Penelope Cruz, Need To Say Anything Else?
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.
In 2008, 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 Los Abrazos Rotos, which is slated to be released 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.
Cruz has a younger brother, Eduardo, a singer, and a younger sister, Mónica.
Cruz claims to be 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 Roman Catholic, but the religion she feels closest to is 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”.
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