Birth Name
Penélope Cruz Sánche
Date of Birth
April 28, 1974
Height
5 feet 6 inches
Nationality
Spanish
Early life:
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. She was raised Roman Catholic. Throughout her childhood, Cruz lived in Alcobendas, a working-class town, although she spent "a lot" of time at her grandmother's apartment. Cruz is the oldest of three siblings; she has a younger brother, Eduardo, who is a singer, and a younger sister, Mónica, who is an actress. She has said that she had a happy childhood, and Charlie Rose of 60 Minutes described Cruz's childhood as a "simple life." In a foreshadowing way, Cruz remembers when she was four years old, "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." In 2000, Cruz stated that as a child she would throw herself on the floor and "start kicking and breaking things" when she did not get her way.
Initially, Cruz had no ambition to be an actress and focused on dance, having studied classical ballet for nine years at Spain's National Conservatory. She received three years of Spanish ballet training and four years of theater at Cristina Rota's New York school. She commented that "I used to take my toenails—they would die from dancing—so I would just take the whole toenail and throw it away, and not feel anything," however, ballet instilled in her discipline that would be important in her future acting career. She became a fan of movies at age 10 or 11. With no movie theaters nearby, her first relationship with cinema was watching movies on Betamax. Her father bought this "[Betamax] machine", of which Cruz recalls that it was very rare to own one in her neighborhood at the time.
When Cruz was a teenager, she began having an interest in acting after seeing the film Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. She began doing casting calls for an agent, but was rejected multiple times because the agent felt that she was too young. Cruz commented on the experience that "I was very extroverted as a kid. I was studying when I was in high school at night, I was in ballet and I was doing castings. I looked for an agent and she sent me away three times because I was a little girl but I kept coming back. I'm still with her after all these years." In 1989, at the age of 15, Cruz won an audition at a talent agency over more than 300 other girls. In 1999, Katrina Bayonas, Cruz's agent, commented, "She was absolutely magic at the audition. It was obvious there was something very impressive about this kid. She was very green, but there was a presence. There was just something coming from within."
Career:
In 1989, 15 year-old Cruz debuted and starred in the video clip of the song La Fuerza del Destino of the synth-pop trio Mecano.[citation needed] Between 1990 and 1997, Cruz 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 totally naked. In 1992, Cruz made her feature film debut at 18 as the lead female role in the comedy drama art house film, Jamón, jamón.
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 movies. She recalls learning English "kinda of late" only knowing the dialogue she had learned for the casting beyond that, she could only say, “How are you?” and “Thank you.”
In 1997, Cruz appeared in the Spanish comedy film Love Can Seriously Damage Your Health. She portrays Diana, a fan of The Beatles band member John Lennon; she tries unsuccessfully to meet him.
Also in 1997, she appeared in the opening scene of Pedro Almodóvar's Live Flesh as a prostitute who gives birth on a bus and in Et hjørne af paradis (A Corner of Paradise) as Doña Helena. Cruz's final appearance in 1997 was the Amenabar-directed Spanish sci-fi drama Open Your Eyes.
The following year, Cruz appeared in her first American film as Billy Crudup's consolation-prize Mexican girlfriend in Stephen Frears' western film, The Hi-Lo Country. Cruz stated that she had difficulties understanding people speaking English while she was filming The Hi-Lo Country.
Also in 1998 Cruz appeared in Don Juan and The Girl of Your Dreams.
Cruz worked with Almodóvar again in All About My Mother, playing Sister María Rosa Sanz, a pregnant nun with AIDS. The film received favorable reviews, and was commercially successful, grossing over $67 million worldwide, although it performed better at the box office internationally than domestically.
In 2000, she appeared in Woman on Top in the lead female role as Isabelle, a world-class chef who has suffered from motion sickness since birth, her first American lead role.
Also in 2000, she played Alejandra Villarreal, who is Matt Damon's love interest in Billy Bob Thornton's film adaptation of the western bestselling novel, All the Pretty Horses.
2001 marked a turning point when Cruz starred in the feature films Vanilla Sky and Blow. In Vanilla Sky, Cameron Crowe's interpretation of Open Your Eyes, she played Sofia Serrano, the love interest of Tom Cruise's character. The film received mixed reviews but made $200 million worldwide.
Her next film was Blow, adapted from Bruce Porter's 1993 book Blow: How a Small Town Boy Made $100 million with the Medellin Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All. She had a supporting role as Mirtha Jung, the wife of Johnny Depp's character. The film received mixed reviews, but made $80 million worldwide.
