Penélope Cruz might have starred in 2023’s sports film “Ferrari,” but won’t catch her behind the wheel.
In a new profile with ELLE, the actor opened up about her “fear of driving,” which she said stems from a traumatic event: when she was “eight or nine,” Cruz saw her sister get hit by a car.
“For me, time stopped,” Cruz said in the piece. “It’s a great trauma, because I saw her losing consciousness. And I was numb in the hospital, telling people, ‘Oh, my sister just got run over by a car.’”
While her sister survived the experience, the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star said she believes she “would have been hysterical” if the incident were to happen today.
The 49-year-old Spanish actor, who plays Enzo Ferrari’s wife Laura Dominica Garello Ferrari in the movie, went on to describe how even today, she experiences “hypersensitivity in every way — visually, to sound, to people’s feelings.”
But in a career where skillfully evoking feelings is a part of the job, Cruz said she’s “lucky” to be so in tune with her emotions, even though she admitted it makes her “feel or suffer things more.”
She added: “It’s been one of the main things I deal with in therapy: how to work a balance so I can keep feeling those things without making those feelings my own.”
Cruz wasn’t the only cast member in “Ferrari” who didn’t do any driving in Michael Mann’s sports thriller film.
Her co-star, Adam Driver, 40, who portrays the film’s titular character, said he didn’t actually get to use any of the luxury vehicles on set. Driver revealed the film’s production team “wouldn’t let me drive the cars for insurance reasons” at the Venice Film Festival in September where the film premiered.
“Ferrari,” which also stars Patrick Dempsey and Shailene Woodley, is in theaters.
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