Penélope Cruz: What she learned for life at her mother’s hair salon

How does the daughter of a car mechanic and a hairdresser from the outskirts of Madrid make it to Hollywood – even to an Oscar? Penélope Cruz, 52, has now given a glimpse into her hairy beginnings as an actress.

Cruz was born in 1974 in the Madrid Vortort Alcobendas and grew up in modest circumstances. She learned ballet, dance and finally went to an acting school at the age of 14. Perhaps one of the most important lessons for her career, she did not learn there.

As a child, Cruz spent a lot of time in her mother’s hair salon, writes the New York Times. There, hidden behind her schoolbooks, she watched the women who had their hair done and listened to her conversations with her mother. “I think they came mainly to talk and to trust her secrets,” Cruz told The New York Times. She especially liked to listen to what the customers actually wanted to hide. “I’ve always tried to figure out: What don’t they say?”

Even as a child, she developed such a special knowledge of humanity, writes the newspaper further. Cruz has learned to understand fleeting gestures, facial expressions, silence or sighs much better. Maybe a lesson she wouldn’t have gotten in drama school. There, however, she learned the craft with Argentine Cristina Rota.

According to the New York Times, Cruz dealt intensively with the tragedy "The Zofen" by Jean Genet. She was preparing to play all three roles of the play. When the youngster finally performed the tragedy in front of her class, her teacher burst into tears. That was the sign to pursue acting as a profession, Cruz said: I will never forget this day. It was like an injection of self-confidence.

For her role as María Elena in »Vicky Cristina Barcelona« Cruz won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2009, twice she was also nominated as Best Leading Actress. This year, Cruz can be seen in several new films, including the drama “La bola negra” and the comedy “The Invite”.

In »The Invite« something fundamentally goes wrong between men and women. Is heteros still to help?