Actress Penélope Cruz, protagonist of the cover article of Elle magazine during the promotion of her latest film, Ferrari, gave an interview to the same medium in which she spoke openly about her family, mental health and her role as the wife of the automobile magnate . During her talk, she has confessed a past trauma that causes her an excruciating fear of getting behind the wheel.
“My sister was hit by a car in front of me when I was eight or nine years old. I remember she was wearing a red coat. Speaking of red [brand's signature color]. And for me, time stopped. “It is a great trauma, because I saw her lose consciousness.” Even though her sister survived the accident, Penelope continues to carry the shock: “I'm afraid of driving.”
Penélope Cruz also talked about her family beyond her sister. Married to Javier Bardem for 13 years, they are parents of two children: Leo (12) and Luna (10). Despite being a global celebrity, she has always been very reserved and protective of them, since she believes that "they have to decide if they are going to have work that is more exposed to the public or not. They can talk about that when they are ready." .
Cruz keeps his children away from the public eye, and also tries to protect them from the potential harms of the digital world: his children do not have cell phones or social networks. She believes that it is too easy “to be manipulated, especially if you have a brain that is still forming.” “And who pays the price? Not us, not our generation, who, perhaps at the age of 25, learned how a BlackBerry worked.”
For the actress, children and adolescents are involuntary participants in a cruel global experiment. “It's almost as if the world is doing some kind of experiment on them. Oh, let's see what happens if you expose a 12-year-old to so much technology,” she explained in Elle. That is why she rules out that her children have a cell phone and social networks before the age of 16, with the firm objective of protecting their mental health.
The actress confesses that she does not need to go to the screens to entertain herself because “Javier [Bardem] sings and is a great dancer. And he does an amazing Mick Jagger impression. He imitates Al Pacino and De Niro talking to each other. Is incredible". If one thing is clear, it is that Luna and Leo do not lack entertainment at home.
In an interview in 2021 with Rita Braver for the CBS Sunday Morning program, Penélope Cruz already warned that she may not have been prepared for her children to use social networks until they were 16 years old. "There's no protection for them, for the brains that are still developing and how that affects the way they see themselves, how everything related to bullying, so many things that are not the childhood that we had." "I really see that as protecting mental health, but it seems like I'm part of a minority," she confesses.
The protagonist of Parallel Mothers played roles related to motherhood long before having children. And she talks about the filmmaker and frequent collaborator Pedro Almodóvar: "He always saw me as a mother." "We've known each other since I was 17. He watched me go talk to strangers just to see his baby. He always saw that strong, inevitable instinct in me, and I saw that he saw it."
In the interview with Elle, the actress confesses that she knew from a very young age that “she wanted to have children. But she knew that she wanted them when she was older. She wanted to wait until I felt ready. She was sure it would be the most important thing I would ever do in my life."
The interpreter is in full promotion of her latest project, Ferrari, a biopic by Michael Mann about the Italian racing driver and businessman Enzo Ferrari, played by Adam Driver. The film is set in 1957, when Ferrari is going through a major personal and financial crisis. Penélope Cruz plays his wife and partner Laura Garello. The film will premiere on February 9 on the big screen.
