Penélope Cruz has opened up about a frightening health scare that left her convinced she might be facing death.
The 52-year-old Spanish actress revealed she was once told doctors had detected a possible brain aneurysm while she was in the middle of filming The Black Ball.
The alarming news came just before Cruz was scheduled to shoot nighttime scenes in costume as a cabaret singer.
“We’re about to go out. I was putting on my wig, and they said, ‘Oh, apparently you have some brain aneurysm,’” Cruz recalled during an appearance at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Oscar-winning star admitted the shocking warning immediately sent her mind to the worst possible place.
“I thought I was about to die,” she said. “This is something that was totally surreal in my life.”
Despite the terrifying discovery, Cruz was eventually medically cleared to continue working. The actress said the experience left her feeling as though simply being able to move forward was a miracle.
“I thought, ‘It’s a total miracle. I have to, I must have this in me,’” she said.
Cruz also praised the film’s production team for supporting her as she tried to process the devastating possibility while continuing to perform.
“You experience these things together, yet despite all this, despite the hardship, you can move forward in life,” she said.
Thankfully, the suspected aneurysm turned out to be a false alarm.
“I have had many scares like that,” Cruz recently revealed. “Fortunately, I’m fine. It was a false alarm.”
Still, the ordeal appears to have permanently changed how the Vanilla Sky actress thinks about her health.
Cruz, who shares 15-year-old son Leo and 12-year-old daughter Luna with her husband, No Country for Old Men star Javier Bardem, said she now makes taking care of herself a major priority.
“I worry about staying healthy, taking care of myself,” she said. “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I really don’t party.”
“Without health, we have nothing.”
The actress has also become increasingly outspoken about the lack of medical research and funding devoted to health conditions that primarily affect women.
“It’s shocking that over decades, we’ve stuck to the same information about how women’s bodies work,” Cruz said.
“Look at funding for investigation into any illness that affects only women — we don’t get even half the investment. It is a level of control or suppression.”
Cruz, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2009 for her role in Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, said the frightening experience served as a powerful reminder that even the biggest Hollywood stars are not protected from sudden health scares.
Although she ultimately received good news, the actress admitted those terrifying moments left her deeply shaken — and more determined than ever to protect her health.
