Javier Bardem Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

the first text that i received when dune second movie was announced it was a text from senior in the desert and i i can't wait to work with him hi gq this is javier bardem and these are some of my as they say iconic characters i don't think that they're so iconic but anyway that's what they asked me to say not getting any rain up here away what way would that be i've seen you was from dallas what is necessity of yours where i'm from friend though the challenge was to create this person who would feel nothing he will follow his own ethics no matter what and he will do it against his own will i guess that's the crazy part like if something beyond his control or over him is telling him how to act and still we don't know what it is as an actor that's the world that i kind of created for myself to i get justify anton shiger's actions because in the book he's not described as well he comes he destroys he disappears so you have to really understand a little bit of what's going on in your mind in order to execute those horrible actions like for example in the gas station scene i was always thinking that there was a superior voice and order that was making a decision through me call it so this is not something personal against that person or that person is like there are things that must be done in terms of create a better world which he thinks is a better world and in this case it's a world where people don't marry into businesses they own or they earn their own businesses so when he says that he it was his father's shop he says so you marry into it that is a change it's like wow that's not good and so it's unexpected but that's also part of the karma mccarthy words and cohen brothers brilliant script i need to know what i stand to win everything how's that you just tend to win everything call it i don't know because i didn't have any interaction with any of them i was just killing people constantly i had a scene with woody harrelson which it was a fun moment because with such adorable fun caring loving guy an amazing actor and we had a blast doing that scene but josh brolin which i adore admire respect and really worship him as a man as an actor and as a human being really helped me so much on a personal level in that movie because i was going through a hard time and uh and he really rescued me out of it like with his humor and with his care and attention and presence it was the last thing i would like to do in that moment kill him so i had to make a big effort to try to put my face into killing uh legally mosh because uh personally i love and i adore the guy i think silva is a man that is a very is very good at making everybody uncomfortable and insecure and unstable and not sure really what what his agenda is at any level personally physically sexually mentally conveniently but i remember one meeting with sam mendes which is an amazing director a joy and a gift to work with we sit down and we reinforce that idea of how can we unstable mr james bond everything has been done already and we said well what about the physicality what about the sexuality what about making sure that he really doesn't know what to grasp we reinforce that side of him which is beyond any gender or any sexual orientation is more about a person who likes to play games and it's hard to define see what she's done to you well she never tied me to a chair her loss i love playing that role because he was it was a chance to really play a villain in a james bond movie and that gives you the freedom to try different things but always in the frame of reality because sam mendes is behind the camera he wants those characters to be real and to be honest and to be realistic but within that you can play around and try different things and sam was welcome every suggestion and i love the seeing where the presentation of the character in the elevator was a pretty tough one to learn because it's kind of scary to do that at entrance but both sam and daniel were so supportive and so helpful in in me getting the confidence enough that i needed to to play this scene and it happened to be one of the best james bond's movies of all time because all the elements the story the characters the conflict the visuals the lining the directorial work everything works into place and makes a great movie beyond the gender of james bond it's a great great movie in itself before nightfalls was my first american movie my first real main role shot in english and i didn't know much english at the time it's not that i know a lot now as you can tell but back in the day 201999 uh i was 30 years old i'm 52 years old now and it was a great chance that julian schnabel gave me to portray and to play this amazing complex role and i loved it i was immediately in love with with rinaldo's i started to read the books there was a time where there was no such thing as google you have to go to the libraries and find the books and read the books and talk to the people that knew him and do different research that you would do today so that you can do the same or even more from the house of the day you have to go to places and meet people and and i love that process there was also a sexual revolution going on that came along with excitement of the official revolution but the drums of militarism were still trying to beat down the rhythm of poetry and life i remember being super focused on trying to do my best in a foreign language and kind of unaware that it was going to be a movie that it was going to actually be seen by people i thought always like it was kind of an experiment okay i'll try to see if i can actually perform in a foreign language let's see how this thing goes and all of a sudden it opened and the movie was seen and it was very well received and it got me absolutely by surprise but it opened the doors to for me to work outside spain which is a great thing to to have because the more opportunities you have the better for sure if you keep writing this you are not going to get very far i'm going to give you five minutes to make up your mind johnny depp he plays two characters in the movie i remember him being very easy very nice very funny very accessible very generous especially in the second scene with uh with when he plays a lieutenant that we shot in julian's house actually he did this little set in his house and we shot it there where ronaldo is taking a prisoner by him and he has these ideas from our imaginations about the sexuality of this lieutenant it might take a queer more than five minutes to make up his mind while watching this handsome lieutenant stroke his magnificent organ and then it mixes with the reality of the situation where he's going to be very much punished for being anti-revolutionary a writer and especially a gay person that scene took a whole day and i loved playing with him i could tell that he was so easy so soft so flexible like nothing it was a dance i love i love working with him yeah usball beautiful beautiful is a movie that comes to me uh right after the oscar winning right yes when you win an oscar your ground shakes a little bit like okay what's what's next no and i wanted to really go back and work in my own language and they have the the luck to have alejandro gonzalez which is one of the best directors ever to offer me this role and it was very intense it is a very intense story with a very intense character that happened to be the