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
But at the same time he's more elegant, ... You've got a sly thing going with him that I like. He's imperfect, a little bit clumsy, and jealous and drunk. All of that humanizes the character and makes him very approachable. Everybody in the audience can recognize a little bit of themselves in him; and then everybody roots for you to be the guy he's supposed to be. That's the part of the movie I enjoy the most, all the comedy.
It was a satisfaction for my own community and to represent a character that says a lot about our community.
It's a character that I always found really likable. I'm fond of Zorro because he was a popular figure who worked for the people.
Characters don't belong to anyone, not even the person who plays them.
Sometimes I am just playing the character. I will move out of the way of the microphone, and they will have to tell me. Because I am moving around a lot. I am performing the cat. The animators look for that material, to see if they can put it back into the movie.
I don't think there is a guy that played more gay characters than I have done in my life.
There were many generations of Latino people coming to this country, coming from difficult political or social situations in their own countries, and they worked very hard to have their kids go to universities. Well, those kids came out and they are now doctors and architects, or they are on the Supreme Court. That has a reflection in Hollywood. So, we are actually very proud that our characters are Latinos, and I think it's good for diversity and cultural interaction.
When you go to the movie theater and the opening of this movie and you see the kids just cracking up with a character you are giving your voice to, you get goose bumps. It's so beautiful.
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.
Picasso is a character that has pursued me for a long time and I always rejected. He deserves a lot of respect because I am from Malaga, and I was born four blocks from where he was born.
I was playing with a soccer team in Spain until I broke my foot-badly. That's when I started seriously getting into acting.
Melanie was on the payroll for the whole summer but the horse handlers wouldn't pay her more than 25 dollars a day for working out the horses, ... But she loves horses.
There is something about his persona that I love - his mystery. He doesn't really like to talk about his personal life. I thought that was an interesting concept, and so we put that into the movie.
We were very keen on not showing any blood in the movie or showing Zorro stabbing anybody -- which happens in the first one. This time, Steven and Martin Campbell and everybody around the movie were very careful with that type of thing.