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Biography of Javier Bardem

Javier Bardem is a Spanish actor who has made a dizzying career in Hollywood, where he is known primarily for the roles of typical villains. This is Anton Chigurh from “No Country for Old Men” by the Coen brothers, and the terrorist Silva from the next part of Bonidiana, Lorenzo from “The Phantom of Goya” and, of course, the sinister captain Salazar from the fifth “Pirates of the Caribbean”. However, he avoided the fate of playing the stereotyped “Latin villains” that are so beloved in American cinema. Each of his antiheroes is completely different from the previous one. He is no stranger to the roles of machos and gigolos, as well as tragic heroes.

Javier Bardem is the most popular Spaniard in Hollywood

In 2001, he was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a homosexual poet in the drama Before Night Falls, and in 2008 he received the long-awaited award for his masterful portrayal of Chigurh, becoming the first Spaniard in history to receive an Oscar.

Latest news about Javier Bardem

In May 2020, the most anticipated film “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” premiered. The budget for the fifth part of the adventure series of the same name was $230 million. The film grossed over $786 million at the box office. Bardem played the role of Captain Armando Salazar.

In September 2020, Javier’s fans will be able to see their favorite actor in the American horror film “Mama!” The premiere will take place at the Toronto Film Festival. The main roles, along with the Spanish artist, will be played by Jennifer Lawrence, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer and Domhnall Gleeson.

The film “The Untitled Project of Asghar Farhadi” is being prepared for screening in 2020. Filming of the drama is carried out with the cooperation of Spain and France. The main roles were shared by Javier and Penelope.

Childhood and family

Javier Angel Encinas Bardem was born on the first day of spring 1969 in the Spanish city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Canary Islands).

Javier Bardem in childhood and now

The boy's future was predetermined: his mother Pilar Bardem, as well as his maternal grandparents, were quite successful actors in their homeland. The actor's uncle is the famous Spanish director Juan Antonio Barden, who loved Cuba and the Soviet Union with all his heart. Moreover, Javier recalled that his ancestors appeared on stage back in the days when actors in Spain were considered a lower caste and were prohibited from being buried in cemeteries.

With mom and brother at the Oscars (2008)

After his parents' divorce, two-year-old Javier moved to Madrid with his mother and older brother Carlos and sister Monica. As a child, he was obsessed with cinema. He often daydreamed, imagining himself in the place of his favorite heroes - Chewbacca and Han Solo from Star Wars, James Bond or Indiana Jones. At the age of 4, the boy made his film debut with a small role in the film “The Dodger.”

The young man turned out to be surprisingly versatile: he devoted a lot of time to sports, in particular, he was interested in boxing and weightlifting, and was even a member of the Spanish national rugby team. In addition, he toured with an independent theater troupe and studied painting at an art school.

In his youth, Javier Bardem was fond of boxing.

In 1989, Javier ran into hooligans who beat him up. They could have ruined his fate by breaking his nose. They succeeded in the second, but not in the first, as you might guess. The physical disability only added zest to Javier’s appearance.

Career at home

Viewers saw Javier Bardem's first big work in 1990 - the actor played in Bigasa Luna's erotic drama “The Ages of Lulu,” which told viewers about the variety of sexual experiments through the eyes of young Lulu.

Still from the film “The Ages of Lulu”

Two years later, Javier worked with Luna again in the black comedy “Love, Sex and Ham” (in the Russian translation “Ham, Ham”). In this film, he played a playboy from a sausage warehouse who seduced the heroine of 18-year-old Penelope Cruz, his future wife. After this role in Spain, even people indifferent to the world of cinema started talking about him.

Young Javier Bardem in the movie "Ham, Ham"

At that time, the family was in poverty: my mother was offered work less and less, and he took on any options. So one day he worked as a stripper - the young actor was paid decently. Mom, who worked part-time as a cleaner and counted every penny, was proud of her son.

