Penelope Cruz reveals she turned down her first big break in America after discovering she had to undress for sex scenes

Penelope Cruz has candidly discussed her own experiences as a young actress in Hollywood.

The Spanish star, 49, revealed she turned down her first big break in America when she was 20 years old after discovering she had to undress for sex scenes.

She has since filmed steamy sex scenes with Emile Hirsch in the 2012 drama Twice Born.

Speaking on the Five Things With Lynn Hirschberg podcast, Penelope explained: ‘The first time I had to do a casting, the director said, “You have to sign this clause that says you’re going to do some sex scenes”‘.

‘I was very shocked by that, because it had not been in the script before. I was alone in LA and I said, ‘I don’t understand it, because I had this script for a year and it wasn’t there”.

She continued, “I didn’t like that game, I didn’t like that I wasn’t told anything before I got on that fourteen-hour flight.

“I said, ‘No, I’m not signing.’ They said, ‘Okay, you’re not doing the screen test.’ I went into the room speaking very little English, but for some reason I was able to speak English that day.

“I said, ‘Listen, the values ​​my parents taught me mean a lot to me and this is a test. It’s not right or wrong to do those scenes. The problem is the ethical issue that you didn’t tell me before I got on the plane and you sent me another script. But I want to take the test for the script you sent me a week earlier.”

‘I knew from their faces that they would let me do the screen test, because they knew what I said was true.

“And I knew I wasn’t going to get the movie because the director was very angry that I hadn’t signed.”

Penelope claims it was the best decision she ever made: ‘It was a power thing and I had no power, but I had my dignity and my values. It was very sad. I remember on the flight back to Spain I knew I had done the right thing.

“It was the time in my life when I was most proud of something I had done in my career.”

She added, “I had to do other scenes that were love scenes or sex scenes, nothing hardcore, but at that time I wasn’t ready and it was a proud moment for me.

‘It made me best friends with myself. I didn’t get the part and I didn’t care.’

It comes after Penelope made rare comments about her sister Monica, who looks exactly like her.

The Oscar-winning star, together with her 46-year-old sister, has designed a capsule collection for Geox for spring or summer next year.

When asked if she and her sister influenced each other’s style, Penelope said, “Yes, a lot, to the point where, you know, you take a lot of clothes from each other’s closets.”

“Sometimes we wore the exact same thing when we were little girls.”

Cruz then said that she and Mónica would “hide in the bathroom together and sit on the floor with magazines and draw on top of the designs and change the designs.”

Cruz – who used to date Tom Cruise – added: “So that was always our main game and a fantasy.”

Monica looks so much like Penelope that she replaced her during scenes for Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in 2010.

Penelope then talked about the brand and had the opportunity to work with her sister on something they are so passionate about.

She said: ‘I’m also very grateful to be able to create another collection with my sister, because we’ve done this on and off for the last twenty years, with different brands.

‘It’s something that happens again and again here and there. So we’re very grateful as we continue to learn from these great brands.”

The sisters previously designed a collection of jewelry and handbags for the Japanese fashion house Samantha Thavasa.

Cruz and her sister created two collections for Swiss retailer Charles Vögele in 2010 and 2011.

The Spring/Summer 2011 collection, entitled Biaggini Violett, became available in Europe.

The pair collaborated again in 2013 to design a lingerie line titled L’Agent for British lingerie store Agent Provocateur.

She also modeled for Agent Provocateur’s Fall/Winter 2012-2013 campaign.

In November 2012, the sisters signed a three-year endorsement deal with Spanish luxury fashion house Loewe, appearing in advertising campaigns and designing a handbag for the brand.

In 2018, she launched a jewelry collection titled Rock Star for Majorica.

Monica is a Spanish actress and dancer.

She appeared in the films The Inquiry, Last Hour, Jerry Cotton and Iron Cross.

Cruz also said she believes her zodiac sign is the most important factor in her fashion decisions.

When Stylist asked the actress if creativity or comfort were more important to her outfits, Penelope said her style choices are often written in the stars.

The Vanilla Sky star – born on April 28, 1974 and a Taurus – said: ‘It’s a combination. As a good Taurus, we are very visual, so we admire beauty.

‘The combination of that with comfort.

‘Especially, I think, if you have children. My life revolves around them all day long and so does my work, which I think will be very important.

‘Of course I’ll always love heels, but it’s not my everyday life, you know.

‘I am very happy with the sneakers we have designed [for Geox]. I think they’re cool, but they’ll be very comfortable.”

The 49-year-old actress has a son Leo, 12, and a daughter Luna, 10, with her husband Javier Bardem.