Spanish Art & Culture
Penélope Cruz
Academy award winning actress, Penélope Cruz Sánchez was born on 28th April 1974 in Alcobendas, Madrid. She is the daughter of Encarna Sánchez, a hairdresser and personal manager, and Eduardo Cruz, a retailer and auto mechanic. Cruz has a younger brother, Eduardo, a singer, and a younger sister, Mónica.
From a very early age she loved to perform for her parents, re- enacting TV commercials for their amusement. After studying classical ballet for nine years at Spain’s National Conservatory she continued her dance training under a series of prominent dance professionals.
At the age of 15, she turned her attention to acting after beating 300 other girls in a talent agency audition. One of her first role was as a TV presenter for a teen-oriented programme.
Her first major roles were in the films Jamón, Jamón and Belle Époque. The latter of these won an Academy award for best foreign language film. In 1999 she appeared in Pedro Almodóvar's Todo sobre mi madre (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 with Tom Cruise in the film Vanilla Sky, the Hollywood remake of Abre los ojos, a film she had also previously filmed. After appearing in the film together they had a three year relationship which ended in January. 2004.
Returning to Europe, in 2004, Penélope 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 received the coveted David di Donatello award, the Italian equivalent of the Oscar.
In 2006, Cruz received highly favourable reviews for her performance in Pedro Almodóvar's Volver. She shared a Best Actress award at the 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.
She has been dating actor Javier Bardem since 2007; the two appeared together in a number of films including Jamón, Jamón, Live Flesh and 2008 Woody Allen film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. In the latter she starred as María Elena, Javier’s mentally unstable wife. For the role, Cruz received her second Academy Award Nomination, and later won 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.
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She is currently working with Pedro Almodóvar in his film Los Abrazos Rotos, which is set for release in the U.S. in November 2009. She will also be 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.
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