academy
Award for Best Supporting Actress, a Goya, and a BAFTA for her role in
Vicky Cristina Barcelona. She is Spain's first female Oscar winner and
also becomes the sixth Hispanic person to win an Oscar after José Ferrer,
Rita Moreno, Benicio del Toro (Puerto Rico), Anthony Quinn (Mexico), and
fellow Spaniard Javier Bardem. Cruz was nominated for her third Academy
Award in 2010 for her role as Carla Albanese in the film version of the
musical Nine. This nomination marked only the third time in the history of
the Oscars where the winner of the Academy Award for Best Supporting
Actress was nominated for Best Supporting Actress again in the following
year (the other actresses to have achieved this were Estelle Parsons in
1967 and 1968 and Lee Grant in 1975 and 1976).
Penélope Cruz Sánchez was born in Alcobendas, Community of Madrid, Spain,
the daughter of Encarna Sánchez, a hairdresser and personal manager, and
Eduardo Cruz, a retailer and auto mechanic. As a toddler, she was already
a compulsive performer, re-enacting TV commercials for her family's
amusement. Initially, Cruz focused on dance. After studying classical
ballet for nine years at Spain's National Conservatory, she continued her
training under a series of prominent dancers. She received three years of
Spanish Ballet training with Ángela Garrido. She also had jazz dance
training with Raúl Caballero and studied at Cristina Rota (mother of Juan
Diego Botto) school in Madrid. At 15, however, she followed another
calling after beating more than 300 other girls at a talent agency
audition.
Cruz first achieved fame when she appeared in the video for "La fuerza del
destino" for the Spanish synthpop group Mecano. She later started a
relationship with Nacho Cano, a member of the group. A TV presenter for
the teen-oriented program La Quinta Marcha, she also had early exposure in
Série Rose, an erotic French TV serial. In one episode she played the role
of a blind prostitute and in another played a young noblewoman pretending
to be a young nobleman in a comedy of errors. She also directed Nacho
Cano's video of "El waltz de los locos", in 1994.
Cruz's first major films were Jamón, jamón and Belle Époque, a film which
won an Academy Award for Foreign Language Film; she was aged sixteen in
her first film. In 1997, she starred as Sofía Pangia, alongside Eduardo
Noriega, in Open Your Eyes, directed by Alejandro Amenábar, while in 1999
she appeared in Pedro Almodóvar's All About My Mother, which also won an
Academy Award for Foreign Language Film. In 2000 she appeared with Matt
Damon in All the Pretty Horses.
For Cruz, the early 2000s were a period of mediocre reviews and mixed
commercial success. In late 2001, she appeared in the film Vanilla Sky,
the Hollywood remake of Open Your Eyes. Returning to Europe, in 2004, Cruz
learned Italian (she already spoke Spanish, French, and English) to star
in the film Don't Move. She earned critical praise for her role and earned
the coveted David di Donatello award, the Italian equivalent of the Oscar.
In 2006, she co-starred with Salma Hayek in the film Bandidas. That same
year, Cruz received highly favourable reviews for her performance in Pedro
Almodóvar's Volver. She shared a Best Actress award at the 2006 Cannes
Film Festival with five of her co-stars, and was nominated for the Golden
Globe, the Screen Actors Guild Award, the BAFTA Award, and the Academy
Award for Best Actress in a leading role. The latter of these nominations
made her the first Spanish actress to be nominated for an Academy Award
for Best Actress.
In May 2007, it was announced that Penélope and her sister Mónica would be
designing a 25-piece collection for the Barcelona-based fashion chain
Mango. On July 7, 2007, Cruz presented at Live Earth. In late 2007, she
starred in the Jaume de Laiguana-directed video for her brother's first
single, named "Cosas que contar", along with her friend Mía Maestro and
her sister Mónica. Cruz had previously shown a keen interest in fashion
and is a model for L'Oréal and its "Telescopic" mascara.
In 2008, Cruz appeared with Sir Ben Kingsley in fellow Spaniard Isabel
Coixet's film Elegy, earning her critical praise for an English-speaking
role. The film was based on the Philip Roth story The Dying Animal. She
was nominated for a Golden Satellite award for her performance. Later that
year, she starred in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona as María
Elena, Javier Bardem's mentally unstable ex-wife. Her performance received
wide critical praise. For the role, Cruz received her second Academy Award
Nomination, and later won for Best Supporting Actress, making her only the
second Spanish actor to win an Academy Award, a year after her boyfriend,
Javier Bardem, won for No Country for Old Men. She became the first
Spanish actress to win an Academy Award, and one of the only actors
besides Robert De Niro and Ingrid Bergman to win the Oscar for a role
speaking two different languages. Besides the Oscar, Cruz won the BAFTA,
the Independent Spirit Award, the National Board of Review Award, and the
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress in Vicky
Cristina Barcelona. She also earned Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild
nominations for her role.
Cruz again collaborated with Pedro Almodóvar in his film Broken Embraces,
released in the U.S. in November 2009. She was also featured in the film
version of the musical Nine, along with other Oscar winners Sophia Loren,
Judi Dench, Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman and Marion Cotillard. She
earned her third Academy Award nomination in 2010 for this role.
Cruz has a younger brother, Eduardo – a singer – and a younger sister,
Mónica.
Cruz claims to have been a vegetarian since 2000. She speaks four
languages: Spanish, Italian, French and English. Cruz has also donated a
considerable amount of money and time to charity; in 1997 she volunteered
in Uganda for two months.
Cruz was raised as a Catholic, but now feels closest to Buddhism. After
appearing in Vanilla Sky with Tom Cruise, they had a three-year
relationship which ended in January 2004. During that time, she and Cruise
were seen visiting several Church of Scientology locations in Hollywood,
and there was published speculation that Cruise had convinced Cruz to join
the church.
After filming Sahara in February 2005, she began dating actor Matthew
McConaughey. In May 2006, they released a joint statement to People,
saying that they "have decided to take time off as a couple." Later that
year they announced that they were "no longer intimate and separating was
the best thing to do at this time". She has been dating actor Javier
Bardem since 2007; the two appeared together in Jamón, jamón, Live Flesh
and 2008's Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
In April 2007 Cruz, who was single at the time, stated that she would like
to have children one day and she feels the need to adopt. "Of course I
want to have kids," Cruz, told the Spanish edition of Marie Claire in its
April issue. "I want to have my own kids, but also adopt. For a while I've
had the feeling that my life won't be complete if I don't adopt". |
