Madrid-born actress Penelope Cruz debuted a glamorous blonde bob on Monday for a new photoshoot with Vogue Spain, swapping her trademark glossy brunette locks for a retro transformation.
The 52-year-old star wore a simple white strapless dress to highlight her new hairstyle for the Spanish edition of the fashion magazine.
In other images from the feature, Cruz posed resting her leg on a chair wearing only a towel, accessorised with a sparkling diamond necklace. She also styled a black halterneck dress with a smoky eye for the cover shot, while an edgy look featured a black bodysuit visible under a sheer vinyl coat.
Tragedy during comedy filming
The new photoshoot comes after Cruz opened up earlier this summer about bonding with co-star Ben Stiller while filming the 2016 comedy Zoolander 2 after both actors lost a parent during production.
Cruz, who played a leading role in the comedy, was working a night shoot when her father died from a heart attack in the early hours of a Saturday morning.
Speaking to PORTER magazine, she recalled: "He died at two in the morning. Really young, a heart attack out of the blue. I remember being so close to passing out from the shock."
She was required to return to the set almost immediately. "On Monday morning, I had to be on set again, trying to make people laugh, shooting a comedy," she said.
Stiller experienced a similar loss shortly before Cruz lost her father. "Two weeks before that, the same thing had happened to Ben Stiller with his mom. The film couldn't stop for him, or for me. Every time I see Ben, I think, 'Wow, what we went through,'" Cruz added.
Health scare and medical funding
Cruz also spoke about a recent health scare of her own, when her doctor informed her that she had a suspected aneurysm. A ruptured aneurysm causes life-threatening bleeding into the brain, and the actress previously admitted she feared she was going to die before tests confirmed it was a false alarm.
"I have had many scares like that. Fortunately, I'm fine, it was a false alarm, but I worry about staying healthy, taking care of myself," Cruz explained. She added: "I don't drink, I don't smoke, I really don't party. Without health, we have nothing. You talk about real equality? Why don't we start with health?"
The Vicky Cristina Barcelona star expressed frustration over the lack of progress and investment in women's healthcare research.
"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."
Parenting styles and social media fears
Turning to family life, Cruz reflected on how she and her husband Javier Bardem approach raising their children. The couple married in 2010 and share a 15-year-old son, Leo, and a 12-year-old daughter, Luna.
"As parents, you have to work much harder to create the right atmosphere at home," Cruz said. "My parents had me so young that I grew up being able to talk to them about everything. I want the same thing in my relationship with my kids."
She emphasized the importance of open communication: "To create a safe environment where they feel that they can ask all the questions and share whatever they need to. And I will listen without judgement."
Cruz also expressed deep concern regarding the impact of online content on teenagers and young people.
"It is so difficult to be a teenager right now," she mused. "What the boys are being fed, what they are being tricked into thinking. It is a type of manipulation that confuses even adults. With teenagers or children, it is a very dangerous weapon."
Reflecting on her own youth, she added: "I remember puberty being a very challenging time for me. I don't know what my life would have been if, in that time, I had been given a phone with all the horrors of social media."
Promoting upcoming film project
Cruz is currently on the promotional trail for her latest movie, The Invite.
According to the IMDb synopsis, the film centers on married couple Joe, played by Seth Rogen, and Angela, played by Olivia Wilde, whose "marriage is on thin ice."
"When they invite their enigmatic upstairs neighbors for a dinner party, the night spirals into unexpected places," the synopsis states. Cruz stars alongside Edward Norton as the enigmatic upstairs neighbors, Pina and Hawk.