first time he was working with one character alone rather than three stories with three different characters like he used to do and so we both took the responsibility of holding the the dramatic circumstances of this character for so long and it was for sure one of the most demanding stories and characters i've ever played but i'm very proud of what we did we climbed the mountain and and it's a movie about a father who really has lost almost everything and wants to make sure that uh his children learn what is the word empathy empathy for the ones that are even in worse conditions that we are the ones that we are afraid because they are different empathy for those who don't have anything and even if you are not in the position where you can share a lot at least share what you got and that will make you and that person happier than if you don't [Music] well it's one of those stories that alejandro aminab our great director and a beautiful man called me and i was like i was i was 32 and the guy was 55 when he died 56 so i was like i don't know if i can really uh be that person are you sure and we took the risk so let's try it let's let's try it but one thing for sure that i know that i knew and i guess he knew is that the script the material that he wrote it was beautifully put together it was emotional it was intelligent and it was cinematographic and he was going to be also entertaining but especially very deeply emotional touching for the audience so i relate on that it's okay i just have to follow the story i asked have to follow him he's a great director and i'll try to get as close as i can to ramon san pedro without imitating him that's one of the things that i learned which is you can get close to the real person to a to a certain point to a certain extent because otherwise you're going to get lost or i would get lost in the imitation of it all hello i have to spend a good four hours on the makeup i was going to say chair on the makeup bed because the makeup has to be done while i was laying down because that's what we will be seeing for camera four hours on the bed shooting for 10-12 hours on the bed going back home to sleep on the bed so for three months i was on the vet and you could see me on saturdays when they say it's a wrap i was like like climbing the walls and going out and party the city like until it burns because i i really needed to to move my arms and but also that gives you i use that on my favor like how it feels to to feel trapped and to feel i mean i was i'm lucky and i'm blessed that i could move but there were moments where i felt very impotent of not being able to move because i couldn't because of the movie because of the makeup because and i felt like the rage that and then you multiply that for a million and then you may have a glimpse of what it means to be on a bed impossible to move for 30 something years i love fernando leondaranova who is one of the best screenwriters and directors and he happens to be one of my closest friends this is the third movie that we do together and i is one of those moments that when you i read the script i have to stand up and walk around the room because my body was reacting to the to how good it is and when you read something that good the images the layers the details the the different colors that the author has put into it has a reaction a physical chemical reaction on your body so you can read like this you have to and i was so happy i called him and said i need to play this role i need to say those lines and it's a story about the abuse of power in in this case in a working place it's the story of a man who thinks of himself being the best boss ever a colleague a partner father to his old fellow workers it all happens in one week and there's gonna be a commission visiting the factory to give an award and they are they are finalists for the award and he wants the award so in a week everything starts to go really off tracks and he starts to behave in the way he really is it's a dark comedy i've seen people crying laugh out loud like laughing their tears out in spain and in the states and in england and in switzerland in france i mean the movie translate to everywhere but there's a big big deep social commentary in the movie that really punches you especially at the end of the movie where you go like oh was i laughing about this and that's the genius of fernando and it's a great movie it has broke the record in the goya awards which is the oscars spanish oscars if you want to call it we have received 20 nominations which is huge is big never happened before and we are very very proud of it and it's the spanish entry for the oscars when i first heard about the story or or the project was years before and i was interested in it because i i knew a little bit about lucille ball but not much about the show and then i discovered this harness and i thought he was such a brilliant person as a comedian as a musician as a producer as a colleague as an actor as a husband as a family man as a father there were many elements in it that made me feel like so much uh drawn into playing him and i chased the role i didn't check the wrong box you saw the headline you can see the headline from outer space then blizzard that's how fred raised me for when i was age four he cared about the little guy he cared about workers rights it was a tribute to him and they were uh doing what what i think they should do which is the latin representation in movies in hollywood or out of hollywood uh it's it's not enough and and i support that they really go and and try to find the actors from the origin of of where uh where they're from from where the characters are from grandpa fred was wrong lucy yes he didn't tell you the part where they throw your father in prison for the crime of being the mayor of the city i was chased to this country lucy believe me you check the wrong box i find that respectful and logical but i'm always saying if it doesn't happen for any reason i'm here because i'm going to work and worship that fact and commit to the role as i've always done it and i'll try to do my best out of respect and admiration and hard work so when the role came to me i was kind of prepared because i i've read about him for many years but when they said now is you i had a month and a half so i didn't have much time to prepare for songs conga playing guitar and getting the whole thing of desi and of course you want to get as close as you can but there's a moment where you have to give up on that aaron told us i don't want you guys to imitate anybody this is about the people behind the characters that they created and the crnes created ricky ricardo we are not playing ricky ricardo so with that in mind you start to create the energy the essence the spirit of what he was what he represented what he brought to a table in terms of of entertainment and in terms of artistry and in terms of a husband and a father and you try that and and that was a challenge to really not listen to anything else but focus on the work and i loved it i think it's it was it's like it's a great movie i love the movie and it's like the good boss for many other movies i feel honored and and grateful to belong to such a great story great movie great script and great character it's like thank you for having me

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Id: gOO4LR73MOs

Length: 18min 7sec (1087 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 11 2022