The
Antonio
Banderas
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Antonio's
roots in theater can be traced back to his love
and participation in the Festival of Semana Santa
[Holy Week's series of parades and festivities],
his love of chorus and music, his storytelling and
an active imagination, his natural love of performing,
and his passionate reaction to a theatrical production
of Hair.
British Premiere reports that José Antonio was not
affected by cinema much (some articles disagree)
although the mucicals Oliver and Chitty, Chitty,
Bang, Bang he loved. However, it was a theatrical
presentation of the musical Hair (and not the movie
as is sometimes reported) he attended with his father
at fifteen that truly inspired his future vocation.
"I wanted to jump to the other side of the
mirror," he said.
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José
Antonio developed a serious interest in girls. He seemed
to have an easy relationship with girls even when young.
His first real girlfriend was named Lilian and he asked her
many times before she finally allowed him to kiss her.
In British Premiere he described his first kiss at school when
he was 13. " I got dizzy and she got dizzy,"
he says. "It was a pretty experience. It's
like a pink memory. A flowery memory." (As opposed
to losing his virginity, which was "not so funny",
occurring as it did, under a blanket at a party whilst a guy
sat there, oblivious, playing bad flamenco guitar.) Voici, a
French magazine "You know, the first time that I tried
to make love, it was a total fiasco!" The magazine says
he was 15 years old...
From
Tan sólo un actor.
Drama,
acting, footlights, emotion, passion, scenery, games, ritual.
Everything which makes the enduring world of the theater what
it is, Antonio first discovers during the days of the Malagueña
Holy Week, Semana Santa. The peal from the drums of Semana
Santa presupposes an original, unconscious immersion into the
secret hidden world of the theater. And then? What else
does the Andalusian Semana Santa resemble but the popular theater?
For Antonio Banderas the theater is born and it grows in the
street. It is in the street......
Despite
his academic problems, José Antonio did finish the equivalent
of a high school education, and even briefly considered following
his mother and cousin Maria (who lived with the family) into
teaching. But he was unhappy with the thought of teaching
and ended up instead at the Málaga Dramatics Arts School in
1977. Here he found his niche and was highly successful.
The professors were all impressed by his intuition and curiosity.
He was at the Dramatics Art School for three years. Despite
his excellent academic record, José Antonio hadn't taken the
course "History of the Theatre" and was not particularly
interested in receiving a certificate. However, more practical
minds prevailed on him to finish his studies so he wouldn't
have to go into military service.
Although
José Antonio was receiving excellent reviews and reports, his
mother worried about his interest in dramatics. She never
thought it would provide a living for her restless son and wanted
him to get his head out of the clouds. José Antonio had
joined a local theatre group, Dintel, even before he began the
Dramatics Art School. Dintel was an innovative group that
would perform on the street as well as in auditoriums.
Perhaps adding to its charm for the risk-taking José Antonio
was that the municipal law forbade doing theater in the street.
Nobody really executed these ordinances, but the group Dintel,
perhaps for this and for other reasons, was in the habit of
running from the police.
Although
José Antonio was serious about learning everything he could about
the theatre, that did not contain his sense of humor. Practical
jokes were not uncommon. Once he put vinegar and salt on
a piece of bread a fellow actor had to eat. Another occasion
José Antonio exchanged a hemp sandal for a sandwich.
He
got the nickname "Breva" (Lucky) because he was considered
by his friends to be at the right place at the right time and
because he frequented a disco in Torremolinos called "La
Breva". José Antonio was taking a girl home from
a party on the back of his motorcycle. He missed the
turn off. Antonio described his "very hot and sticky
leg. I could see my bone perfectly white and the flesh
hanging." The good Samaritan who picked up José Antonio
and the girl and got his/her back seat soiled for the trouble
was a transvestite. Apparently, Antonio did not learn
any caution from his accident. No sooner was the motorcycle
repaired than José Antonio and his good friend Antonio Meliveo
decided to test its speed. They got the speed up to 160
kilometers per hour when a truck appeared, and the motorcycle
turned, skidded, and the two friends finished flat on their
face on the road against a metallic barrier from which they
suffered bruises.
"My body," exclaimed Antonio, "collapsed completely
on the metal and it bounced. I lost my shoes. I
don't know where they were left, but I didn't search for them.
