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Our plan was to go through as much of his career as we could.
We got about halfway, because Antonio Banderas, it turns out, has a lot to say.
Pedro Almodovar cast you in your first film,Labyrinth of Passion, when you were just a teenager.
What do you think he saw in you?I was 19 years old …
I remember when he offered me the part, I said, I have never done a movie.
I dont know how you are supposed to behave in front of the camera.
He said, You know how to do theater.
You will be fine in the cinema.
Besides, Im there.
Im just going to drive you.
The film was made just a few years after the death of Franco.
Spain was still a pretty conservative country.
It only had members in Madrid.
So it was, in a way, a society that was being dreamt.
We presented a tribe that was way more sweet, more colorful than what the regime permitted.
Pedro Almodovar actually helped to change the Spanish morality at the time.
At the San Sebastian Film Festival, it was a scandal.
There were people insulting us members of the audience.
Some just left the theater, and others were cheering and applauding.
It was an incredible, unbelievable reaction.
Some of us, we were insulted on the streets, because we were doing these dirty movies.
Do you remember the specific things people said to you?Well, yeah.
I didnt care because I felt like a Rolling Stone.
I felt the support more than the rejection.
Youre winning the space for new things, for a new way of thinking.
We were actually conquering spaces.
Id argue that its even more revolutionary.That movie, in terms of sexuality, opened a whole national discussion.
But nobody paid attention to the fact that Ikilledsomebody in the movie.
That was totally fine!
I said, How is this possible.
Your lovemaking scenes in that film are genuinely sensuous and passionate.
Maybe thats what bothered some people about it?Yeah.
But when I do something, I do it for real.
If I love, I love.
If I touch, I touch.
If I look, I look.
If I eat, I eat.
If I kill, I kill.
Then of course inTie Me Up!
If the character is hideous in the beginning, there is no relationship.
There is just somebody abusing somebody else.
At that time, it was very important to do that.
But right now, it could be confused for something else.
I mean, if there is something that Pedro is not, is a coward.
Whatever idea he got, he is planning to explore.
He will never stop himself from doing it, or engaging in self-censorship.
That is not Pedro.
Maybe some other director, but not him.
Not long after that, you came to Hollywood, to doMambo Kings.
As I understand, you didnt speak English at the time?Nothing.
I did the movie phonetically.
I learned the language phonetically.
I couldnt understand the director so we had an interpreter.
But it was a dream because I never thought I was going to do a movie in America.
Every word has a history.
Do you remember the first English curse word you learned?I think it was the classicfuck.
Because its such an easy word.
Do you remember who taught it to you?No.
That, I dont remember.
Maybe it was from a movie with Joe Pesci.
So you came here and you didnt speak the language, but you were on this movie.
You must have felt lonely.I felt weird.
Weirder outside of the set, because on the set I had my script.
The problem was when I was outside, when I had to be at a dinner table.
You have to think all the time, How can I just translate this idea in English?
I remember it was exhausting to have a social life in Hollywood.
A lot of work to have to talk, to talk, to talk.
So, I said to Pedro, Who is she?
What is her name?
Pedro said, Thats Melanie Griffith!
I said, Thats it.
Six years later, I was married to her.
Everything happened in those years really fast.
My life was fast and fascinating if I actually see it in retrospective.
I remember those years as very effervescent and really beautiful.
I am not married with Melanie anymore but she is my family.
She is probably one of my best friends, if not the best friend that I have.
My family is there, Dakota [Johnson], Little Estella and Alexander.
Dakota now has a very promising career of her own.
You must be proud.Of course.
I met her when she was five years old!
I followed every single step of it.
Im so proud of her.
Did Melanie and the kids have nicknames for you?Melanie called meNegrito.
And I used to call herRubia.Rubiais blonde in Spanish andNegritois little black boy.
I dont know why she called me that, but she called meNegrito.
Ive never told this to anybody.
Youre the first person, actually.
And Dakota called mePaponio, which is a mixture betweenpapa, which is daddy in Spanish, and Antonio.
I am her Antonio papa, soPaponio.
Not long afterMambo Kings, you did Jonathan DemmesPhiladelphia.
Did you speak English by that point?A little bit better.
I didnt need an interpreter on the set.
The film was absolutely necessary at the time.
And the one who really understood that was Jonathan.
I remember that we used to go, guided by him, to demonstrations in Philadelphia.
It was a very emotional adventure.
I loved everyone that was involved in the movie.
We became very good friends actually because of that, with Tom Hanks.
Tom represents that side of America that I love, in terms of honesty and courageousness.
For anyone who had seen your scenes inLaw of Desire, it was like, This is nothing.
Finally we embraced, and it was missing something.
I said to Tom, Tom, we should kiss here.
He said, What?
I said, We should kiss.
Jonathan was there and he looked at both of us and then Tom said, Absolutely.
So we did it.
Now, its natural [to see this onscreen].
Its good that these barriers, these frontiers, these boundaries, are just destroyed.
I knew that it was his alter ego.
But still, I think this movie is more Almodovar than Almodovar.
Because what are we?
The things that we wanted to do but we never did?
There is reconciliation with his mother.
There was a long period of time when you and Almodovar didnt work together.
Tie Me Down!,so I came with all my experience from Hollywood, all my new tools.
So, this humble reflection started in my mind.
I was praying for the opportunity to work with him again, and it came withPain and Glory.
I went to him and I said, Listen.
I dont want to use any tools.
I dont want to use tricks.
He said, This is a good place to start.
Everybody in the world travels through life with a suitcase filled with miseries and greatness.
With pain and glories.
Everybody has a circle to close.
Everybody has to come to terms with himself at some point.
Everybody has to ask for forgiveness.
This is a normal thing.
We are human beings.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
