Penelope Cruz: I make half the number of films now I'm a mother

Penelope Cruz has said she has to “really look carefully” at roles before accepting them now she is a mother.

The Oscar-winning Spanish actress, 45, is married to fellow Spanish star Javier Bardem, 50, and they have two children, Leo, eight, and Luna, six.

Cruz said she now accepts only one or two films a year, compared with four or five before becoming a parent, and described it as a “natural change” at the premiere of Pain & Glory at Somerset House last night.

“Because I have two kids and they are young, I decide based on location and how much time [a film] will take,” she said.

“That’s why I take just one or two a year. For many years I was doing four or five a year. I cannot have that rhythm now that I am a mother.

“I want to be able to raise my children myself, so that makes the decision. You really have to really look carefully when you say yes to a film.”

Pain & Glory, which also stars Antonio Banderas, far right, sees Cruz reunited with Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, right, who directed her in Volver and All About My Mother.

She told Insider that Spanish film and TV talent is on the rise, adding: “You never know if you’re going to see more Spanish Oscar winners.”

Pain & Glory is out in UK cinemas on August 23.