With 35 years of career behind him, it was neither his first interview nor will it be the only one, but it was probably one of the most special. Last weekend, Penelope Cruz visited Jordi Sabatéthe YouTuber who suffers from ALS and has launched a charity podcast, the profits of which go to research into the disease that has him bedridden. The actress has kept her promise and has answered all the questions of the man she already considers her friend: “I’m so happy to be here with you at last. We knew each other, but this is the first time we’ve been together this close. It’s a very important day for me, thank you for letting me stay at your house.”
Cruz has confessed that she was not an easy child and that she was always in the clouds: “They say I was a bit difficult, that I behaved quite badly, especially in the first years, that I was a good student, although I didn’t study much. They called me ‘Antoñita la Fantástico’, I spent a lot of time, one or two hours every night, imagining things for the future.” Her adolescence was not a bed of roses for her parents either: “I was very shy but I was very responsible and I wanted to combine my studies with dancing. I danced classically, I danced for 18 years, and I combined that with theatre, I did castings… I experienced a burnout crisis. My body and mind told me I had to stop.“.
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Penelope remembers that she had to choose between acting and dancing. The decision is well known to everyone and not only gave her one of the most admired careers in the world of Spanish acting but also the love of her life: “I have known him for 33 years and he is amazed when I tell him: ‘When you entered that room where we were meeting with people from the film and production people, I already knew that we were going to be together, that we were going to have a family.” It was during the preparation of the film Jamón, jamón: “I knew it at that moment, and I can’t explain why. You just know, it’s stronger than you, than your thoughts. I said: ‘Here is the person I’m going to share my life with.'”
The Oscar-winning actress also praised her parents, whose work she values more than ever after becoming a mother to two children, Leo and Luna: “They had me when they were very young. They were 21, both me and my brothers, when you have such young parents you feel a bit indebted because there is a part of their youth that they never experienced… They gave us everything in years when it was more difficult. They didn’t have an easy time getting us through. They have taught us very important values that I try to instil in my children.” She added: “My father is a shame, he left us too soon and too suddenly at the age of 62. And my mother is still there in very good health, with an impressive mind. She is a force of nature, she is a very special woman who I look forward to introducing you to.”
A tender friendship
The relationship between Penelope and Jordi came to the fore last February, when the actress, a guest on El Hormiguero, received a message from the YouTuber that moved her to tears: “An impressive person has come into my life that I can’t get out of my head, Jordi Sabaté Pons. I started talking to him, we have become friends, although we have not met in person. He makes his videos and tells you that he cannot breathe, he breathes through a tube, he eats through a tube, he cannot speak, he is lying down, he is totally dependent on the care of others. He can move his eyes and he has the most beautiful eyes in the world, they transmit hope and the desire to fight,” she said then. “I started talking to him, we have become friends although we do not know each other in person but I will go to Barcelona to give him a hug.”
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