Penélope Cruz recently shared a rare glimpse into parenting her children. Now, Leo, 12, and Luna, 10, growing up, she remains resolute in her decision to keep them away from the digital world's potential harms.
"It’s so easy to be manipulated, especially if you have a brain that is still forming," the Spanish actress shared with Elle Magazine in its February 2024 issue.
"And who pays the price? Not us, not our generation, who, maybe at 25, learned how a BlackBerry worked. It’s a cruel experiment on children, on teenagers," she added.
Penélope, who shares her children with fellow actor Javier Bardem, has been consistent in her approach to parenting in the digital age.
In a 2021 interview with "CBS Sunday Morning," she revealed her strict rules regarding technology use, underscoring the importance of protecting her children's mental health.
"But not phones until they are much older, and no social media until at least 16. I really see that as protecting mental health. But I seem to be part of a minority," she stated, acknowledging her stance might not be widely shared.
Her relationship with social media is cautious and limited. Penélope expressed concern for teenagers today, feeling as though they are unwitting participants in a global experiment. "It's almost [as] if the world was doing some kind of experiment on them. 'Oh, let's see what happens if you expose a 12-year-old to that much technology.'"
When discussing her children's future, particularly whether they would follow in their parents' creative footsteps, Penélope was hesitant to divulge details.
"It’s for them to decide if they are going to have a job that is more exposed to the public or not. They can talk about that when they’re ready," she told Elle Magazine, respecting their autonomy and privacy.
At 39, Penélope cherishes her role as a mother, a vocation she always knew she would embrace.
"Ever since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted kids. But I knew I wanted them older. I wanted to wait until I felt I was ready. I was sure it would be the most important thing I would do in my life," she explained. She embraced motherhood at 36 and again at 39.
In her acting career, Penélope often portrays maternal figures. Her upcoming role in the biopic Ferrari sees her playing Laura Ferrari, a bereaved mother.
Reflecting on her roles, she observed: "At my age, 80 percent of the characters that I play will be about motherhood or divorce or abandonment or characters who didn’t want to have children or couldn’t or who lost children. I’ve played mothers since I was very young."
Her frequent collaborations with Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar have been significant. Penélope shared how Almodóvar recognized her nurturing instincts even before she became a mother.
"Pedro always saw me as a mother," she recounted. "He would watch me going to talk to strangers just to see their babies. He always saw that strong, inevitable instinct in me, and I saw him see it."
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