Penelope Cruz has revealed that her name is upside down on her Oscar and the very personal reason why she has chosen not to change it.

The Spanish actress, 37, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in the Woody Allen directed movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona back in 2008.

Speaking to James Corden during an appearance on The Late Late Show, she explained how her father Eduardo had offered to personalise her statuette after she had failed to do so on the night, but accidentally put it on upside down.

While most would have got it changed, she decided to leave it that way as a tribute to her father who later died of a heart attack aged 62 in 2015.

“They give you the name plate separately and you can go there and they can [affix it] for you, but I didn’t do it that night. And then my father, he did it for me, but he didn’t have his glasses on. So he put it upside down,” she said.

“And of course my dad, unfortunately, is not with us anymore so I could never change it. It’s like he left his print there and it’s really emotional for me to look at.”

The star - who is married to fellow Oscar-winner Javier Bardem and shares children Leo, 10, and Luna, eight with him - went on to humorously tell how she would take her Oscar “everywhere” after she first won it.

When asked whether a story about her taking it to the beach was true, she confessed: “Well I did that once. When I won, my family were here, my friends were here and I was so excited. We went to the beach right after winning, like the day after and I took it with me everywhere! Everywhere! Of course, I laid it out on the towels.”