Interview

PHOTO BY MATHIAS VRIENS, NOVEMBER 2007

The thing with guys that have it is that they'll continue to have it—we're talking about presence. Bardem has always had that onscreen, but it wasn't until his 2000 portrayal of gay Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas in Julian Schnabel's lyrical Before Night Falls that he became an international name outside of his native Spain. A gentleman who always looks consummately composed, his unexpectedly unhinged turn as a psychokiller in No Country For Old Men earned Bardem the Oscar that was inevitably coming. Bardem's seduction artist in Vicky Cristina Barcelona didn't earn him a second statue, but it got him Penelope Cruz, who had also been his co-star 16 years before, in the wonderful Jamon Jamon. You see, he's always had it. 

ELVIS MITCHELL: A lot of these guys you're playing are profoundly pained in some way.

JAVIER BARDEM: I guess when I read a script, I want to see somebody in some kind of a struggle —otherwise the character will not be interesting to watch. As with any human being—when you see somebody who is totally sure of himself, you pull away. But when there is a struggle, there is contradiction, and when there is contradiction, there is pain. Playing characters who go through that gets me excited.  It allows me to understand much more about my own struggle. I don't mean that we have to be in constant struggle or contradiction all of the time—that would be crazy.  But we are, whether we like it or not.