Big cinema: Penélope Cruz – artwork home, Hollywood and heavy baggage. She turns 50 on Sunday | EUROtoday

EOnce upon a time there was a stupendous lady who grew up in humble circumstances. Eduardo, the dad, was a automobile mechanic, Encarna, the mother, a hairdresser. And they had been younger, each solely 21 years previous, when their first daughter was born.

They couldn't provide her a lot. But they gave her all their love – and all their help in order that the lady may fulfill her goals. She dreamed of creating some huge cash as a dancer and being a great mom. The lady usually sat on a pink couch in her mother and father' home within the Madrid working-class suburb of Alcobendas. Then she watched countless movies – and noticed herself on this dream world.

This lady turns 50 on Sunday. It has truly had a fairytale profession. Penélope Cruz is just not solely the queen of Spanish movie, Hollywood can also be at her toes – she was the primary Spanish actress to win an Oscar in 2009 for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”. And her want to have kids was additionally fulfilled.

But – cease – no fairy story is with no darkish aspect. Because though “Pe”, as she is named in Spain, convincingly declares that she is “happy”, she is pursued by demons. Demons that she tries to regulate all through her life by means of remedy. “Me and my worries,” says Cruz, they’re at all times there.

A childhood shock tore Penélope from her sheltered world. Her sister Monica, who was three years youthful than her, was run over by a automobile in entrance of Penélope when she was 9. “It's a big trauma because I saw her lose consciousness. I was in a daze in the hospital.” Although the sister's accidents healed shortly, the shock left wounds in Penelope's soul.

She remains to be afraid of driving at the moment. Fear, despite the fact that she has lengthy been a famous person, of being fired after just some days of filming as a result of she couldn't deal with it. She has nonetheless been taking appearing classes together with her previous instructor for many years. When she made her first movie in Hollywood, “The Hi-Lo Country,” she locked herself in her lodge room in Los Angeles as a result of she was ashamed that she spoke such poor English. The solely individuals she spoke to outdoors of filming had been two stray cats that she took into her room.

But Penélope Cruz by no means misplaced the battle towards her demons. She stands as much as them. She dropped out of faculty on the age of 15 and shortly afterwards, whereas she was nonetheless a minor, she starred within the erotic comedy “Lust auf Fleisch”. She has a number of nude scenes and is shortly turning into well-known in Spain. Javier Bardem, her future husband and father of her kids Leo (now 13) and Luna (11), additionally stars on this movie. But it wasn't till years later that Cruz and Bardem fell in love.

Also Oscar winner

There is a second necessary man in her life (no, not Tom Cruise or Matthew McConaughey, with whom she as soon as had affairs lasting a number of months): It is Spain's star director Pedro Almodóvar. Two soulmates who’re at their finest in movies collectively. He nearly at all times has her play a mom (“Parallel Mothers”), a task she masters all too nicely. “I love him more than anything, he is a very important part of my life,” she says of Almodóvar. And about her position as a mom: “When you become a mother, everything changes. You travel back to your own childhood while experiencing your children’s with them.”

15 years after “Lust auf Fleisch”, Bardem, additionally an Oscar winner, and Cruz labored collectively in Woody Allen’s comedy “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” in 2007. Now it's love. Love at second sight and likewise nice love. Three years later, the 2 married secretly within the Bahamas. When the kids had been born, they moved again from Los Angeles to Madrid – and have had a secluded, scandal-free marriage ever since.

Cruz is fortunate sufficient to be featured in main Hollywood blockbusters in addition to Spanish arthouse movies. Now, at 50, she desires to do one thing new and likewise work as a director. She has already threatened this to her mentor Almodóvar.

And perhaps at some point she is going to obtain her massive aim in life. Not simply being blissful, however “completely carefree.” That can be as lovely for Penélope Cruz as in a fairy story.