Penélope Cruz Calls Meryl Streep Her ‘Number One Hero’: ‘Every Time I See Her I Run to Hug Her’

Penélope Cruz is a big fan of Meryl Streep.

At a recent BAFTA Life In Pictures event in London honoring Cruz, 49, the actor talked about her three decades of experience in the film industry and quoted Streep, 74, when asked who she most wanted to work with for the first time, according to Rok.

“Meryl Streep. I always ask my agents to take me to her set, just to get her coffee or something,” Cruz joked.

“Every time I see her, I run to her arms. And she’s so patient because every time I act like this is the first time,” she added, noting that she “couldn’t believe it” when Streep called her out in a speech after Streep accepted the Icon Award at the 3rd Annual Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles The prize is intended for “[celebrate] an artist whose career has had a significant impact on global culture,” reads the Academy’s press release.

“And I watched [Streep’s speech] twenty times to make sure,” Cruz told the London audience on Monday. “It was like he knew I existed, you know? She is my number one hero and I would love to work with her.”

All about the two children of Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem

Meryl Streep and Penélope Cruz January 23, 2010

Dimitrios Kambouris/Wireimage

Although Cruz and Streep have yet to make a film together, they once participated in a magazine shoot for AIDS charity (RED) that Cruz called “the most interesting love scene I’ve ever done” in 2012 until vanity fair.

“I kiss her every time I see her! She must think I’m crazy,” Cruz said of Streep at the time.

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Penélope Cruz and Meryl Streep January 25, 2009

Dimitrios Kambouris/Wireimage

Streep appeared at the Academy Awards’ gala ceremony on Sunday with her four children with ex Don Gummer: son Henry Wolfe Gummer, 44, and daughters Mamie Gummer, 40, Grace Gummer, 37, and Louisa Jacobson, 32. wife Tamryn Gummer and Grace’s husband Mark Ronson also accompanied the group.

Adam Driver enters the life of Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari in the first trailer for Michael Mann’s new film

Penélope Cruz and Meryl Streep February 22, 2009

Lester Cohen/WireImage

Cruz stars with Adam Driver, Shailene Woodley and Patrick Dempsey in upcoming racing biopic Ferraricentered on Ferrari car founder Enzo Ferrari in 1957. Cruz plays Ferrari’s wife Laura, who she said at the BAFTA event was one of Ferrari’s early investors, according to Deadline.

“She was a woman who lost a child to an illness and who also ended a relationship, and I saw that there was no sympathy for her,” she said of the role, as reported by the newspaper. “Probably because she was involved in the business and that was not welcome. In those years it was very difficult for a woman to have a voice in such a company… But I’m sorry, I feel this is still the case today in many places around the world .”

Ferrari it’s in theaters on December 25.

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Source: HIS Education