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Maybe I'll make one movie a year, maybe two, but it's not going to be more than that because I have other priorities now.
Penelope Cruz
There's so much more I want to do. I refuse to get to 50 and wait at home for the phone to ring. In Spain, actresses work until they are old. That's my plan.
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.
I don't know why, but women in a hair salon share their deepest secrets.
Especially when you are advertising a product, I talk to the photographer and we create a character - it always gives you more freedom because it makes it less about yourself.
I learned English kind of late. I remember when I got my first opportunity to work in America, I didn't speak a lot of English, so I only really knew my lines for the movie I was doing.
Awards are great, as you get to meet up with friends and colleagues from your industry - a sort of reunion.
I don't do Twitter, Facebook; none of that. My email I do from my Blackberry or my iPhone.
I can cook a little bit. I can cook a few Spanish dishes. But, in movies, it looks like I cook much better than I cook.
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 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.
I won't go to places where you're going to find more attention. I go to the opposite.
I like roles that people don't recognize me in.
There is a part of your brain that has to stop when you're acting. You have to be in the moment and dare to fly. Words can't be on your mind.
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.
Madrid is what I call home, but also the States.
It's great working with my sister, because we are very close as a family - my brother, my sister and myself. We have a great relationship.
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.'
I came to Los Angeles for the first time in 1994. I spoke no English. I only knew how to say two sentences: 'How are you?' and 'I want to work with Johnny Depp.'
As a kid, I had a lot of energy; but the ballet lessons made me calm - this pleased my mother.
As an actress, I really love people like Anna Magnani and Debra Winger. I also think there is nobody better than Meryl Streep.
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.
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.
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.
Unfortunately, I am very aware of editing and I look at the monitor too much. Sometimes the monitor can become your worst enemy because you can, consciously or unconsciously, start editing yourself.
I was very superstitious when I was a teenager, and I had to fight against that because it made me feel anxious.
When I start a movie, the first day, I feel like a duck.
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 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 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 am someone who worries a lot. I'm always worrying 'what if?' Now I'm a mum - there will be worries for the rest of my life, but they're not about me anymore.
I have a strong personality, and I say what I think.
I have stepped off the relationship scene to come to terms with myself. I have spent most of my adult life being 'someone's girlfriend', and now I am happy being single.
I try to look at the whole thing and say 'yes' to the projects that I cannot stop thinking about. If I read a script and the subject stays with me - then that's when I want to go to work.
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.
I love Spanish food. My diet is the Mediterranean diet, which is good food. I eat well.
I am a big fan of photography, more of being behind the camera - so when I get the opportunity to work with such great photographers, I always try and learn from their technique.
I love New York, but being there the whole year, it gets a little crazy with the speed and rhythm of things.
I want to be remembered as somebody that tried to respect her integrity as an artist and as a person. And I don't want to be in any box. I don't want to be one thing.
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!
One thing that I am proud of: I am really capable of laughing at myself.
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.
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 am not somebody who likes to give advice, or anything like that, unless it's my closest friends or family.
I don't know if I believe in marriage. I believe in family, love and children.
I want my son - and my kids, if I have more - to grow up in a way that is as anonymous as possible. The fact that his father and I have chosen to do the work that we do doesn't give anybody the right to invade our privacy.
I always feel scared and insecure on a film set. I don't know any other way.
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 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.
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.
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