00:00Hello, I am Antonio Banderas and I am in the studio with The Hollywood Reporter.
00:08Congratulations on your first Oscar nomination.
00:11Best Lead Actor for Pain and Glory.
00:14Can we say that this is a celebration of an entire lifetime of work with Pedro Almovedar?
00:20Yes. Yes, you can say that.
00:23It's a very easy and very nice way to put it.
00:25But yeah, I mean, it's beautiful the nomination itself, but just in the way that I got here
00:33and the circumstances that are surrounding this nomination are all beautiful.
00:38You know, I mean, it's almost a dream with my best friend, cinematic friend.
00:45And, you know, a relationship of 40 years, eight movies together and we close this circle,
00:51you know, with a bunch of awards and recognitions.
00:54And especially, you know, knowing that the people connected to audiences all around the world.
01:01And the last thing is this, you know, a nomination for an Academy Award for the movie and for myself.
01:09Yes. Yeah. And, you know, you've touched on it a little bit with the fact that it's a Spanish-speaking
01:15film,
01:15but why else is it very important that Pain and Glory is recognized amongst all these other films this year?
01:22Because, you know, besides, you know, the values that the movie has, you know, the fact that as an actor,
01:33that I have been working here for 23 years, and I never was nominated for a movie that I did
01:39in English,
01:40but they do it for a movie that I do in Spanish, it's important because it's a recognition also to
01:46my community.
01:47Yeah. And the fact that there were a number of people coming here many years ago, generations ago, in need,
01:55you know, from countries that were in political problems or economical problems, social problems.
02:02They came over here, they worked very hard, their kids went to university, they came out,
02:07and they're architects, they're doctors or lawyers or politicians or movie directors or actors.
02:13So Hollywood had to have a reflection on that. And so it is important for me, it's important for the
02:19community
02:19that in a way, even if I am from Spain, I represent here, that they speak the same language that
02:24I speak.
02:25And then I think there is something also happening in the Academy that is very interesting in the last two
02:32or three years.
02:32And it's that the Oscars are getting more and more international. And it may happen that very soon the Oscars
02:40are not an American award.
02:42It's a worldwide recognition. But in order to do that, you have to accept filmmakers from all around the world
02:50to be part of this structure,
02:54to be part of this, you know, kind of, yeah.
02:57Going back to your relationship with Pedro Almovedar, some have said that you're his muse. Do you agree with that?
03:07I'm a male muse. I always thought that his muse was Penelope Cruz.
03:13Ah, yes. Okay.
03:14But yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's muse, if I just produce inspiration for somebody.
03:22That's kind of what it is.
03:23Yeah, but I try just to think in a different way. I think, or I prefer to think that he
03:31create characters and I can solve them.
03:34Okay.
03:34I can just, you know, provide the characters where he needed when he was writing them.
03:43And that's what I thought when I started working with him in the 80s and then now.
03:47It has changed during the years the way that we established our relationship with each other on the set for
03:55many different reasons, you know.
03:58But it's no doubt the person that understands me the best.
04:03Yes.
04:04To a point that he's capable to, to obtain from me something that I didn't even suspect I had.
04:14And so, and only that happens when you get into a state of abandonment.
04:21When you don't, you're not trying just to create the character with effort, but abandonment.
04:26Yeah.
04:26It's almost like surfing.
04:27Yeah.
04:28You don't try to compete with the wave.
04:29You just use it.
04:31Right.
04:31Well, you know, and especially this movie has something like that because in previous works
04:37that we did, I confronted him and it was more kind of a tension on the set, creative tension.
04:44I never fought with Almodovar really, you know, because he's my friend and because I admire
04:48and respect him very much.
04:49But, you know, I got my ideas of what the character should be and he got a different idea.
04:53But in this particular case, we, we stepped on the right foot from practically the beginning.
04:58We understood very well what was the procedure to make this movie.
05:03And the difference between this movie and the movies you had made previously is that
05:07it's such a highly personal film for him.
05:10You're stepping into his hairstyle, his clothes, a lot of personnel, a lot of who he is.
05:17So how, how was that different for you?
05:19I mean, it's interesting that you were actually more harmonious that way.
05:23Everything that had to do with the exterior aspect of the character, including his apartment,
05:28which is an exact replica to his real apartment.
05:31All of that, yes, you know, but not the performance.
05:36In the performance, I didn't want to create a caricature.
05:39I didn't want to imitate him.
05:41I said, listen, I have your hair, whatever.
05:42But I have to create the caricature from another point of view.
05:46I have to create it from the inside out.
05:49Otherwise, you know, we just may do a comedy because people know your mannerism, the way that you react to
05:56things,
05:56the way that you move your hands and stuff like that.
05:58So I didn't want to go there.
05:59I knew because he speaks, I mean, he writes as he speaks, that sometimes that was going to come naturally
06:07without me forcing it.
06:09Because it's a way of speaking that is very specific in Spanish, you know, idioms, the way they communicate things.
06:16That I knew that without making any kind of effort, it was going to come out as Pedro Almodovar.
06:22And then he's very smart, actually, how to create the illusion that I am him.
06:28A reflection in a furniture, for example.
06:31I remember this red furniture that is in my bedroom.
06:34And he just woe more for the reflection than for myself actually performing the character.
06:39And that creates the image of Almodovar suddenly.
06:42It's almost like a trick.
06:43And once you establish that, you know, you start believing that what you're doing is him.
06:49Without having to do a big thing, you know, a big imitation.
