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Javier Bardem on Vicky Cristina Barcelona
By Fred Topel | Image property of Fox Searchlight
Javier Bardem stuck to Spanish language films as he was most comfortable in his native tongue. Even in some films with English, he spoke Spanish. Now that he's grown more confident with American movies like No Country for Old Men and Love in the Time of Cholera, he can switch back and forth, as he does in Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
Javier Bardem Makes Love to Vicky Cristina Barcelona
"In this one, it's more realistic, because it's like you understand better," said Bardem. "I'm speaking English and going into Spanish and all that. I would much prefer, in the future, to have movies done in their native languages where they are supposed to happen. I think the world has to be ready for that. I think we have to be ready for that, at least. Because there's still this wrong idea that if you do it in English, more people are going to see it. It may be true, but also, history teaches that when you do a movie in another language and it's a great movie and it gets people, people see it. Almodovar, Inarritu [work] in Spanish. Guillermo del Toro. So there is no need because the only need is the movie to be a good movie. But at the same time, as a Spanish actor, that implies that you are going to be working less if you don't accept that you may be called to do movies in English, even if it happens in Spain."
Bardem plays Juan Antonio, a Spanish playboy who treats two American girls to a weekend holiday. Relationships with both of them get complicated, especially when his ex-wife returns.
 Vicky Cristina Barcelona
"As any other big town in the world, Barcelona has many Barcelonas in it. I guess he chose the romantic one to tell the story. I think that Barcelona is also real and exists. If you go there and you look for it, you will freak out about the beauty of it. But I think it's another cliche. He wants to use that Barcelona to tell the story of two American women coming to Spain and finding Juan. The thing's perfectly done in the way that everything works in one direction, and then turns to the other one very easily without dramatic changes. The shooting was crazy. It was summertime. He shot in the most touristy places of Barcelona. When I hear people say this movie is going to be good for Barcelona because it's going to bring more people, where do you want to put the people, man? It was packed. I mean, Barcelona is packed. It's very well known. And some people were saying, 'This is going to bring Barcelona to the world.' The world knows about Barcelona already. So I think people were having fun."
For Bardem, it was just working at home. "I didn't have fun, in the sense that I know Barcelona so it's not something new for me. Second, I have to study a lot. When you are working in that rhythm, you have to go back to the hotel and work on the dialogue, work on the dialogue, because you know the day after, you're going to have five minutes, and you have to hit the note."
Landing a Woody Allen film was a get at any point in a career. Now that he has won an Oscar, Bardem hopes to attract even more high quality material. "Unfortunately, most of the scripts don't have that level, and if they have, they are not coming to me. I guess there must be a lot of them who are very brilliant, but I'm not reading them. Or I'm reading some of them but I feel like there's something I don't feel like doing. You don't look for something in specific, you just look for something that hits you in a way like you go like, 'I have the need of doing that. Yeah, I would like to do that.' There's something the body responds, and you say, 'I want to do that.'"
Vicky Cristina Barcelona opens to theaters on August 15th.
For the trailer, poster and more movie info, go to the Vicky Cristina Barcelona Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of Fox Searchlight
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