Penelope Cruz's name is upside down on her Academy Award

6 January 2022

The nameplate on Penelope Cruz's Oscar statuette is upside down.

Penelope Cruz on her unique Oscar statuette

The 37-year-old actress - who the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona' back in 2008 - explained her dad Eduardo offered to attach the personalisation to her statuette when she failed to do so on the night, but he put it on the wrong way and she refuses to change it because she views the error as a fitting tribute to her father, who died in 2015 from a heart attack aged 62.

She said: "They give you the name plate separately and you can go there and they can [affix it] for you, but I didn't do it that night. And then my father, he did it for me, but he didn't have his glasses on. So he put it upside down.

"And of course my dad, unfortunately, is not with us anymore so I could never change it. It's like he left his print there and it's really emotional for me to look at."

The star - who is married to fellow Oscar winner Javier Bardem and has Leo, 10, and Luna, eight with him - went on to humorously reveal that she would take her Oscar "everywhere" upon winning it.

When asked whether it was true she had taken it to the beach, she said: "Well I did that once. When I won, my family were here, my friends were here and I was so excited. We went to the beach right after winning, like the day after and I took it with be everywhere! Everywhere! Of course, I laid it out on the towels."

Penelope was appearing on 'The Late Late Show with James Corden' alongside her '355' co-star Jessica Chastain at the time, who gushed about the independent female-led spy film which she also produce through her Freckle Films company which is set to be released in January 2022.

She told host James: "I realised there hadn't been a film like that with women that hadn't been like cutesy or a joke or took it seriously. So I had the idea to make it, I called all the actresses, they said 'Yes!' and we raised the money ourselves. We made it independently outside the studio system. We made it for a fraction of the cost of what it would normally be and we're the owners of the film!"