interview - JAVIER BARDEM

Psycho Analysis

No Country for Old Men star Javier Bardem talks about constructing a merciless killer who’s more than a cliché

At the door of his Toronto hotel room, Javier Bardem welcomes me with a vigorous handshake. “Can I offer you some dark chocolate or a cigarette?”

He checks himself out in the mirror, then breaks off a piece of chocolate and lights up a smoke before sitting down. He speaks with a noticeable Spanish accent, but is never at a loss for words, which he delivers very quickly. 

At 38, Bardem is one of Europe’s biggest actors, having starred in movies for almost two decades. Never mind his blue jeans and plain gray T-shirt, he looks like a movie star.

Coming from a Spanish acting family, Bardem became a sex symbol in the early 1990s thanks to the steamy Spanish comedy Jamon, Jamon, in which he starred opposite a relative newcomer named Penélope Cruz.

Since then he’s scored an Academy Award nomination for playing a doomed Cuban poet in Before Night Falls and won international acclaim as a paralyzed man intent on ending his life in The Sea Inside.

But it may be the Coen Brothers’ adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 book No Country for Old Men — a cat-and-mouse thriller set in the Texas of the 1980s — which makes him a megastar in North America. There’s already Oscar buzz surrounding his portrayal of a frightening drug dealer who will stop at nothing to retrieve money stolen from him. This villain of legendary proportions is softened only by a hysterically bizarre helmet of a haircut.

The film also features Josh Brolin as an honest man who happens to find the bag containing $2.4-million in cash, Tommy Lee Jones as a disillusioned sheriff and Woody Harrelson as a hired gun who’s also looking for the fortune.

During the Toronto International Film Festival this past September, Bardem shared a few thoughts about his work, and a piece of chocolate.  

Your character in No Country for Old Men is one of the scariest characters I’ve ever seen on the big screen. What was going on in your mind to make you so terrifying?

“I only had one thing in mind: I was thinking that maybe the Coen Brothers would not pay me to play this part! Seriously, I guess I was trying to put myself in a place where I had a lack of any emotions and was not attached to anything. I had to become fearless. When I usually prepare for a role, I do the same kind of work — imagining the past, the circumstances of the character. In this case, I did not do any of this. I only saw him as a force of nature, the embodiment of violence.”

Are you as comfortable working in English as you are working in Spanish?

“I’m getting more comfortable with the parts in English. But I recently realized that I would never get to the point of being as comfortable working in English as I am in Spanish. When I say ‘te amo’ in my own language, many things come to my mind. They’re aspects of my own life that I relate to. When I say ‘I love you,’ the same words but in English, I don’t have the same memories. When you speak your own language you have your own memories that are attached to the words.”

This month, you’re starring in two movies released on the same day — No Country for Old Men and the romantic period piece Love in the Time of Cholera. Are you afraid of becoming a flavour of the week?

“A little bit. But I take very good care about the parts that I choose. I could wait years for the right role. One of the great things about my job is the opportunity I get to do different characters. If I play the same thing, beyond making the audience bored with me, I’ll bore myself as well.” 

And these two roles are pretty much diametrically opposed, Cholera following a longstanding unrequited love.

“Yes, that’s why I see those two films as a true blessing. It’s funny because it’s the first time in 17 years that I’m shooting two movies back to back. I guess it was the best thing I could do because if I had done nothing right after No Country my life would have been miserable. I think my character would have stayed with me for a while. And he was pure evil. But 20 days after the Coen film, I did a movie that was totally the opposite. In Love in the Time of Cholera my character is in love. I was part of a [movie] about one of the most beautiful love stories ever written. I was obliged to let go of a monster to receive love and give love. I’m so glad I did not shoot the film in the other order!” 

You recently joined Scarlett Johansson and Penélope Cruz for a new Woody Allen film. What was it like working with Allen?

“It’s a unique experience. I never worked that way before. With him, you don’t rehearse too much, you don’t shoot too much, and you have to improvise. Improvising for me was quite a challenge because I had to do it in a foreign language…I had to always be really awake. All my senses had to be open. I had to be there in the moment and be specific. But at the same time it’s really easy because there’s no time to think. It’s a bit like jumping off the cliff, you just have to give yourself a swing and do it. It’s a great relief for an actor because most of the time you need so much self-control.”

Mathieu Chantelois is the editor of Famous Québec.