Double Play

Antonio Banderas will make your skin crawl in The Skin I Live In, the Pedro Almodovar revenge thriller now in limited release. Then, vaulting from Skin to fur, he’ll elicit laughs from the kiddies as the voice of the titular feline in the animated Shrek spin-off, Puss in Boots, which releases in the US on October 28.

“This is what an actor wants to be doing,” Banderas says, his Spanish accent still thick after years of working primarily in America. “These two movies are absolutely different. Puss in Boots is pure entertainment that allows me the possibility of actually bringing some smiles to people all around the world. So many people are in stressed conditions nowadays, especially in Europe, and just to make them laugh is kind of a luxurious thing for me. I get this opportunity and I take it in a big way.

“And, on the other hand, we have The Skin I Live In, that actually explores the human condition and the complexities of the human soul,” he continues. “I play a horrible man, but I just tried to represent him with dignity and honesty.”

Banderas and Almodovar hadn’t worked together in more than 20 years, since Labyrinth of Passion (1982), Matador (1986), Law of Desire (1987) and, especially, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) and Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down (1990) helped establish Banderas as an international superstar and Almodovar as one of Europe’s leading filmmakers.

Speaking by telephone on his way to a Los Angeles studio to record Spanish dialogue for Puss in Boots, Banderas explains that Almodovar first approached him about The Skin I Live In in 2002, soon after the filmmaker had purchased the rights to the Thierry Jonquet novel on which he based the script.

The Skin I Live In is set in the very near future, 2012, but veers back and forth through time. It centres around Dr Robert Ledgard (Banderas), a respected Spanish plastic surgeon who, after the fiery disfigurement and death of his wife, breaks any and all ethical boundaries in an effort to create new skin. He works feverishly in a home laboratory, experimenting for years on a beautiful, imprisoned young woman named Vera (Elena Anaya), all the while seeking vengeance against Vincente (Jan Cornet), who sexually assaulted his mentally unstable teenage daughter, Norma (Blanca Suarez).

Also on the scene are the ultra-protective Marilia (Marisa Paredes), a servant who takes care of Ledgard and his home, and her son, Zeca (Roberto Alamo), an on-the-run thief who arrives at Robert’s house — dressed in a tiger costume — to hide from the police. Ultimately, the characters and their respective storylines dovetail in ways that will disturb, titillate, enthrall and/or repulse moviegoers.

“Pedro was very specific to me, when we were trying to build the character, and in two different ways,” Banderas says. “Formally he wanted for me to be very economical, very minimalist in acting character, and kind of become a wide screen on which the audience can put all their own fears and feelings. If you remember the movie Alien (1979), 
the monster was not shown at all, and so you created 
a monster in your mind that was way bigger than anything anyone could build. Formally, Pedro wanted that.

“On the other hand, in terms of content, what the character is all about is a kind of psychopathy that he’s carrying with him,” Banderas says. “He’s someone we have seen when, for example, the police arrest a serial killer. The press goes around the life of the guy and asks questions to neighbours, and people normally say, ‘Oh, he was a very nice guy. He said “Good morning” every day and dressed beautifully and was very polite.’ These kinds of killers, they live in society without being suspected of anything.

“So Pedro and I, from these two premises, we started composing the character and tried to make natural what is not,” Banderas says. “And I agreed with him, and we started working in that direction, trying to make the character very contained, very laid-back, because in Robert’s mind what he’s doing is not wrong. He thinks the subject of his experiment should be thankful to him, because he’s making her a better person than she was. And he thinks society should be very thankful to him too.”

After rising to prominence in Almodovar’s 
early films, Banderas crossed the Atlantic to achieve Hollywood stardom with Philadelphia (1993), Evita (1996), The Mask of Zorro (1998), Spy Kids (2001) and Shrek 2 (2004) and its 2007 and 2010 follow-ups. Since 1996, he also has been married to American actress Melanie Griffith, with whom he lives in Los Angeles and in Marbella, Spain.

Given the seismic shifts in their lives since Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down, it’s no surprise that Banderas uses the word “difficult” — albeit in the best sense — to describe his working relationship with Almodovar on the set of The Skin I Live In.

“To work with him is difficult, and thank God,” Banderas says. “He is very demanding of the actors and he is unbelievably precise, like no other director I’ve worked with. This is my sixth movie with him, and he’s my friend and I admire him and respect him and love him, but he’s very, very precise, in little details no other director would mention to you. He’s precise about you moving one finger or your eyebrows, about the way you look, to that level of perfection.

“So at the time it may be very difficult,” he says, “but at the same time, when you see the results of what he can obtain from you, it’s amazing. He can make you look absolutely different from movies you’ve done before. When I saw The Skin I Live In for the first time, I realised that he made me play notes I didn’t know I had.”

In addition to The 
Skin I Live In and Puss in Boots, Banderas has completed several other films, including Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, an action film set to open in January, and Jean-Jacques Annaud’s drama Black Gold. Banderas also spent three days shooting a cameo role in the romantic comedy He Loves Me, in order to act alongside Annette Bening.

When he’s not working, Banderas can usually be found at home with Griffith and their daughter, 15-year-old Stella. Their family also includes 26-year-old Alexander and 22-year-old Dakota, Griffith’s children from previous relationships. Her substance-abuse battles have made news through the years, provoking speculation about the state of their marriage.

Banderas has rarely shied away from discussing his life with Griffith, and today is no different.

“People have opinions,” the actor says, “but we’ve never really taken them seriously. I remember, when we got together 17 years ago, we used to laugh about those things. We knew what we wanted. We both have a very strong sense of family, and the secret of being together is as simple and as complex as saying we love each other, and we have the strength to overcome all of the crisis situations and all the problems we may face.

“Love is something that only poets are able to define,” Banderas concludes, “but we’re still going on and I don’t have any plans to change that.”

— New York 
Times Syndicate