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Penelope Cruz Sanchez (born April 28, 1974), better known as Penélope Cruz, is a Golden Globe- and Academy Award-nominated Spanish actress. Originally a dancer, she soon moved into Spanish television, and since then she has appeared in a string of films in Spanish, English, French, Italian and Portuguese languages. Penélope Cruz burst on to the scene in her native Spain in the early 1990s and quickly established herself as a talent to be reckoned with in any language. A longtime critical darling on the international film circuit, Cruz was a favorite creative muse of famed Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar. But it was after she crossed the Atlantic that Cruz truly became a global superstar. Her highly-publicized off-screen dalliances with such A-list box office co-stars as Matt Damon, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Cruise and Javier Bardem only added to her mystique and earned her a place among People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” list in the mid-2000s, as well as title of top fashionista each time she hit the red carpet in an impeccable gown. Cruz was born in San Sebastián de los Reyes, Madrid, Spain, the daughter of Encarna Sánchez, a hairdresser, and Eduardo Cruz, a retailer and auto mechanic. Named for Joan Manuel Serrat’s 1967 song, "Penélope," Penélope Cruz Sanchez was born on April 27, 1974, in Madrid, Spain. The firstborn child of salesman Eduardo Sanchez and his hairdresser wife, Encarna, young Penélope demonstrated a flair for drama at an early age and often recruited her younger siblings, Monica and Eduardo, Jr., to perform in family skits. Starting from the age of six, Cruz studied classical ballet at Spain's National Conservatory under the intense tutelage of prominent dance instructors. In her mid-teens, however, Cruz got bitten by the acting bug and decided to pursue a career as an actress. Her younger sister is Spanish dancer Mónica Cruz. As a toddler, she was already a compulsive performer, re-enacting TV commercials for her family's amusement, but she decided to focus her energies on dance. After studying classical ballet for nine years at Spain's National Conservatory, she continued her training under a series of prominent dancers. At 15, however, she followed another calling after she outdid more than 300 other girls at a talent agency audition. She received three years of Spanish Ballet training with Ángela Garrido. She also had jazz dance training with Raúl Caballero and she studied at Cristina Rota (mother of Juan Diego Botto) school in Madrid. She speaks Spanish, English, French, and Italian fluently. Cruz first achieved fame when she appeared in the Lucio Villalba-directed video clip La fuerza del destino for the Spanish synthpop group Mecano. She later started a relationship with Nacho Cano, a member of the group. She was a TV presenter for the teen-oriented program La Quinta Marcha. She also had early exposure in Série Rose, a French erotic TV serial in which she played the role of a blind prostitute in one episode and in another she played the role of a young noble woman 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. Kicking off her thespian career in 1989, Cruz appeared in a series of high-profile music videos and TV shows before making her inevitable leap to the big screen. At 18, Cruz made an impressive film debut in the Spanish romantic-comedy “Jamón, jamón” (1992) directed by Bigas Luna. A big winner at the Venice Film Festival, “Jamón, jamón” was largely remembered today for Cruz’s nude scenes. In later interviews, Cruz would recall the experience of shooting the intense film as having been “psychologically scarring,” due to her youthful naiveté and inexperience. Cruz had far a better experience with her next project, the period romance, “Belle Époque” (1992). Directed by award-winning filmmaker Fernando Trueba, “Belle Époque” marked Cruz’s her first leading role as Luz, one of four sisters vying for the love of a handsome soldier. In addition to garnering the Academy Award that year for Best Foreign Picture, “Belle Époque” also took home several Goya Awards, the Spanish equivalent of the Oscars. Capitalizing on the huge career boost afforded by “Belle Époque,” Cruz quickly racked up more screen credits in her native Spain, establishing herself as a major leading lady. Cruz's first major films were Jamón, jamón and Belle Époque, a film which won an Academy Award for Foreign Language Film. In 1997, she starred as Sofía Pangia, alongside Eduardo Noriega in Abre los ojos, directed by Alejandro Amenábar, and in 2000 she appeared with Matt Damon in All the Pretty Horses. In 1997, Cruz would begin the first of her many collaborations