Penélope Cruz Is Excited to Turn 50 and Doesn't Worry About Aging

Penélope Cruz is already looking forward to throwing a birthday party in April. The actress, who is turning 50, thinks the milestone is something to be celebrated — and is not afraid of discussing her age (even though it has bothered her in the past).

"You know why I don’t worry about that? Because people have been asking me about age since I was twentysomething," she said in a new interview with Elle. "I was more bothered then than now. Now, it makes more sense, to discuss turning 50. It’s a huge, beautiful thing, and I really want to celebrate that with all my friends. It means I’m here and I’m healthy, and it’s a reason to have a party.

"But when I was 25, they would ask me these psychotic questions, things you would not believe, and the only weapon I would have was not to answer," she recalled. "Even now, on the red carpet, when they shout to ‘turn around,’ I always pretend I didn’t hear what they said.”

Cruz will also most likely ring in the big 5-0 alongside her husband and fellow actor Javier Bardem and their two kids, Luna and Leo, though, they are known for keeping their family life under wraps. Part of maintaining that privacy is keeping their children off social media (they don't even have phones).

"It’s so easy to be manipulated, especially if you have a brain that is still forming. And who pays the price? Not us, not our generation, who, maybe at 25, learned how a BlackBerry worked," she said. "It’s a cruel experiment on children, on teenagers.”

Even though Luna and Leo have plenty of time to decide (they're 10 and 12 , respectively), she has no plans to steer them in the direction of performing. “It’s for them to decide if they are going to have a job that is more exposed to the public or not," she said. "They can talk about that when they’re ready.”