Antonio Banderas is once again teaming up with Penelope Cruz in a film directed by Pedro Almodovar, the controversial auteur who launched Banderas’ career in 1982. The upcoming movie, Dolor y Gloria (Pain and Glory), is set to film in July.
While promoting his imminent television series Genius: Picasso, Banderas called working with Almodovar a “creative hell”.
He believed the unorthodox director, 68, could be considered a genius.
“Normally these people are difficult, I must say. Almodovar is a very good friend of mine. Working with him is very complicated. It’s very complicated. The results are very good, so I don’t complain. I shouldn’t. I go to a creative hell, but it’s creative,” said Banderas in January, whilst filming Picasso in Budapest.
The Malaga actor, 57, began his career by doing a series of Spanish films for Almodovar, starting with his big screen debut in the 1982 screwball comedy Labyrinth of Passion.
In 2011, he worked with Almodovar on the psychological horror The Skin I Live In.
“There is this type of submission, yes. There is this game there of power, during the time that we’re working together. But at the end, I see the results of The Skin I Live In, and I say, ‘I didn’t know I had that inside.’ He manages to produce something that I didn’t even know I had inside. So I revere him, and I take my heart [out] in front of the guy,” said Banderas.
There is already speculation that Dolor y Gloria, which is an ode to a director in his twilight years, could be Almodovar’s last directorial effort. A two-time Academy Award winner, his career spans nearly four decades.
His ability to think outside the box is what made him a genius, according to Banderas.
“He broke the rules, and when you break the rules, you’re going to have a lot of people against you. You have to know that, and you have to be very perseverant and believe very much in yourself and have a tremendous personality so you don’t get upset or scared that they’re going to defeat you,” he said.
“He was always faithful to his ideas and faithful to his style, which actually was not A, B, C, D – no, no, no. It was Z, T, O, R. The people need some time to metabolise that. And once they metabolise it, people start talking about things that are not even on the screen. They start talking [about] ‘Almodovarian’ things. ‘Oh, your jacket is so Almodovarian,’ or ‘You have a very Almodovarian attitude,’” said Banderas.
Prior to Dolor y Gloria, Banderas worked with Cruz and Almodovar on the 2013 comedy I’m So Excited!.
Genius: Picasso, a 10-part National Geographic series that will see Banderas and newcomer Alex Rich play out Picasso’s life throughout the decades, will premiere in the UAE on April 22 at 9.50pm.
It will premiere globally on April 24.
