Penelope Cruz covers the May issue of Harper’s Bazaar, with a photo shoot done by Terry Richardson. Why oh why are magazines still hiring Uncle Terry? A question for another time. In any case, I do like the way Cruz is styled here. I’m getting a massive case of hair-envy – while I generally think my hair is pretty awesome already (Indian genes!), my hair never takes a curl. Just once, I would love to know the joy of these kinds of bouncy curls. Anyway, you can read Penelope’s Bazaar story here, and here are some highlights:

On her red carpet style: “All I look for is to be able to breathe!”

Penelope on Penelope: “One thing that I am proud of: I am really capable of laughing at myself,” she says. She’s bossy too. “I think you want a Coke, right,” she says, which means she wants a Coke. “And you definitely want more turkey baconnnn.”

On Woody Allen: “I love being around Woody. Watching him direct, and sometimes,” she whispers, “he falls asleep while they are lighting the next shot. I take pictures of him because he picks the strangest positions. I always think he is going to fall off his chair.” But it’s when he’s awake that Penélope says she loves Allen the most: “That whole shoot I laughed so hard.”

She’ll work less now that she’s a mom: “Maybe I’ll make one movie a year, maybe two, but it’s not going to be more than that because I have other priorities now.”

She lives in LA now, but maybe not for long: “When I come here now, I have so many memories,” Penélope says. “Some of them good, some of them not so good. I have lived beautiful moments here, but I don’t want to live here. It is not the place where I want to raise my kids.” Ask about Leonardo and she gives a diplomatic smile and declines to elaborate. “I talk about him all day long, even to strangers in the street; it is my favorite subject! But, you know; this is my job.”

Working as the face of Lancôme’s Trésor: “It was actually my first perfume,” she says. Penélope’s mother, who ran a beauty salon in Madrid, gave her the scent in her teens, and she always returns to it. “It’s a real history,” she says, “real memories that are related to this scent. It’s funny, after over 20 years….” Of working with the brand, she adds, “You arrive in this Lancôme world, and everything is full of white flowers, and everything smells good. You feel like you are walking on clouds, and then,” she says laughing, “you go home.”

She’s not a famewhore: “I won’t go to places where you’re going to find more attention. I go to the opposite.” Her perfect day is “running around with my family at the beach, that’s all.”

She’s stubborn: Ask Penelope how her family and friends would describe her and she replies: “Stubborn. Even my mother would say that as the first word!” She would describe herself as “persistent. It is my best friend and my worst enemy. And I don’t just mean fighting for something related to work; it could be anything. I have a strong personality, and I say what I think. I think I’ve been better about being a little more flexible.” Tell her she’s a no-bulls–t girl and she grins broadly. “That is the best compliment you can give me!”

She’s a worrier: Even though Penélope is remarkably direct and is effusive about “being happier in my 30s than I was in my 20s,” she also characterizes herself as a “worrier. I am living for every day and trying to have less fear, less worry. But I have always worried about everything; it’s in my nature. It’s the thing that makes me suffer the most.” It’s an unusual observation, coming from this force of nature, but life isn’t a red carpet all the time. “I don’t like that about myself because it’s really painful. That’s still my main thing to work on. When that is better and I am more in the present, I’m sure it affects my work. But it’s all like periods of your life: You are present, or you’re dealing with a house of monsters.”

She loves Meryl Streep: “When I first started watching movies and I saw Meryl’s work, that’s when I became obsessed with acting,” Penélope says. “Now I kiss her whenever I see her! She must think I’m crazy.” She recalls a magazine shoot they did together a few years ago for the AIDS charity (RED). “As soon as she got to the set, I had to sit topless on top of her. It was the most interesting love scene I’ve ever done.”

[From Harper’s Bazaar]

Yeah, it’s not some epic, revealing piece, nor is it some eye-roll-inducing litany of complaints and gripes. Penelope seems happy these days, but it wasn’t like she was “unhappy” before she was a mother. Back then, she was breezy and confident too, but she does seem different now. Peaceful. More assured. Motherhood does agree with her. And I still haven’t seen photos of Leonardo, right? They never released any formal photos of the baby, but there have been a couple of paparazzi shots of the baby – you can see one here. Leo looks super-happy. So cute.

Photos courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar.