Penelope Cruz was born to succeed as an artist. She was born is Madrid, Spain, and the artistic life attract her from the beginning. Penelope Cruz started to dance classic ballet when she was a little girl at the elementary school. Her strong discipline, hard work and talent made her beat 300 girls in a dance competition, and after finish the second grade at the middle school she dropped her studies and dedicated herself exclusively to classic ballet. Penelope spent several years dancing, until she appeared in a music video clip from a pop band and became nationally famous. The pop band was Mecano, one of the most important groups of the musical history of Spain, and his leader, Nacho Cano, was an idol in the Spanish cultural world. The video clip was the beginning of a long romantic relationship that covered the front pages of the European magazines for years. Penelope Cruz discovered with Nacho Cano the fundamentals of the Buddhist religion, and she followed them until now.
After became famous with her appearance in the Mecano video clip, Penelope Cruz started to participate in different art and interpretation jobs, as hosting TV shows and working in TV series and theater.
Her debut in the big screen was in the film “Jamon, jamon”, from the director Bigas Luna, movie that reveals her interpretative talent, a talent that she shared with her co star, the international Spanish actor Javier Bardem.
After “Jamon,Jamon” Penelope Cruz participated in the coral film “Belle Epoque”, movie that won the Oscar to the best movie in foreign language in 1992. “Belle Epoque” was the first contact between Penelope Cruz and Hollywood. Although she was still working in many Spanish films, she moved to the US to continue her career. She became a close friend with Selma Hayeck, and both assisted to frequent parties together. In 1999 she participated in the movie “Todo sobre mi madre” a Pedro Almodovar film that won the Oscar to the Best Movie in a Foreign Language, and pushed definitely at the top of the celebrity rank in the US.
In 2000 she worked with Matt Damon in the film “All the pretty horses”, and the couple started a romance that was short but very popular.
Was in 2001, while Penelope Cruz was working in “Vanilla Sky”, a poor remake of the wonderful movie “Abre los ojos”, from Alejandro Amenabar, she started a romance with Tom Cruise. This relationship was one of the most famous and scrutinized ones of the past decades, and made of Penelope Cruz one of the most famous celebrities of the moment. She made commercials, interviews, gave her image to Loreal, and show her picture in all the magazines. But she didn’t forgot her worries about the unlucky ones, and she kept working in charity projects. She spent two months as volunteer worker in Uganda in 1997, and donated big amounts of money to different charity organizations. Possibly her differences in ideology with Tom Cruise were the reasons for their break up.
After filming “Sahara”, in 2005, Penelope Cruz initiated a relationship with her partner in the movie, Matthew McConaghey, one of the most desirable man in the Hollywood world.The couple broke up after one year, and she was linked to the actor Adrien Body, with who works in the movie “Manolete”, but she denied in an interview.
Penelope Cruz has several movies coming out soon, and surely they will be big success ones after her recent nomination to the Golden Globe Awards and after win the award of the Cannes Film Festival, both for her stunning work in the surely winner movie “Volver”, from the Oscar director Pedro Almodovar.