with famed director, Pedro Almodóvar. The first was the psychological thriller, “Carne Tremula.” Based on the 1986 novel, Live Flesh by British novelist Ruth Rendell, the film starred Cruz’s frequent co-star (and future real-life boyfriend), Javier Bardem. Two years later, Cruz and Almodóvar reunited to make the brilliant “Todo sobre mi madre” (1999). A blunt, brutally honest examination of drug addiction, AIDS, and the role of women in modern Spanish society, “Todo sobre mi madre” (“All About my Mother”) won scores of accolades; most notably the 2000 Oscar for Best Foreign Language film. While always a competent actress, under Almodóvar’s direction, Cruz’s performances transcended expectations. The revered director seemed to agree, making Cruz his muse of sorts – much like a Marlene Dietrich-Josef von Sternberg collaboration, minus the drama and controlling influence. Over the next decade, she and Almodóvar would collaborate at least twice more, including 2006’s Oscar–nominated “Volver,” followed by “Los Abrazos rotos.” (2009). In 1999, she appeared in Pedro Almodóvar's Todo sobre mi madre (All About My Mother), which won an Academy Award for Foreign Language Film. In late 2001, she appeared in the film Vanilla Sky, the Hollywood remake of Abre los ojos. Cruz’s next project, the romantic fantasy-comedy “Woman on Top” (2000), however, would prove to be a watershed moment for her career. Starring as Isabella, a talented chef who suffers from motion sickness, “Woman on Top” delighted critics and showed Cruz in top form, combining her sultry dark looks and razor sharp comic timing to excellent effect. The film’s critical acclaim led to Cruz landing two co-starring roles the following year in American films; first, opposite rumored on-set boyfriend Matt Damon in “All the Pretty Horses” (2000) and later, opposite Johnny Depp in the intense drug drama “Blow” (2001). While the films enjoyed only mediocre box office receipts, critical praise for Cruz’s performances were uniformly positive, despite comments that her English still needed a bit of work. Later that year, Cruz officially “arrived” in Hollywood by landing a coveted supporting role in the Tom Cruise vehicle “Vanilla Sky” (2001). An ambitious drama directed by Cameron Crowe, “Vanilla Sky” grossed over $100 million domestically. Although reviews were generally mixed, a handful of critics – including Richard Roeper of The Chicago Sun-Times – named “Vanilla Sky” as one of the best films of 2001. The movie not to mention Cruz’s career also benefited tremendously from publicity fueled by news of an on-set Cruz-Cruise romance – especially considering he was still married to Nicole Kidman at the time. He and Kidman would separate not long after, leading to an acknowledged relationship between the biggest star in the world and the relatively unknown Spanish vixen. The couple eventually broke up in 2004 – amid rumors that the actress was not fully behind the Scientology religion her boyfriend so ferverently embraced. But unlike the bitter split between Cruise and Kidman, he and Cruz remained friends. Cruz co-starred with her best friend, Salma Hayek in the 2006 film, Bandidas. In 2006, Cruz received highly favourable reviews for her performance in Pedro Almodóvar's Volver. She won a Best Actress ensemble award at the Cannes Film Festival and has been nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and BAFTA Award. She is the first Spanish Actress to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. In May, 2007, it was announced that Penelope and her sister Mónica would be designing a 25-piece collection for the Barcelona-based fashion chain, Mango. On 7 July 2007, Cruz presented at Live Earth. In late 2007, she starred in 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 has a younger brother, Eduardo, a singer, and a younger sister, Mónica, who closely resembles her: a similarity exploited for some Spanish TV ads. In the 2000s, Mónica left her dancing career and achieved note on her own in the youth-oriented TV series Un Paso Adelante. Cruz claims to be a vegetarian since 2000, though this fact is disputed. 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. After appearing in the 2001 film Vanilla Sky with Tom Cruise, they had a three-year relationship which ended in January 2004. 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 is now dating Spanish actor, Academy Award Winner and longtime friend Javier Bardem. Apart from being a close personal friend of the actress, Salma Hayek, Cruz is also a good friend of Colombian singer Shakira. 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, 32, tells 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". |
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