06:53Let's talk a little bit about your performance.
06:55This is a character who's closing himself off to the world.
06:59How do you create a performance when there's so much that's withheld?
07:05Yeah.
07:05Well, I knew that aspect of my friend because I saw him.
07:12Isolated like that, you know.
07:13And if I didn't see him continuously because at the time that he suffered from all of these
07:19maladies and diseases and stuff, you know, I was here.
07:23But every time that I talked to my friends, they said, no, he's not going anywhere.
07:27He's just in the house.
07:28You know, he had this photophobia thing.
07:31You know, bright lights perturbed him very much.
07:34And, you know, migraines all the time, very strong, very profound.
07:38And then the back problems and so he's in this kind of, you know.
07:44So I knew partially and I saw him sad.
07:50But then my own experiences too.
07:53You know, a heart attack that I suffered three years ago, I think it helped me very much to create
07:56this character in a way.
07:58And I've been talking too much about this probably, you know, on my heart attack.
08:02But I, believe me, I don't feel a victim of anything.
08:05If something came out of the heart attack, it's something good.
08:08You know, a new way to understand life and to understand even my life professionally and how to attack characters.
08:15It gave me some tranquility and calmness that I didn't have before.
08:18And Pedro saw that and he says, you know, I would love for you to use that and not hide
08:23it.
08:23Don't hide that.
08:24And I said, I know what you're talking about.
08:27So, yeah, I know.
08:29There is another, you have another perception actually of what life is all about.
08:33And so I knew that I could use it.
08:35So I did.
08:36So, you know, all of the different aspects.
08:38And then very technical things that he commented to me.
08:43One of those things was we were going to work in very minimalist.
08:47He was going to put the camera very close to me.
08:50What is that like to hear that you are going to be in close-up for so many of the
08:55shots?
08:55For almost 80% of the movie, well, it means that you have to be careful how you communicate.
09:01You have to be always sincere.
09:03You have to just offer sincerity.
09:04You cannot just say, oh, I am in close-up.
09:06I'm going to do nothing.
09:07No, it's not about that.
09:08It's about being careful, you know, and measuring yourself pretty much and knowing that you can just actually
09:13create very strong universes with very little.
09:16It's that simple.
09:18It was more complicated when he said to me, we should just create this character in a way transparent.
09:25So, it's almost like a witness of himself.
09:29And you allow, you know, you should allow the people to have a space into you.
09:34So, we were trying not to drive them continuously to what are the feelings of the character.
09:42You know, I mean, we see where the narrative is, where the character is, what is happening to him.
09:47You know, seeing him using drugs and doing this and doing that and reacting to this and that.
09:52But always leaving any space for the spectator to feel that it can be you.
09:57That is more complicated.
10:00Yes.
10:01That is a little bit more complicated.
10:02But he is a master.
10:03And so, I follow.
10:05I follow pretty much here.
10:07I try to listen to him continuously without trying to confront him as I did in some of
10:12the times of our life.
10:15And the result is very interesting.
10:17It's very, you know, the character got the capacity to get into the heart of people.
10:22And it's very interesting, but people react to the character even two or three days after.
10:26Yeah.
10:27It's a movie that has a comeback, you know, after you see it and very strong, like good
10:32wines.
10:33Yeah.
10:33Ooh.
10:35What was the most difficult scene for you to perform?
10:39The scenes that I thought that were going to be very difficult became very easy because,
10:45you know, in a way, I abandoned myself without any pretension to it.
10:51And then the emotions came out of nowhere.
10:55I had no idea that I was going to have that resort.
11:00The scene with my ex-lover when he's talking to me and telling me the story of his life
11:05now and how he developed his life and stuff like that.
11:10Because I, you know, we rehearsed but it never came in the rehearsals like that.
11:15Yeah.
11:16Never.
11:17Never.
11:17There was one take only.
11:20And it came like that because I felt comfortable.
11:24I didn't pretend anything.
11:26I was not looking for anything.
11:27I just let myself go into listening.
11:31Just listening what he's telling me and remember when we were young, that it was different.
11:38And knowing that there is only, there is a space in the life of any person that is only
11:43a space for the truth.
11:45And he's telling me the truth.
11:46And it's beautiful.
11:48The scene with my mother, the same thing.
11:50Almodovar came.
11:51He tried to direct us and he couldn't direct us because he was very emotional.
11:54So I saw him.
11:55And I said, well, all I have to do is just to feel with you, my friend.
12:01So I was feeling with him and he said action and I was there.
12:04I have one last question for you.
12:06Sure.
12:06And your daughter is attending the Oscars with you this year.
12:09Everybody knows that.
12:10He's been going around.
12:12You know, you've been on some talk shows.
12:14What does she think of your performance?
12:17She loved it, actually.
12:20When she saw the movie, she called me and she said, oh, Papi, you know, I loved the movie
12:24and I loved your performance, you know.
12:27And she's critical.
12:29My daughter is not like, you know, Papi, Daddy.
12:33No.
12:34No.
12:35I try and I think I succeed with that to educate her and the people around her, the mother
12:43and some of the people that were around.
12:46Trying to make of her an independent, free thinker.
12:50Yes.
12:51And woman.
12:52For me, that was very important in the times that we're living.
12:55And she is.
12:56She has that.
12:58You got her seal of approval.
12:59Yeah.
13:01Antonio, thank you so much.
13:03You're very welcome.
13:03And we'll see you at the Oscars.
13:04Alright.
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