Donatella Versace Young: See How Penelope Cruz Compares!

Over the years, Donatella Versace has become a PSA on what not to do when it comes to plastic surgery. However, the fashion designer has not always looked like a bronzed wax figure. Before going under the knife, the now 62-year-old had a youthful glow about her — and it wasn’t just because of her obsession with tanning beds. Donatella has never been outspoken about her rumored cosmetic procedures, but she did open up about her beauty routine in 2013.

“I’m not like this genetically,” she said at the Vogue Festival. “I use tons of cream and take care of my hair and skin.” She went on to admit to Botox, but “only on my face,” adding, “I stopped working with a personal trainer as he wouldn’t let me smoke.”

Penélope Cruz looks exactly like Donatella Versace young.

Penélope Cruz is starring alongside Édgar Ramírez as Donatella and her late brother Gianni Versace in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, which premiered Jan. 17, 2018. While many were surprised by the casting of the Spanish beauty as Donatella, throwback pics prove there are some striking similarities between the famous women. Wearing a blonde wig, Penélope is almost a mirror image of Donatella from the late ’90s. Fans blew up Twitter after photos of Penélope on set surfaced, and many could not get over the uncanny resemblance.

donatella versace penelope cruz getty, splash — Getty Images, Splash

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“Penélope Cruz as Donatella Versace is bomb AF,” one fan wrote, while another added, “How stunning is Penélope Cruz as Donatella Versace?” A third chimed in, “Penélope Cruz playing Donatella Versace is just the most correct thing I’ve seen in a very long time.”

Yet not everyone agreed with the casting. A fourth commented, “Penélope Cruz should never have been casted [sic] to play Donatella Versace. A Spanish woman trying to act with an Italian accent?! What were they thinking?” Ouch. Sorry, buddy — it sounds like your opinion is outnumbered!

Check out the gallery below for more photos of Donatella before plastic surgery, looking young and glamorous!

1996

"We were really dangerous. During that time, in the 1990s, you were allowed to do everything, there were no limits," Donatella said of her frienship with Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss. "Or at least we used to think so. We did everything you could imagine. Parties, events, it was a lot of fun at that time, but then at a certain point I started thinking about my life. I wondered, 'What am I doing? What's my future?'"

1996

It was Gianni who reportedly encouraged Donatella to dye her hair blond at the age of 11.

“Back then Gianni was so obsessed with Pravo, an iron-straight-haired ‘blond,’ that he persuaded 11-year-old Donatella to dye her own hair just like his heroine,” wrote Ingrid Sischy in VERSACE by Donatella Versace with Maria Luisa Frisa and Stefano Tonchi.

1997

Following Gianni Versace's death, Donatella revealed she almost quit fashion.

"I didn't want nothing to do with fashion anymore because of the pain and I thought fashion would not exist without my brother," she told Time magazine in 2008. "… I continue to fight for the Versace brand to be alive, to survive, and to be better and better, so that made me find the strength to go on."