| A Return to his Roots |
 Hollywood heart throb Antonio Banderas talks to Alan Renner about his early work with renowned Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, the effect of his latest role on his sex symbol status and his new film, Summer Rain. After fifteen years in Hollywood, Antonio Banderas must be finding recent events rather odd. With the recent success of Penélope Cruz and Pan’s Labyrinth, this was the year that Spain finally dominated the Oscars. “What happened,” says Banderas, “is something that actually had to happen. It’s not a case of ‘Spanish people are in fashion’ as it used to be. Now, if you include legal and illegal immigrants, there are more Spanish people in America than in Spain. Some 50 million people now work in the United States, and it’s probably something that will continue to grow in years to come. We are there to stay.”
The same can be said for the 46 year-old Banderas. Ever since his debut US role in The Mambo Kings, he has been embraced by the industry. Hits such as Philadelphia, Interview with a Vampire and The Mask of Zorro, in which he played his signature role as the titular swashbuckling hero, have turned him into the most successful Spanish export Hollywood has ever seen. Nominated for three Golden Globes, including one for his wonderful performance in Evita, he’s also one half of one of show business’ most enduring marriages – to actress Melanie Griffith, whom he wed a year after meeting her on the 1995 film Two Much. When we meet, Banderas has just finished his final voice-over session for Shrek the Third, the second sequel in the series of popular computer-animated fairy-tale films. “The story’s pretty good – we have a coup d’état,” he smiles. Introduced in Shrek 2, Banderas’ character Puss in Boots, a feline spin on his own Zorro persona, became an instant hit with viewers. Unfortunately, it seems that playing a doe-eyed kitty has rather diminished his sex appeal amongst female admirers. “I hate that cat!” he laughs. “Ever since I did that cat, I have disappeared. Before women used to come up to me and say, ‘We loved your Zorro’, but now it’s always ‘I’d love to have that pussycat in my home!’" While Shrek the Third is set to be one of the hits of the blockbuster season, Banderas admits the Hollywood system has got him down of late. “I am tired of making movies in a way,” he says. “I don’t renounce it – I don’t want to say this is something that I don’t want to do anymore – but there were movies that didn’t allow me to express everything I had inside.” It can’t help that he’s been in some flops of late – from period action film The 13th Warrior to boxing drama Play it to the Bone and the much-maligned sequel The Legend of Zorro. “It’s so tiring to be a star – to be brilliant all the time,” he adds. “It’s tiring and I’m lazy. I’d just prefer to be me.” If anything shows us the real Banderas, it’s his new film Summer Rain. An assured coming-of-age tale, based on Antonio Soler’s novel El Camino de los Ingleses (‘The English Road’), it’s Banderas’ second film as director, after 1999’s Crazy in Alabama, which starred Griffith as a would-be actress.  Set in Southern Spain in the 1970s, the story follows the fate of four teenage boys, although much of it is seen through the eyes of 18 year-old poet Miguelito (Alberto Amarilla). “I was trying to make a movie that was not so much told as remembered,” says Banderas, who makes no apologies for the film’s baroque style. “I have been raised between flamenco players and bullfighters. That is my story.” Banderas, who grew up in Màlaga, admits that his own teenage memories tally with those of the boys in the film. “I have made a movie that is trying to reflect the impossibility of love,” he says. “Not one of them knows how to articulate their feelings.” It was the same for him, being awkward and shy around girls when he was young. “I don’t remember those years as being happy. I remember those years as being full of confusion, emptiness and not knowing what to do. Discovering the different universes, especially the female one, and sex, was traumatic at that particular moment in my life.” A glint of self-mockery crosses his eye. “Who would have thought a sex symbol would say that?” Much of his status as a love god came from his time working with Pedro Almodóvar, who initially cast him in his 1982 movie Labyrinth of Passion. They went onto forge one of the most fruitful partnerships in Spanish cinema history, making another four films together. Of late, Banderas has begun to feel he would like to contribute to the Spanish film industry in the way Almodóvar has. He recently announced that his company Green Moon Productions, which he formed in 1996, will produce films featuring new directors drawn from his native Andalucía. “I would like to give back something to the people in my hometown,” he says. “It’s important to make a contribution.” The next time Spain does well at the Oscars, it may all be down to him. Shrek the Third opens on June 29th. Summer Rain will open later in the year. |
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