from the Guardian UK:
Three decades ago, an impoverished young actor named Antonio Banderas was sitting with friends outside Madrid's National theatre when a curious figure happened by. The new arrival sported a backcombed goth bouffant and brandished a bright red briefcase that could only contain documents of national importance. He ordered a drink, cracked some jokes then turned abruptly towards Banderas. "You have a very romantic face," he said. "You should do movies. Bye-bye!" And with that he was off, swinging his briefcase through the crowds on the Calle del Principe.
Nonplussed, Banderas turned to his friends. "Oh, that's Pedro Almodóvar," they told him. "He made a movie once. But he won't make any more."
Banderas and Almodóvar went on to make five films together. These were wild, bawdy and exuberant; joyous yelps from the underground that caught the ears of the world. They installed the director as the most feted Spanish film-maker of his generation, and they also provided a springboard for the actor, who abandoned the old gang, lit out for America and remade himself as a Hollywood star. And this was all thanks to Almodóvar, Banderas says, and all down to that chance encounter.
It's high summer, roasting hot, when I meet Banderas at Almodóvar's production office on a quiet Madrid side street. Banderas has his herbal tea and his cigarettes. His conversation is a rush of accented English, peppered with italics, face-pulling and extravagant waves of the hand. At the age of 50, there is still something of the wide-eyed, beautiful boy about him, although the brow has crinkled and the hair is now threaded with grey. And that's OK, he insists. Ageing is fine; it brings fresh challenges. He was getting sick of all that "Latin lover shit" anyway. ..............(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jul/29/antonio-banderas-interview-almodovar
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