18 Luminous Photos Of A Young Penélope Cruz
At 52, Penélope Cruz is only just getting started. Earlier this year, the Spanish Oscar winner dazzled the Sundance Film Festival with her knock-out turn in Olivia Wilde’s , sizzled at Cannes in Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s queer epic , and is now back at the Venice Film Festival with her latest release, Florian Zeller’s knotty family saga .
It’s quite the feat for the girl from Alcobendas, a town on the outskirts of Madrid, who dreamed of becoming a performer. The daughter of a hairdresser and a mechanic, she was a keen ballerina, studying at Madrid’s National Conservatory before transitioning to theatre and screen acting.
She initially faced a wall of rejection on account of being too young, but at 15, finally got an agent. Parts followed in music videos and in Bigas Luna’s (opposite her future husband, Javier Bardem), paving the way to her international breakthrough via a string of collaborations with Pedro Almodóvar (, , ).
As she returns to the spotlight, we shortlist the best vintage photos from her rise in the ’90s and early noughties, packed with endless style and beauty inspiration.
