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Antonio Banderas: For the Love of Acting
By : Celeste Rodas De Juárez
He is one of the few artists of his caliber who has been able to remain unfazed and unscarred by all the Hollywood glitz. He speaks English and Spanish with an exquisite Spanish accent—with an emphasis on the z’s and a lilting s. But what lends him his greatest charm is his amazing humility that immediately makes you feel at ease in his presence.
Thanks to box office hits like Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, Antonio Banderas began 2004 with his best foot forward. In addition to these worthy accomplishments, his successful Broadway season earned him a Tony nomination, an honor that goes well with his three Goya nominations (the equivalent of an Oscar in Spain). Instead of inflating his ego, though, all these accolades have lent his answers a refreshing humility.
Is getting an Oscar nomination your next goal, after your incredible success on both the big screen and Broadway?
I simply dream of what I already have: to see the excitement in the faces of the audience when they come to the theater to watch us perform. I don’t really believe in prizes and awards; maybe they’re what athletes dream about because of the objective nature of these prizes: whoever crosses the finish line first, wins. But in the entertainment industry that isn’t the case: someone might find your performance marvelous, while another person might totally dislike it. It’s very subjective, and sometimes those that should win awards aren’t even nominated.
Then, what do all these awards and honors mean to you?
I certainly wouldn’t be upset if I won an award. Who would be upset with winning a prize? What I’m trying to say is that it’s not something I dream about. It doesn’t upset me to have been nominated three times for a Goya and a Tony and not have won; I don’t lose any sleep over it. And it’s not my goal either, because I’ve never been one to say: ”I’m going to work towards winning an Oscar.” I perform because I love seeing the audience’s reaction, and I like being able to communicate a message through my work. I simply love to act—it’s in my blood.
In 2003 you starred in Once Upon a Time in Mexico, which is set in a country where you’ve filmed various movies. Why the fascination with Mexico?
I’ve filmed six movies there, and I always love going to Mexico—not only for the country’s idiosyncrasies but because of the language as well. It’s very comforting to go to a place where your own language is spoken. In regards to Once Upon a Time in Mexico, it was especially appealing to me because of the directors, producers and actors I had a chance to work with. It was a great experience, and I haven’t even mentioned the storyline!
It seems as if you’re always on theater marquees. Do you think you’re one of the hardest working actors in Hollywood?
I’m not really sure, but I’m not concerned with that.
Why do you have such a desire to be constantly in action?
I really like working. It’s like people who love skiing—they try to be on the slopes as often as possible. And for those who love motorcycles, there’s hardly anything that can get them off of them. I act because I’m fascinated with acting. It’s more than a job—it’s my hobby.
Speaking of hobbies, I read somewhere that when you were younger, you had a couple of serious accidents because of your passion for motorcycles…
Yes, I had many accidents, but fortunately none that were really serious. The worst one was when I hurt my leg badly and was limping around for a couple of weeks. But not even that kept me from continuing to ride motorcycles. Recently, Melanie gave me one for my birthday, and now I have three: a Harley Davidson 1500, a Honda 750 Black Widow and a Moto Guzzi California Special.
When you directed Crazy in Alabama, people thought that you would divide your time between acting and directing, but that hasn’t been the case. How come?
I haven’t given up on the idea. I’ll continue to direct in the future. Directing is a very personal thing for me, and it’s important that I find scripts that interest me. When I’m acting, I don’t become involved from an ideological point of view with my characters. If I play a serial killer, that is very removed from who I am, but I don’t feel the same way if I’m directing, though. I’m currently working on a couple of scripts that are very interesting; one is based on a novel and the other on a historical event. I still consider myself young, and I’m confident that I’ll have time to direct many other interesting projects in the future.
In regards to your Broadway debut, what made you want to conquer such a difficult realm?
Theater is where I came into my own as an actor. Very few people know about that part of my life, because in the United States people know me from my characters in Philadelphia, The Mask of Zorro and Evita. I began acting in the theater in Spain and made a name for myself. I had never performed onstage before in this country because I thought I wasn’t sufficiently fluent in English—especially for Broadway—but the director convinced me and the critics just loved it. All the seats were filled during the entire run of the show, and in over 1,500 performances, there was not one single time when the audience did not honor us with a standing ovation.
Straying from your professional life, how do you juggle the demands of a family and your busy work schedule?
Just fine. My younger kids—Stella and Dakota—and my wife accompanied me to New York when I was working on Broadway. Our kids always travel with us wherever we go. But with the oldest one, Alexander, it’s different. He has to fly back and forth because he’s 19 years old and he’s working on his thesis with his friends. Even though I’m not Dakota and Alexander’s biological father, I still perform all the parental duties. I respect the fact that they have their own fathers, but we’ve set up certain rules and we all get along well.
What do you all do when you’re together?
Wow! Staying at home and watching them play is a treat for me! Just having them close by makes me very happy. I especially love the times we can all be together like Christmas and the summertime. We have a house in Marbella—because I was born in Málaga—and it’s a place where we enjoy spending our summers, along with my parents and siblings. There we do lots of water sports, and during the winter we go skiing in Colorado. I enjoy doing sports immensely. I don’t like going to the gym because I think it’s silly to workout while constantly looking at yourself in the mirror. I prefer to do lots of physical activities with my family.
And finally, where do you see yourself in five years? Should we expect to see Antonio Banderas coming out with an album or a musical career in the near future?
In regards to singing, you could say that I am an actor that can also sing. I did so in movies like Desperado and Evita, but my thing is acting. I might eventually do an album related to a theatrical production, but it’s something that I haven’t given much serious thought to. It’s also true that I compose lyrics and have a recording studio in Los Angeles, and I play the piano and the guitar…Well, the truth is that I might give it a try just to say that I did it, but I wouldn’t want to be considered a sort of male J.Lo. Now about the future, I don’t like to look ahead to what I’ll be doing in five years, or even three years from now. I always live in the present. I don’t know…I suppose I’ll keep working and I will do things well (or try to do them), while adhering to my motto: to try to have fun.
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