This was followed by a series of paintings with unambiguous titles, such as “Golden Eggs”, “Mouth to Mouth”, “Between the Legs”, “Ecstasy”, “Tit and Moon”, “Bilingual Lover” with Ornella Muti, “I Love Your Rich Bed” "

Javier Bardem in the movie "Golden Eggs"

However, the talented actor felt confident in serious genres. In 1994, for his portrayal of the terrorist in the film “A Few Days,” Imanol Uribe Javier was awarded the National Goya Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 1996, he was awarded a statuette for his leading role in the film “Face to Face,” where he played the unemployed actor Victor, who was involved in a conspiracy to murder a famous plastic surgeon.

Bardem received his first Goya Award for the hero from “A Count of Days.”

In 1997, Javier played in the film “Living Flesh” by Pedro Almodovar and earned his third Goya Award. A year later, at the Berlin Film Festival, the audience named Bardem the best European actor - they were so impressed by his performance in the phantasmagoric thriller Perdita Durango. This is the first film in which Javier's hero kills people - the second was released 10 years later and brought the actor an Oscar.

Still from the film “Perdita Durango”

Nevertheless, the image of a seducer relentlessly followed the Spanish star. Bardem began to “change his image,” and the first role to confirm this was the role of a gay man who took a heterosexual man away from his family in the drama “Second Skin” (1998).

Career in Hollywood

This film became a “warm-up” before the more flashy work, thanks to which Javier loudly declared himself far beyond the borders of his native Spain. In 2000, the biographical film “Before Night Falls” by Julian Schnaber was released, where Javier got the role of Cuban dissident Reynaldo Arenas, a gay poet who was supposed to become the leader of Fidel Castro’s revolution, but fell into disgrace due to his orientation and was expelled from islands and died of AIDS at age 47.

Left: Reynaldo Arenas

The film's director recalled that he learned about Bardem through the film Love, Sex and Ham. Then he thought that either this guy was an actor from God, or he really was a ham seller. During filming, Schnaber even feared for Javier’s mental health: “He becomes what he plays...”.

Javier Bardem and Julian Schnaber on the set of Before Night Falls

To visually match the image of Arenas, Javier lost 15 kilograms and dyed his hair. He read all the poet's works, flew to Cuba and learned to speak English - with a Cuban accent. Until then, his linguistic knowledge was limited to the lyrics of his favorite AC/DC.

Javier Bardem lost 15 kg for his role in Before Night Falls

The efforts were not in vain: Javier received the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival, a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Javier became the first Spaniard to be nominated for this award. The work was praised by spectators, critics and friends of the late poet, one of whom admitted that he felt betrayed when he saw Javier at the premiere, already out of the Arenas image.

Javier himself becomes the person he plays

But most importantly - and the actor still considers this moment one of the happiest in his life - he received praise from the lips of his idol Al Pacino. Returning home one day, he heard a message on his answering machine from Pacino, who was delighted with his performance in Before Night Falls. Bardem kept the tape with the voice of the great actor and boasted to his acquaintances for a long time, complaining only that he did not answer the phone in time. Javier Bardem in the film No Country for Old Men. The gas station scene followed in 2002 with a starring role in The Dancer at the Top of the Stairs, John Malkovich's directorial debut. The same year, Bardem played an unemployed docker in the Spanish tragicomedy Mondays in the Sun by Fernando Leon de Aranoa. The actor deliberately gained weight and began to work contrary to his sexual texture - and the viewer believed that on the screen there was a man living on one allowance. As a result, another Goya Award in his pocket for Best Actor.

Still from the film “Mondays in the Sun”

Javier Bardem devoted 2004 to working on the drama “The Sea Inside” by Alejandro Amenábar. For the role of a paralyzed man who fights for the legalization of euthanasia, the actor was awarded prizes at the Venice Festival and the European Film Academy. It was this work that left a deep imprint on the actor’s mind. Javier began to look differently at life in general and some things in particular - he learned to put up with the idea of death and love a person in any case. I spent most of the filming in bed. Every day he was put on makeup for five hours while lying down, followed by a ten-hour work day that ended with sleep in his bed at home. Even on his days off, Javier did not allow himself to leave the house. And all in order to get used to the role - Bardem’s character was bedridden for 30 years.

