Washington, Nov 24: Spanish actress Penelope Cruz claims to have got her acting skills from her mother’s salon.

The multi-lingual star insists that she learned acting by watching women getting transformed in her mother’s hairdressing salon.

"I always say my first acting school was that salon” Contactmusic quoted her, as saying.

“All those women who'd go in looking for a transformation, trying to look more like the image they had of themselves. So many of them were playing characters,” she added.

The 33-year-old Academy Award nominated actress spent much of her childhood helping out at Encarna Cruz' salon in Madrid. (ANI)