I left barefoot for my house, bleeding everywhere. Meliveo
seemed terribly cut up about it. It was three or four
days before I could move." Later, both Antonio's
father and his first wife were to be frightened when they rode
on the back of a motorcycle with Antonio.
However,
at that point in his youth, Antonio believed in risk-taking, going
for the edge. Said Antonio, "They form part of the
character of youth. Although that doesn't mean to say that
I have completely settled down now. Simply that I now value
life more than at that time. In that time everything was
to prove, to attempt, go farther, to break out...And it mattered
to me." It is comforting to know that Antonio's current
interest is sailboats, one hopes a less hazardous hobby
José
Antonio was encouraged by a number of people including director
Luis Belaguer to seek his future in Madrid. However he
was apprehensive about approaching the subject with his mother.
He and his mother had already locked heads on his devotion to
the theater. His mother admitted, "When he began
with the theater we fought because I saw it as being impossible.
This boy, at fourteen or fifteen years, it would be very difficult
in order to triumph or even do moderately well. I always thought
of it as if he was tossing away his life like a cigarette.
Because I was not very ambitious concerning his career.
I thought that a great career was impossible. Later, I
began believing more and yet even today I am afraid of failure."
José Antonio found a convincing advocate for his cause in Angeles
Rubio Arguelles, countess of Berlanga of Duero, a patroness
of the arts in Málaga. She assured José Antonio's mother
that "Yes, it is true, your child is not only an actor,
he was born an actor, he has a future, I tell you this truthfully."
August 3, 1980 José Antonio left for Madrid, a week short of
his twentieth birthday. He had fifteen thousand pesetas
($120). Despite some financial support from his parents
(10,000 pesetas a month - $80), he was the proverbial struggling
actor, often without a bed to call his own. Thankfully, his
talent for making loyal friends such as musician Joaquin Sabina
and fellow actor Imanol Arias helped him through the thin times.
He worked at various jobs to support himself -- bartender,
usher (500 pesetas a day = $4), booking office attendant and
stage manager of lights among them. He talked himself
into an audition with the National Theatre by approaching Nurita
Moreno, daughter of Núria Espert. The upshot is he got
tested for the "La hija del aire" of Calderón de la
Barca, and directed by Lluís Pasqual. Lluís Pasqual realized
immediately that "this could be" the actor that he'd
been searching for. Pasqual had to talk with the producers,
and that is why José was told that within some days he would
receive an answer. But José could not wait any more and
requested Lluís Pasqual with his Málagueño accent: "Could
not you give me an answer now?, You see, I come from Málaga,
and I don't have work." Pasqual relented: "Good, why
prolong it, the role is yours."
While
he was able to remain in Madrid, life was not easy. Even
after he was noticed by Pedro Almodóvar, altering his professional
name to "Antonio Banderas" at Pedro's suggestion,
and appeared in Labyrinth of Passions, he was not financially
secure. It was not until a number of serendipitous accidents
to other actors secured him a major role in the popular and
critically acclaimed play Edward II in 1984 that Antonio knew
with certainty that he had arrived as an actor and his financial
struggle was over.
Primary Source -- Tan sólo un actor.
What
Good Advice Did Your Mother Give You?
"My mother wanted me to
be a banker, I said, "Mom, look at me, I am not a bank
guy." I finally convinced her that it was better
if I didn't follow her advice." --
Glamour, May, 1997, Cindy Pearlman
"I call my mom. She is so
proud of me. Talking to her makes me smile and blush
at the same time." (Antonio
in Ladies Home Journal on coping with stress)
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Antonio
Learned of the Stars from his Father.
His father, amazed by the stars, took advantage of summer
nights for lecturing his small children on the life
of these celestial elements, so tiny, that are sighted
above."Look
at them, José," José Domínguez said, "everything
that you see is not really truth.
Because many of those stars that we see have died millions
of years ago, but yet their light to us is just
arriving."
-- Tan sólo un actor. |
A selection from an interview with Ellen
Hawkes for Parade Magazine, Newday, 10/10/99:
While conceding that his mind always simmers
with ideas for future projects, Banderas nevertheless maintained
that he does not set goals for himself. "Instead
I like to remind myself of a line in a poem by the Spanish poet
Antonio Machado," he said. "Loosely translated, he
wrote: 'There is no path. You make the path when you walk.'
And that is how I now live my life---never accepting the easy
route but always forging my own way."
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