|
He
lives balanced between two continents
Aware
of his precarious position poised between two hemispheres, Antonio
has spoken often of the bridge he would like to build between
Spain and the U. S. or that he will not, like Hernando
Cortes, burn his ships (meaning he is not closing the door on
working again in Spain with directors such as Almodovar). In
truth in 1997, he has spent little time in either the U.S. or
Spain. He has spent most of the year on location, first in Mexico,
and then on the Campbell River, British Columbia. But for those
"home" times, he has two bases. As he stated to Cristina:
"Melanie and I have two lives, a professional one that
we developed in LosAngeles--apart from which it's the city where
Melanie was raised, and the other, more familial, in our house
in Spain where we live when we don't work." For pictures
of these homes , check the New Family
section.
He
wishes to impart the best of both worlds to his little daughter.
In
a Cristina interview, he stated:
I wanted that she have a marked Spanish character and that she
speak the two languages very well. And clearly that she will
respect her Anglo-Saxon side."
What
do you want her to learn from each one of the two cultures?
"Of my country, the culture that I want is in her roots
and hospitality. From the USA, its international character.
I admire this country in that ideas are still rewarded, that
people still are pushed to do things. It may not have a cultural
background as big as Europe, but the people live more freely
and without complex."
Antonio's
worlds successfully coexist and overlap:
Top
left, Antonio's mom at the London premiere of Evita with Melanie
and Antonio.
Top right, Antonio and Melanie, wearing a mantilla with Antonio's
Dad in Spain, July,1995; inset Melanie kissing Antonio's mom.
Bottom
left, Marbella, Christmas season,1995 , Antonio and Melanie
dancing Andalusia's favorite dance, flamenco. Bottom right,
at Barcelona opening of the Planet Hollywood, Antonio introduces
Sylvester Stallone to one of the great national dishes -- paella.
"I
am no sociologist, no politician," he says. But he is,
he admits, fascinated by America's "contradicciones."...
"Everything
here in Los Angeles is masks, metaphors, unreality. Everything
is concerned with image, the box office, stars. But America
is many Americas. What I love about Americans is how pragmatic
they are. They don't think and obsess in a sick way about doing
something. In Europe, you can feel the weight of many years
of history. In a village eight kilometers away from another
village, people speak a different language, have their own culture
that they want to preserve. People here resolve a problem, act
fast, and I love that. Here. ideas are volatile; people believe
in people. If you're 60 years old here and you come up with
a good idea, you get to develop that idea. In Europe, it's all
hierarchies." [Movieline]
What
bothers him about Hollywood where he actually spends little
time - is that everybody talks business, not art. "I hate
that! I hate that!" he leans forward, and gestures with
his hands to emphasize his point. "You go to dinner and
they talk about money. Such bad taste!" [Newsweek]
Although
he was on a tight shooting schedule with Zorro and he had to
be at the Golden Globes in Los Angeles the night before, Antonio
jumped at the opportunity to attend Bill Clinton's second inauguration:
"For me, living half of my life under a dictatorship,"
[Antonio said], "I don't want to go back to that, and this
is a man who wants a more democratic world." [Newsday]
For
more about the world of his homeland continue to Andalusia
(photo
of Antonio astride the Atlantic Ocean adapted from a contribution
by Miho of Antonio on a car) |
