Penélope Cruz Strips for 'Esquire U.K.' and Talks About The Nude Scene She Thought Would End Her Career

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Penélope Cruz sheds her clothes for the cover of the latest issue of Esquire U.K., and bares other revealing details. The Spanish actress sat down with the men’s magazine to discuss her latest role as Donatella Versace in the FX Network’s forthcoming The Assassination of Gianni Versace.

In the interview, the Oscar winner discussed her very first nude scene in director Pedro Almodóvar’s 1992 classic film Jamón Jamón, which she believed would torpedo her career. “Of course I was not looking forward to those scenes but I did it. Everyone was really respectful, aware of the fact that I was 18,” the 43-year-old said. “I remember the last day of filming, I was crying, saying: ‘What if I never shoot a movie again? The feeling was devastating.'”

She shared the steamy scenes with her future husband Javier Bardem with whom she has two children, Leo, 6, and Luna, 4. In one sexy clip, a hunky 23-year-old Bardem is bullfighting naked under a full moon before getting frisky with the teen actress on a pool table at a local bar.

As reported by Esquire U.K., Bardem once said of their initial spark: “There was obvious chemistry between us,” he said. “I mean, it’s all there on film; it’s like a document of our passion. One day we’re going to have to show the kids — imagine! ‘Mummy, Daddy, what did you do in the movies together?’ Well, my children, you should celebrate this movie as you’re here because of it.”

The stunning couple, who costarred in Woody Allen’s comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona in 2008, showed their on-screen magic again in the newly released Loving Pablo, which is based on the love life of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.

Since that auspicious beginning, Cruz has become a silver screen sex goddess in films such as To Rome with Love and Blow, and a highly esteemed actress for roles in Nine, Volver and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, for which she won an Academy Award.

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For her latest turn as Donatella Versace, the native-Spanish speaker told the magazine Versace’s accent was tough to master: “It’s a lot of dialogue, in my second language, but with [Donatella’s] accent, which is Italian….I speak Italian. But still, it was a big challenge.” In the newly released trailer for The Assassination of Gianni Versace, which is set to air sometime in 2018, a platinum blonde Cruz somberly kisses and walks up the steps of the infamous Miami mansion where her brother was killed.