Cruz To Reduce Workload

The star adopted a strict work ethic as a young woman training to be a ballerina - and she carried that discipline into her acting career, refusing to take any time off for herself.

But she now feels ready to take time off to enjoy her life, and only agree to star in projects she feels are special.

She says, "It (working) was what I wanted to do. But now I feel differently. You get chronically tired. I don't want to feel like that. Growing up, learning classical ballet is a very disciplined thing. A lot of my relationship to the world came from the years I danced.

"If your feet are bleeding you have to carry on dancing and smiling. You think it's normal. Then you take that attitude to whatever your work is."

Cruz's admission comes amid reports she is expecting a baby with her boyfriend and Vicky Cristina Barcelona co-star Javier Bardem.

She says over the last two years she has created "a much better equilibrium between work and time for my life. I can rest, go travelling, have time to do nothing. Before I might take 15 days off in a year and try to leave my BlackBerry in my room to please my family.

"The turning point was when I realised I was measuring the years going by according to whatever the films were I was working on, the countries I was shooting in. I was a total workaholic. I think that's what I needed to do then. Now I can work, but I'm not on movie sets the whole year. I can say no until there is something I really need to do."