In “The Sea Inside,” the actor plays a sick man confined to a bed.

In 2006, the actor played the role of a fanatical priest in Milos Forman’s film “Ghosts of Goya,” in which Javier, Natalie Portman and Stellan Skarsgård presented the audience with the tragedy of a girl with a broken destiny, who was tortured by the Inquisition due to accusations of apostasy. Bardem played the role of the treacherous Inquisitor Lorenzo.

Still from the film “Ghosts of Goya”

Next was work in the film “No Country for Old Men” by the Coen brothers, a crime drama in 2007. Anton Chigurh, a killer with cold empty eyes, a terrible bowl haircut and a pistol in his hand, brought Javier an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. For the second time in his career he had to “kill” people on the screen - Javier hates violence and agrees to its demonstration only in exceptional cases.

Bardem won an Oscar for Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men

For his work in the drama “Beauty,” released the same year, Javier Bardem was awarded the Cannes Film Festival prize in the “Best Actor” category. The actor’s hero works in the illegal field: drugs and pirated video products. At the same time, he tolerates his wife's betrayal and raises the children himself. A little later, work was completed in the drama “Eat, Pray, Love” by Ryan Murphy, where Javier played alongside Julia Roberts.

Javier Bardem and Julia Roberts

Another line in Bardem’s filmography that deserves special mention is “Skyfall” by Sam Mendes. The 23rd film about the adventures of James Bond, starring Daniel Craig, was released in 2012. Viewers again saw Javier in a villainous role: cyberterrorist Raoul Silva is a charismatic psychopathic narcissist. His extravagant appearance was created by the actor himself, who was inspired by the image that sunk into his soul in early childhood - the Bond villain Jaws from the time of Roger Moore.

Javier Bardem in make-up from Skyfall

The role of the simple-minded Reiner from Ridley Scott’s “The Counselor” and Felix from “Gunman” with Sean Penn also became successful. And during the filming of the fourth part of Pirates of the Caribbean, Penelope Cruz persuaded the actor to take part in the next episode of the franchise. So Javier Bardem became Captain Salazar, obsessed with the idea of vengeance on Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp).

Javier Bardem as Salazar (Pirates of the Caribbean)

Javier Bardem on The Roads Not Taken

Actor Javier Bardem

, who played the main role in the film “The Roads Not Taken,” told
Andrei Plakhov
about working on the film and his relationships with colleagues.

— In Alejandro Amenábar’s film “The Sea Inside,” you already played a terminally ill man who is trying to take his own life. Is this a familiar topic?

- Don't think. Ramon Sampedro was paralyzed, but Leo suffers from a disorder of consciousness, that's different. I, like my hero, am still too young for Alzheimer's disease, and this was my main problem. I was afraid of this topic. I am fifty, my mother did not suffer from this disease, I have not closely observed people affected by it. I had to go to the Spanish Alzheimer's Association, where I met many people suffering from this disease, and saw how their families showed selfless love and patience.

There is nothing to be done, the world is aging, now the age of 80 or 90 is no longer considered very old.

And what happens against this background with those who are already approaching sixty and who are about to enter the risk group themselves?

- In addition to people, the heroes of this film are the locations, and above all New York, through which you march as a knight and his squire, along with Elle Fanning...

— These scenes were filmed largely by improvisation. Sally directed us skillfully, Elle is a great actress, but neither she nor I knew exactly what would happen to our heroes.

Of course, there was a script, but many surprises burst into it. For example, the episode at the station: we never expected to meet so many homeless people there.

I first came to New York in 1976, and even then this city amazed my imagination, but what we saw now is something. I have lived all my life in the center of Madrid, I love cities, their crazy noise and rhythm. But such a concentration and diversity of people as in New York in December, such a mixture of cultures and lifestyles, cannot be found anywhere else.

— You have worked with many famous and young directors. Are there any peculiarities in working with women directors who are increasingly making themselves known today?

