It's a good thing to be old. Because when you get older, that means you haven't died yet, right? And when I do get older, I want to have the grace to be proud of it, not to lie about it or try to fight it.
— Penelope Cruz
I never want to lie about my age. If I look around at the actresses I admire, they are all women who have not fought growing older, but embraced it and been proud of it - women like Sophia Loren or Audrey Hepburn.
I love Spanish food. My diet is the Mediterranean diet, which is good food. I eat well.
There was a point where I was making four movies a year. I was always on a set. I had no stories to tell. I was feeling empty. My life was just luggage and hotels and from set to set, from character to character. And one day, I said, 'And where is mine?' You know? And the moment I started to feel that fear, I stopped and I slowed down.
My favourite actress is Meryl Streep. Oh, and Anna Magnani.
I have been hearing gossip and lies since I began working. When I was 17, I used to get very angry because I opened a magazine and I saw myself in a picture on a motorcycle, and the headline was, 'I'm getting married next month.'
In my house every Sunday, everybody was cleaning the house. There was always music, and everybody was dancing, sometimes naked, around the house. Not hippie, but very free.
I really dislike it when the media asks young actresses, normally when they're about 23, how they feel about ageing. There are other things to worry about.
I just try not to label myself in any way. I just have an allergy to labels in general. I can tell you that I am surrounded by very strong women and that I really appreciate that, but I'd rather not label myself.
There's a lot of work that goes into it - if you think about how many collections a year that Karl Lagerfeld has to do, with Chanel and all the other things he does - you can't do that unless you are working 18 hours a day. It's really a lot of hard, hard work.
It doesn't happen every day, but many nights my dreams are like a movie. I don't see normal movement - I see things in very complicated shots. That's why I do remember many of them.
I love Salma Hayek; we've been friends for a really long time. I admire how she has come such a long way and always remained grounded and who she is. She never compromises to follow her vision, and she is loyal. Such qualities only mark the great stars.
My first fear was about the devil, when I was around fire, something I saw in a movie. I think it's about pain, in whichever form it comes.
I was 11 when I first said I wanted to become an actress, and everyone looked at me as if I had said I wanted to go to the moon.
I have had a very singular kind of life since I started working so young, so I am very used to traveling, working, taking time for myself.
The discipline that ballet requires is obsessive. And only the ones who dedicate their whole lives are able to make it. Your toenails fall off and you peel them away and then you're asked to dance again and keep smiling. I wanted to become a professional ballet dancer.
When I was 16 or 17, when I started, I never even considered not doing a project. I just wanted to work.
I was raised Catholic, but then I discovered Buddhism, and I used to have a boyfriend who was a Scientologist, and they are all good religions that help people. As far as I'm concerned, you can have all three religions at once and it's okay!
I had a very curly perm in the '80s, thanks to the 'Way You Make Me Feel' Michael Jackson video. I liked the girl in it.
I breastfed my son for 13 months, and I plan to do at least the same with my daughter. That's an amazing thing for babies, but it's also really good for the mother because it regulates your body again after pregnancy.
I never felt, 'Oh, I think I look good.' I always tend to be more in the insecure side. And I thought that has always been a way to protect myself. Because I don't trust the good feelings that can come from that.
My first fear was about the devil, when I was around fire, something I saw in a movie. I think it's about pain, in whichever form it comes. I had a lot of energy as a child - sometimes too much - and I didn't know how to channel it. It was making me suffer. It was bigger than myself, and I was very young.
I try to do as much as possible for every character. Some of them, it is easier to do the research because you have either real examples that you work with, maybe some specific person that inspires you in that case, or the performances from other people, or the characters, or a character from a book.
My parents owned a hair salon, so I learned a few tricks there. I can cut people's hair - if they let me.
In 'Twice Born' I play my character in her 20s, 30s and 50s. For the fifty year old scenes, I had some prosthetics; it was interesting to see how I'm going to look when I'm fifty-five or so. I actually saw similarities between my grandmothers and my mother.
I am not somebody who likes to give advice, or anything like that, unless it's my closest friends or family.
There are so many designers that I love, and I'm so lucky that I get to work with so many of them and sometimes spend time with them. As an actress, you get to go to these events and wear their things - it's fun, but it is what it is. I don't put a lot of time into it, but I respect what they do.
As an actress, I really love people like Anna Magnani and Debra Winger. I also think there is nobody better than Meryl Streep.
Calcutta is like another world. People there are very special and grateful.
I was very superstitious when I was a teenager, and I had to fight against that because it made me feel anxious.
Sometimes you will do a close-up for a scene in the morning where you are totally distraught, then shoot the rest of that scene seven hours later. How do you hang on to that feeling all day without burning up, without going so far that you have nothing left to give when the cameras roll again?
I've worked myself to exhaustion before. I was so young, and I thought I could do everything; it was just too much for my body and my mind.
As a kid, I had a lot of energy; but the ballet lessons made me calm - this pleased my mother.
I don't play comedy as comedy. That would be the biggest trap. I think about the characters and their situations. Then you don't have to worry where the laugh is going to be. But comedy is harder than drama.
I hope that I will be able to work all of my life - even when I am older. It's easier to do that in Europe than in America, because in America it is difficult for older actresses to find work.
I love ballet, and it's a little boring for me to go to the gym because I'm used to the dancing discipline - it's really hard but much more fun.
I try to eat healthily, but I love fried food and bad things. Give me a plate of bread, some oil and salt and I'm happy. But you can't eat like this all the time.
I have fear, always, on the set. Insecurity to the point where the first week I always think I could be fired. I think that's a fear most actors have.
The thing that really makes me happy is the real work and rehearsing and creating the character and the process of making the movie. Hollywood's not real.
I don't do Twitter, Facebook; none of that. My email I do from my Blackberry or my iPhone.
I always knew I wanted a family because of the way I grew up. Family has always been the most important thing.
Madrid is what I call home, but also the States.
There are roles I have said no to, but for different reasons. And, I never talk about those because I feel it's disrespectful to say, 'Oh, I said no to this project or that other project.' I'd rather talk about the ones that I said yes to and the reasons why.
Making a living out of acting sounded like science-fiction when I was growing up. I didn't know anyone around me who lived from anything related to art.
I remember 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. My parents also took me to ballet school, and there I think I was able to start communicating those feelings or emotions - I danced for so many years.
You can always keep learning with acting, because the school is life and yourself and your friends and your relationships. I'm fascinated by it! It's infinito!
I don't know why, but women in a hair salon share their deepest secrets.
I always feel scared and insecure on a film set. I don't know any other way.
Ever since I was a little girl, I've worried too much. It always bothers me because sometimes you end up worrying more about the worry and you are not resolving things that are right there in front of you. I have been like that all my life, and it's hard to change.
All those cliches, those things you hear about having a baby and motherhood - all of them are true. And all of them are the most beautiful things you will ever experience.
