The joint history of Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz began when he was 21 and she was 16. The two actors met during the filming of Jamón, jamón in 1992. They did not see each other again until many years later, when they shot Vicky Cristina Barcelona under Woody Allen’s direction in 2007, but as soon as they reunited, they knew they were meant to be together. Almost two decades later, the two are part of the select club of only six marriages that have been nominated for an Oscar in the same year, and the Spanish actor remains amazed by the fact that the Alcobendas-born Penélope Cruz is his wife.
“She is a woman I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to be with at the same time, in the same place, in life,” Javier Bardem said about Penélope Cruz on the cover of Variety, Hollywood’s Bible. “It is important to respect and support your partner, but also to admire that person for who they are, for what they do,” he adds in a surprising and romantic declaration of love.
If Penélope Cruz has a 2026 full of projects, Bardem’s schedule this year is also full. In addition to the imminent release of the remake of Cape Fear, at the end of the year Dune: Part III will be released, in which he will again portray the tribal leader Stilgar, a key ally of the troubled Paul Atreides, played by Timothée Chalamet. And he will reunite on the big screen once more with his wife in the thriller Bunker.
Married since 2010 and with two children, time does not seem to have left the slightest mark on their relationship. In the interview, Javier Bardem lavishes praise on the actress. Penélope is an incredible, beautiful and good person. In the way she relates to her family, to her friends, to our children, to me, to herself. Many years have passed and I have not seen a shred of malice in her. And on top of that she is damn gorgeous! When I see her photographed in some magazines, I think: “Is that my wife? God, is she? She has to be!”
Javier Bardem and the love for his family
During his conversation with Variety, the Spanish actor also spoke about his life as a parent alongside Penélope Cruz. According to him, the only thing he pays attention to when choosing his roles is that they do not keep him away for “more than two weeks from my family.” Since they both had their first child, one of them has always stayed at their Madrid home, where Bunker was shot. “At home we don’t talk much about work, although we love what we do. We try to separate life from fiction,” he adds about balancing his work and personal life.
Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, at a football match in Paris.
Bardem confesses in the interview that his eldest son, fifteen, did not have a mobile phone until a few months ago “without social networks, of course.” And about the education of their two children, he hopes they learn to be alone with themselves, and for that they have been taught to meditate. “We try to make them understand the importance of getting bored, of wasting time, of sitting and looking at the ceiling. The younger generation has less patience, less attention“.
The absence of his father, the businessman José Carlos Encinas Doussinague, and the memory of his mother, Pilar Bardem, also slip into the conversation. The actor’s parents had a stormy relationship that ended in an early separation, and it was she who had to raise his children alone. “My mother fought with all her strength to carve out a place in life and regain her dignity, and I admire her deeply. I admire her sacrifice, her love and her strength.”
The price to pay for voicing his opinion
The critique of toxic masculinity is another highlight of the interview with Javier Bardem. “We were educated in a culture that gave us everything we wanted, and we took for granted that we were much more powerful and had much more control. That we, as men, were the driving force,” says the Spanish actor, before adding that “that is absolutely wrong in every sense.”
Nor does he shy away from admitting that he has suffered “professional backlash” for his open support for Palestine. The Oscar winner for No Country for Old Men states that, just like Susan Sarandon, he has also lost jobs because of his opinions. “They were going to call you for that project, but not anymore. This brand was going to ask you for a campaign, but it can’t anymore. It’s okay. I live in Spain. American studios are not the only ones out there,” Bardem says in this regard, convinced that he has “the right to denounce what is wrong.”
