Penelope Cruz admits she worries too much.

The 37-year-old 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona' star - who has one-year-old son Leonardo with husband Javier Bardem - says that although she is getting happier with age, her anxious side continues to bother her.

She said: "[I am a] worrier. I am living for every day and trying to have less fear, less worry. But I have always worried about everything; it's in my nature. It's the thing that makes me suffer the most.

"I don't like that about myself because it's really painful. That's still my main thing to work on. When that is better and I am more in the present, I'm sure it affects my work. But it's all like periods of your life: You are present, or you're dealing with a house of monsters."

The Oscar-winning actress has cut back on her workload since becoming a mother and insists that's the way she intends to keep it.

She told Harper's Bazaar: "Maybe I'll make one movie a year, maybe two, but it's not going to be more than that because I have other priorities now."

As Spanish natives, she and Javier split their time between Madrid and Los Angeles, although Penelope is certain that she does not want to raise her children in Hollywood.

She added: "When I come here now, I have so many memories. Some of them good, some of them not so good.

"I have lived beautiful moments here, but I don't want to live here. It is not the place where I want to raise my kids."