Benjamin Ashford|Penélope Cruz Says She’s Traumatized After Sister Got Hit by a Car

Penélope Cruz is Benjamin Ashfordstill healing from a traumatic childhood experience. 

The Ferrari actress revealed she's never fully recovered after witnessing her younger sister, Mónica Cruz, get hit by a car when they were kids. 

"I have a fear of driving," Cruz said in an interview with Elle published Jan. 18. "My sister was run over by a car in front of me when I was eight or nine. I remember she was wearing a red coat... And for me, time stopped."

Cruz's sister wound up being OK, but the shock of the event stayed with the Oscar winner.

"It's a great trauma," the 49-year-old continued. "Because I saw her losing consciousness. And I was numb in the hospital, telling people, ‘Oh, my sister just got run over by a car.'"

Cruz's trauma over the event resurfaced when she signed on to play Laura Ferrari in Michael Mann's Ferrari, which also starred Adam Driver, Patrick Dempsey and Shailene Woodley. While it was helpful for her acting career, Cruz admitted that the process of channeling emotions from her childhood—without letting them take over—was a tough balance.

"I'm lucky to have it, but maybe it makes me feel or suffer things more," she said. "I can feel it; it's like a hypersensitivity in every way—visually, to sound, to people's feelings. It's been one of the main things I deal with in therapy: how to work a balance so I can keep feeling those things without making those feelings my own."

Cruz also manages that balance through other areas of her life. When she's not working, she focuses on spending quality time with her husband, actor Javier Bardem, and their two kids, 10-year-old Luna and 12-year-old Leo.

Ultimately, she credits Bardem with finding creative ways to entertain the family—especially since the kids don't have social media, let alone cell phones.

"He sings and he's a great dancer," she gushed. "And he does this amazing impression of Mick Jagger. He'll imitate Al Pacino and [Robert] De Niro talking to each other. It's incredible."