Javier Bardem
Javier Bardem
Javier Ángel Encinas Bardemis a Spanish actor from the Canary Islands. He is best known for his role in the 2007 film No Country for Old Men, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor portraying the psychopathic assassin Anton Chigurh. He has also received critical acclaim for roles in films such as Jamón, jamón, Carne trémula, Boca a boca, Los Lunes al sol, Mar adentro, and Skyfall, for which he received both a BAFTA and a...
NationalitySpanish
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth1 March 1969
CityLas Palmas, Spain
CountrySpain
The personal thing is something I have never talked about. And I never will. That is prohibited. My job is public. But that's it. When you're not working, you don't have an obligation to be public.
The earliest memories I have from my childhood are of my mum getting ready to go on stage. I must have been about five and I would watch her vomiting backstage on opening night, and then the next minute she became Isabella, the Queen of Spain. At the time I remember thinking, 'What kind of schizophrenic job is this?' Now it all makes sense.
I do a job and am lucky enough to do a job that I love, but it is a hard one. I'm not saying it is as hard as working in a coal mine, but it is still difficult in a different way. Sometimes you have to go through very strong emotional journeys and then come back to yourself. And that can be difficult to control.
I enjoy my job as long as I can create a character, otherwise it's boring.
Sometimes I say to myself, what are you doing in this absurd job? Why dont you go to Africa and help people? But I cannot help people, because I am a hypochondriac.
I'm a great believer in stunt doubles. They do an amazing job.
You want to do your job well so that people in the future say, 'OK, he's not bad, let's hire him.'
Really, I don't see this heart-throb thing at all.
You are always concerned about the makeup work, especially when you are going to do a character movie instead of an action movie.
You know I don't like to talk about my personal life.
What does my performance have to do with Russell Crowe's? Nothing. If I play Gladiator and we all play Gladiator with Ridley Scott in the same amount of time, maybe we have a chance to see who did it best.
When I was doing Arenas dying of Aids, I watched Philadelphia 13 or 14 times, because I thought Tom Hanks was making good choices.
The background - your own history - is way more important than what you can achieve as a professional.
The fact that I like to make characters doesn't mean that I like to watch my characters being made, my performance.