In 2001, she also appeared in Don't Tempt Me, playing Carmen Ramos. Cruz's last film in 2001 was Captain Corelli's Mandolin, film adaption of the novel of the same name.
The following year, Cruz had a minor role in the horror film Gothika, as Chloe Sava, a patient at a mental hospital. David Rooney of Variety wrote that Cruz "adds a serviceably malevolent edge to Chole's apparent madness." Cruz's performance in Fanfan la Tulipe, also in 2003, was not well received, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian commenting that Cruz "deserves a special Cannes Razzie for a performance of purest teak."
In 2004, Cruz appeared in the Christmas film Noel as Nina, the girlfriend of Paul Walker's character[52] and as Mia in the romantic drama, Head in the Clouds, set in the 1930s.
In 2005, Cruz appeared as Dr Eva Rojas in the action adventure Sahara. She earned $1.6 million for her supporting role.
Also in 2005, Cruz appeared in Chromophobia, screened at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and released the following year.Her final 2005 film was Don't Move playing Italia.
Cruz appeared in the 2006 Western comedy film, Bandidas.
Also in 2006, Cruz received favourable reviews for her performance as Raimunda in Pedro Almodóvar's Volver.
In 2007, Cruz appeared in the lead female role in Manolete, a biopic of bullfighter Manuel Laureano Rodríguez Sánchez, playing Antoñita "Lupe" Sino. She also appeared in The Good Night, playing two characters, Anna and Melody.
In 2008, Cruz appeared in Isabel Coixet's film Elegy, which was based on the Philip Roth story The Dying Animal, as the lead female role, Consuela Castillo.
Later that year, she starred in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona as María Elena, a mentally unstable woman.
Cruz's next film was the kid-friendly G-Force, which was released to theaters in July 2009.
she appeared in the film Broken Embraces as Lena, the lead character's mistress and assistant who is an aspiring actress.
Cruz's final 2009 film was the film version of the musical Nine, playing the character Carla Albanese, the lead character's mistress.
In 2010, Cruz appeared in the film Sex and the City 2, the sequel to the 2008 film, in a cameo role. Cruz appeared in her biggest Hollywood turn to date, in the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film, as Angelica, Blackbeard's daughter and the former love interest of Captain Jack Sparrow.
Her upcoming roles include Woody Allen's The Bop Decameron, and she is set to reunite with Italian director Sergio Castellitto in his war tale "Venuto al Mondo" as Gemma, a single mother who brings her teenage son to Sarajevo, where the boy’s father died during the Balkan War.
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 for 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 movie, 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 December 1, 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.
Personal life:
Cruz on a stroll with friend and co-star Ben Kingsley, 2007
Cruz is friends with Pedro Almodovar, whom she has known for almost two decades and with whom she has worked on films. Cruz, is known to friends as Pe, owns a house near her family's home in Madrid and another in Los Angeles. Although Cruz's parents are divorced, in 2008 she said she is close to both parents and to her brother as well as having a "100 percent" bond with her younger sister. She speaks Spanish, Italian, French and English.
Cruz had a three-year relationship with Tom Cruise after they appeared together in Vanilla Sky. It ended in January 2004. In April 2003, she filed a lawsuit against the Australian magazine New Idea for defamation over an article about her relationship with Cruise. Her lawyers claimed that "the proceedings state that the article contains a number of false and defamatory statements concerning Ms. Cruz" and she is seeking "substantial damages and is confident that legal proceedings will vindicate her reputation."
After filming Sahara in February 2005, she began dating actor Matthew McConaughey. In June 2006, they told People that they "have decided to take time off as a couple" and that "due to busy work schedules and so much time apart" they decided that "separating was the best thing to do." In April 2007, Cruz who was single, told the Spanish edition of Marie Claire said she would like to adopt children.
Cruz began dating co-star Javier Bardem in 2007. They married in early July 2010 in a private ceremony at a friend's home in the Bahamas; a spokesman confirmed that the ceremony had taken place and revealed that Cruz wore a dress by Galliano. After photos emerged of Cruz appearing to be pregnant on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, representatives said the couple expect a child in January 2011. Marie Claire reported that Cruz gave birth to her first child, son Leo Encinas Bardem, on January 22, 2011 at the Cedars Sinai Hospital, three days before Bardem was nominated for an Oscar.
Penelope Cruz Awards and Nominations
Penelope Cruz Filmography
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