“In Ham, ham (1992), she was 17 and I was 22. It was her first film; one of my first films. A great film″ is how Javier Bardem (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 55 years old) remembers his first meeting with his now wife, actress Penélope Cruz (Alcobendas, 50 years old). He did so in an interview with Gentleman’s Journal, a report in which he speaks as he rarely does about his family life, and in which he has been photographed by his wife in the house that the couple, always jealous of sharing their private life, shares in Madrid. In the costume test for the Spanish tragicomedy directed by Bigas Luna, in the words of Bardem, “we looked at each other and I guess something happened. Something that has no explanation and that goes beyond logic and reasoning.” However, this creative chemistry between the two Spanish performers did not materialize into a relationship until 2007, when they met again on the filming of Vicky Cristina Barcelona by Woody Allen. 32 years after their first meeting, the chemistry and love endure.
Like an invisible thread that connected them and indicated that they were predestined, the connection between Cruz and Bardem has always existed. “Back then (1992) we had different lives, different objectives, goals and purposes,” recalls the actor in the publication about the recording of Ham, ham. “Yet there was something there: an energy, a chemistry, a way of trusting each other as human beings. And that lasted for so long (15 years), even though we didn’t see or talk to each other for many years.”
In 2007, when the couple reunited for the Woody Allen film Vicky Cristina Barcelona —for which Cruz won the Oscar for best supporting actress—and both had already become world stars, they began their life as a couple. “We realized that the feeling was still alive. Very alive,” laughs Bardem in his interview for Gentleman’s Journal. “We were both single at the time, so naturally what had to happen happened: two people reconnected because they shared a lot of things, much more than they expected.”
However, for the actor, the love story had not only been brewing since that day when they met at the costume fitting for Ham, ham; but it was also possible because they met before achieving fame. “We met and we knew each other before all the noise, before the success and before anyone saw us with different eyes for what we were now, what we had become,” says the Oscar-winning performer for his role in It’s not a country for old people (2007). “That’s an important foundation, trusting someone because you really know them and they really know you. “You see me, I see you.”
Bardem calls his family – formed with Penélope Cruz and their two children in common, Leo (13 years old) and Luna (11 years old) – his “tribe” but, unlike the patriarchal figures that the actor plays in the films of Dune (2021) or The little mermaid (2023), the actor practices a different approach to his fatherhood. Regarding this, he only says that it is a job in constant evolution and that he does not want to be the father who is constantly on top of his children: “I don’t want to have expectations of who I want them to become for my own good or my own reward. “I don’t want to tell them what to do, how to do it, or put pressure on them in a way they don’t need to.” It also emphasizes the importance of childhood and how it determines the life that a person will develop. “We all know it. We must take care and be very sensitive to our little ones so that they grow up healthily. It is an investment for society. Each child is an investment for society,” he says in the interview.
Bardem affirms that, for him, fatherhood is not about recognizing achievements and virtues, but about paying attention, in millimeter detail, to his own imperfections. “I have a lot of flaws and things that need to be corrected in terms of me as a human being,” he begins. “But being able to educate someone is the most important responsibility you will have in life. You are helping to guide, to educate someone, and how can you do that if you don’t educate yourself? “If you don’t really evaluate who you are as a human being?”, concludes who also says that he tries to become, day by day, the best father possible by creating strong affective and emotional bonds with his children.
The words of affection and recognition between the couple have been few, and most of the time they have been limited to their speeches of gratitude when they have been awarded for their work. Last month, Bardem, upon collecting the Donostia Award during the 72nd San Sebastian Film Festival gala, paid sweet tribute to his wife, dedicating the award to her. “It is for a woman I love and with whom I share life.” After saying these words, the actor began to cry while looking at his wife in the amphitheater. “A very deep gratitude for the human being that you are and how you take responsibility for the lives of your children and, of course, for the life of this man who is here who loves you, who loves you and thanks you.” The actor continued his declaration of love by sending a message to his children: “It goes for our children, Leonardo and Luna, the two most wonderful human beings, two angels, two lucks of life and destiny that we have been able to care for and guide. And above all, they are teaching us, their parents, to be a little better people every day.” A very emotional Cruz blew him a kiss and the audience burst into applause.