- Both men and women are the same animals, so there is no fundamental difference. But there are important nuances. Men, as a rule, have more directorial energy, while women have more sensitivity to detail.

— The film, among other things, draws attention to the social situation of people with mental illnesses. What do you think about it?

— I think that both in the USA and in other countries people need universal health insurance. The film "Joker", although in a grotesque form, latently raises this problem, which is especially important when it comes to mental illness. Hats off to Joaquin Phoenix: he is not only a great actor, but also a freedom-loving person.

— Which other fellow actors do you appreciate?

“I don’t believe in God, I believe in Meryl Streep.” When I once had the opportunity to introduce Meryl on stage, I was more worried than during the entire filming of Sally Potter. Yes, I believe in Meryl Streep, Al Pacino...And Joaquin Phoenix.

— And Spanish and Mexican actresses - what do you think about them?

“Penelope Cruz is my wife, and that’s a completely different matter. Of course, I highly appreciate her as an actress, especially since I can watch her in the process of preparing for the role. She has great moments! And on “The Roads Not Taken” I had the pleasure of meeting Salma Hayek: she is a true free Mexican. In 2005, we found ourselves together on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival. She has trillions of different ideas, and it's amazing. Even if she laughs at my "Mexican" accent.

— You have had a wonderful career in Hollywood, but you remain Spanish in spirit and way of life. How do you manage to combine this?

— I am a happy person in my profession because I have the opportunity to choose roles. I don't listen to others, I follow my intuition. Although it happens: you do something with all your passion, you put your soul into it, but the result turns out to be mediocre. And vice versa: you don’t particularly believe in the role, but it turns out to be a shock! This is what happened when the Coen brothers invited me to play the scumbag Anton Chigurh in the film “No Country for Old Men” (the actor received an Oscar for it. — “Kommersant”

). I resisted, said that I don’t like violence, I don’t speak English. They said, “That’s why we need you.”

— How would you characterize yourself in ordinary life, outside the movie scene and film set?

“I cry often and I’m not ashamed of it.” A man should be sensitive and not pretend to be macho.

As I already said, I am a city resident, but recently moved outside the city. Still, I did not become a villager, but I felt much more strongly the importance of nature in our lives.

And the fact that she needs to be saved before we are all swallowed up by the melted ice of the Antarctic.

Personal life of Javier Bardem

Javier Bardem is happily married to fellow actress Penelope Cruz. The lovers knew each other for many years, worked together on the same films, but the relationship did not go beyond friendship. Passion flared up in 2008, on the set of the film “Vicky, Christina, Barcelona,” when everyone had several unsuccessful novels behind them: Penelope’s history included her ex-husband Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage, Matt Damon and Matthew McConaughey, and Javier I have already lost count of the beauties he has seduced.

Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem in their youth (“Ham, Ham,” 1992)

After filming days, they met in some cozy restaurant, discussed the poignant moments of their characters, gave each other advice, and remembered the old days. Gradually the actors became closer. In 2010, when she was 36 and he was 41, the couple legalized their relationship. By Hollywood standards, the wedding was very modest, although the bride's dress was made by John Galliano himself.

Still from the film “Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona” (2008)

After the wedding, the couple moved to Madrid, where their son Leo was born on January 25, 2011. Two and a half years later, Penelope became a mother for the second time. The daughter was named Luna.

One of the strongest star couples

The actors lead a rather private lifestyle, and mothers and children very rarely get caught by the paparazzi.

In the photo: baby Leo, Javier Bardem's eldest child

Javier Bardem now

Bardem is not slowing down - in 2020, viewers saw him in tandem with Jennifer Lawrence in Darren Aronofsky’s psychological thriller “Mom!” Trailer for the film "Mom!" with Javier Bardem and Jennifer Lawrence The actor was also on the set of the film Loving Pablo, where he played the role of the famous drug lord Pablo Escobar. His love interest is played by Penelope Cruz.

Bardem played Pablo Escobar
. It is known that Javier was cast in the role of Frankenstein in the horror film “Bride of Frankenstein”, which is due to be released in 2019.

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