In July 2021, Javier Bardem’s mother, Pilar Bardem, died in Madrid of lung disease, Deadline reported, at age 82. Javier’s wife, Penélope Cruz, shared a touching tribute for her mother-in-law on Instagram. “You were always so good to me,” Cruz wrote in part (as translated by Deadline). “I couldn’t have dreamed of having a better mother-in-law. Thank you for all the love that you’ve given us, your children, grandchildren, family, and friends.”
The legacy of his mother continues to impact Javier, even as an actor, since she also knew the terrain, and he still relies on his mother as a guiding light. “Every decision I make now, I think: ‘Would this make my mother proud?’ And if not, I immediately reject it,” Javier told The Guardian that December. “That’s a powerful legacy to leave, but she was a very powerful person.”
The reason that Javier leans on his mother still for her creative inspiration is because he knew how hard she had to work to be an actor, especially as a woman and a single parent in Spain. The dedication to the art form also came with stigma at the time. “In 1960s Spain, it was a very hard time to be a woman, especially divorced with three kids and an actress,” Javier noted to The Guardian. “You were referred to as a prostitute.” So if his mother could stay dedicated to acting despite these hurdles, Javier knew he had no excuse and used the art as a legacy to her memory.
