Penélope Cruz reveals she’s had ‘many’ brain aneurysm scares: ‘Without health, we have nothing’

Mekishana PierreTue, July 7, 2026 at 2:42 PM UTC

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Penélope CruzCredit: Pascal Le Segretain/GettyKey Points -

Penélope Cruz has opened up about how recent brain aneurysm scares have made her examine her health more closely than ever before.

“Without health, we have nothing,” the actress asserted in a recent interview. “You talk about real equality? Why don’t we start with health?”

The actress also shared how her recent role in the Olivia Wilde-helmed A24 film The Invite emphasized the importance of honoring female health concerns.

Penélope Cruz is opening up about how recent medical scares have made her examine her health more than ever before.

Two months ago, the actress revealed that while filming the upcoming drama film La Bola Negra (The Black Ball), she was warned of a potential brain aneurysm on the eve of production’s night-shoot scenes in which her character, a cabaret singer, performs for soldiers. Cruz completed her scenes after receiving medical clearance the next day, but the experience was sadly far from a foreign one for the Spanish star.

“I have had many scares like that,” Cruz revealed in an interview with Net-a-Porter published Monday. “Fortunately, I’m fine, it was a false alarm. But I worry about staying healthy, taking care of myself. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I really don’t party.”

Penélope CruzCredit: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty

The point has been a particular note of contention for Cruz after working on her other 2026 release, the Olivia Wilde-helmed A24 film The Invite, a remake of Spanish movie The People Upstairs by Cesc Gay.

The film follows the lives of two neighboring couples played by Wilde, Seth Rogen, Cruz, and Edward Norton. Cruz’s character Pína is a therapist who, along with her partner, ends up propositioning Wilde and Rogen for group sex. While the situation may be played for laughs, Cruz shared that she took the opportunity to honor the vastness of the female experience, specifically pointing out a scene in which Pína talks about perimenopause.

“[The scene] was not in the script. I wanted to bring that to her,” Cruz explained. “We were sitting around the table for 10 hours a day, the four of us actors with the two writers [Will McCormack and Rashida Jones]. It was a really intense, beautiful time. I proposed that speech because I felt like, if we really want her to be a good therapist and sexologist, she’s going to understand about female hormones, the effect on the brain. I said: ‘If she is going to talk about sex, she has to talk about this.’”

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The moment spoke to Cruz’s lament about how exploring the medical plights of women is rarely prioritized. “It’s shocking that over decades, we’ve stuck to the same information about how women’s bodies work,” she declared. “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.”

“Without health, we have nothing,” the actress asserted. “You talk about real equality? Why don’t we start with health?”

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Before it was released in theaters on June 26, The Invite had its world premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in January — during which the audience gave the movie an enthusiastic standing ovation, an uncommon response at the festival. “The standing ovation was very well deserved,” festival director Kim Yutani told Wilde as she came on stage for a post-screening Q&A.

When asked about balancing the film’s humor and dramatic tones, Wilde said, “I heard a wise person say you’re never as vulnerable as when you’re laughing. And I think that the great thing about this script was it allowed us to take people on that journey, to let them laugh, let them relax, and then just gut-punch them with divorce.”

The Invite is now playing in theaters.

on Entertainment Weekly

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