Penelope candidly spoke about the early years of her career, sharing that she often felt quite alone
Penelope Cruz has opened up about her first few years in Hollywood, explaining that she used to cry in the bathroom over one thing. The actress, 50, was raised in Madrid, Spain, before progressing her career in the United States, which came with challenges.
“I arrived with the script learned and little else,” she said in Versión Española, according to Infobae. “I had studied French before and spoke very little English. I hated getting lost talking at script readings and at desk work – I struggled with it.”
Although Penelope had learned some English beforehand, the language was a tough barrier to her enjoyment in a new country. These differences, among other factors, contributed to great feelings of isolation, as Penelope stressed she felt incredibly alone.
“I would go to the bathroom, cry, and come back,” she reportedly added. In a separate 2011 interview with Vogue, Penelope also revealed that she lived in a tiny hotel room with just cats when first moving to Los Angeles.
She said: “I was very lonely. I would find cats in the street and take them with me. I raised a lot of cats in that period.” Fast-forward to now, and Penelope is a household name, having starred in numerous blockbuster hits including Vanilla Sky, Ferrari, and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
In 2010, she married fellow actor Javier Bardem, also famous for his roles in films like James Bond Skyfall, No Country for Old Men and The Sea Inside. Together, they have two children – Leo, 14, and Luna, 11.
Talking to Marie Claire in 2019, Penelope said she had always wanted to be a mother but didn’t rush to have children. “I really wanted to be a mother, for as long as I can remember,” she said at the time.
“I really wanted to be a mother, for as long as I can remember. But I did it when I felt the time was right—the right time, the right person.” On finally becoming a parent, Penelope felt like a ‘revolution’ had started inside of her, with the entire world now seeming different.
“You’ll never think of yourself first again, and I think that’s a very good thing. It happens in a second,” she said. In a separate interview with Bazaar in 2023, she added: “I’ve always a very strong maternal instinct—always.
“Since I was a little girl, since like five years old, I’ve been playing the role of a mother and saying that I for sure wanted to have kids when I was an adult. I always saw that in me.”
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