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Javier Bardem an Assassin in No Country for Old Men
By Fred Topel | Image property of Miramax.
Javier Bardem is generating Oscar buzz for his portrayal of a killer in No Country for Old Men. His Anton Chigurh kills innocent bystanders with an air gun, yet has philosophical conversations with some victims her considers sparing. Chigurh is all confidence, but Bardem is insecure about his own performance.
Javier Bardem on No Country for Old Men
"I terrify myself because I thought I was wrong, but not because I was scary," said Bardem. "I find the need of performing for an actor is something that is obvious. The need of watching the performance that he does is not something that is not obvious at all. You have to deal with that, but you don’t want it really bad. I I don’t know any actor or actress that really likes to see themselves. So, I’m like that. I prefer not to see it."
Introduced in police custody, we don't know where Chigurh comes from, and neither does Bardem. "That’s the point. I didn’t think it was necessary to do any back story for the guy since I see it as an accident. I see it as a logical, violent reaction to the violent action that some characters in this movie does. Like, I’m an accident out there and a kind of an icon, a violent icon that represents a violent fate that you have called by your actions."
While it is not The Sea Inside, No Country for Old Men requires another physical transformation for Javier Bardem. "From the haircut and all that, it’s funny, because I saw that photo and I didn’t pay attention to the haircut because it was more of the way he was dressed as well as anything, but I guess they pay attention to the haircut. So, I went to the trailer and they cut it and I saw it, I said, "What the hell is that?" But that helped a lot actually, because in a way he gave this reality to the character this dimension of being very methodical. Everything is in place. It’s kind of mathematical. Like perfectly structured which is the way I thought the character should be. Perfectly clean. I thought this could help, but not for my private life though."
No Country for Old Men
Though he is vicious, Chigurh has a macabre sense of humor as well. "I saw that there was some comedy in there, but I didn’t want to pay attention to that. Because if there is comedy, it would have to be of the Coens to put it together in order for it to be funny, but the character had to be really damn serious in order to be funny in case the Coens choose him to funny. Not for what he says or how he says it, but the reaction of the other people listening to him appear on screen which is what makes him funny. Also, being funny in a foreign language is not easy, because being funny, being a good comedian isn’t easy in any language. You have to have a lot of control with the language and know the pace, the rhythm, the ‘boom,’ how to put the line in the right place and in a foreign language it is almost impossible. You have to have a huge control of the language which I don’t."
No Country for Old Men goes wide this Friday.
For the trailer, stills, review and more movie info, go to the No Country for Old Men Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of Miramax.
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