They First Met On A Movie Set In 1992, But It Took 15 Years And A Second Film For Javier Bardem And Penélope Cruz To Realize They Were Soulmates. Now, They’re Hollywood’s Most Private Power Couple! ❤️🎬✨

Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz had a connection from the moment they met, but it wasn’t until years later that they finally began a relationship.

While speaking with Gentleman’s Journal to promote his Netflix series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, Bardem, 55, reflected on first meeting his wife Cruz, 50, while she photographed him in their home in Madrid for the magazine’s cover.

“She was 17, and I was 22,” Bardem said of meeting Cruz on 1992’s Spanish-language Jamón Jamón. “It was her first movie; one of my first movies. A big movie. We met on the wardrobe test, where we looked at each other, and I guess something happened. Something that doesn’t have any explanation and goes beyond logic and reasoning.”

“But, back in the day, we had different lives, different objectives, aims and goals. Yet, something was there — an energy, a chemistry, a way to rely on each other as human beings,” he recalled. “And that stayed for so long, even though we didn’t see each other or speak to each other for many years.”

Roughly 15 years later, Cruz and Bardem reconnected both professionally and romantically while making Woody Allen‘s 2008 movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona. The pair later made their first official public appearance together as a couple at the 2010 Goya Awards and were married July 13, 2010, in the Bahamas.

“We realized that the feeling was still alive. Very alive,” Bardem said of reconnecting with Cruz on Vicky Cristina Barcelona. “To our surprise! But it happened that we were both single at that moment, so naturally what had to happen happened — two people reconnected because they shared tons of things, way more than they expected.”

“But we also shared that we met each other and knew each other before all of the noise, before success and before anybody saw us with different eyes because of who we now were, what we had become,” Bardem added. “And that’s an important base, to rely on someone because you know them for real, and they know you for real. You see me, I see you. That’s important.”

Cruz and Bardem share two children: son Leo, 13, and daughter Luna, 11. The acting duo (both are Oscar winners) have also costarred in movies like The Counselor, Everybody Knows and Loving Pablo, among others over the years.

Cruz most recently appeared on the big screen in 2023’s Ferrari, while Bardem costarred in this year’s Dune: Part Two before portraying Jose Menendez in the new Netflix true-crime series.