Antonio Banderas
Antonio Banderas
José Antonio Domínguez Bandera, known professionally as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish actor, director, and producer. He began his acting career with a series of films by director Pedro Almodóvar and then appeared in high-profile Hollywood movies, especially in the 1990s, including Assassins, Evita, Interview with the Vampire, Philadelphia, Desperado, The Mask of Zorro and Spy Kids. Banderas also portrayed the voice of "Puss in Boots" in the Shrek sequels and Puss in Boots as well as the bee in...
NationalitySpanish
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth10 August 1960
CityMalaga, Spain
CountrySpain
Everything changes as you get older - your mind, your body, the way you view the world.
I had an idea and I wanted just to make it work. And I am never, ever secure on the set that what I am doing is going to translate to the screen. It never changes.
We are now integrated into American society and I don't like the word fashionable, because fashionable means that it's going to pass. It's not like that anymore.
I couldn't be with someone who is depressed all the time.
It was an honor and privilege to arrive to this country 16 years ago with almost no money in my pocket. A lot has happened since then.
If you become very self-conscious about what you are doing, you kill. You kill the character. Then it doesn't work. You have to come from a sincere place. And you don't think too much. I don't go to the hotel and I start thinking what am I going to say tomorrow and start writing things down.
Cinema has opened a world of possibilities up for me.
Characters don't belong to anyone, not even the person who plays them.
As an actor, when you encounter a psychopathic personality, you naturally want to make him 'bigger than life,' as the Americans say.
I discovered very soon, especially for movies, because I started in theater, that every director has his own universe. You have to be free enough to try to understand what he wants from you. Especially when that director has a tremendous personality. And I'm talking about people like Pedro Almodovar and Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino and Woody Allen. And you have to adapt. If you don't adapt to them, you are off the thing.
Sometimes I have wrinkles, in the morning. It depends on what kind of night that I had. I accept myself and the way that I am growing older. I have eye bags and some people have proposed to me to take them out but I said no.
Films should be for everybody.
The recycling in my house was imposed by my kids.
It is very difficult to follow your own method all the time because you may crash against some directors who want from you something different. Trying to understand the material, who you're working with, and how can you fit in there. That is my approach.