After winning an Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA and seven Goyas among many other top honors of the film world, Javier Bardem is finding some solid roles in exploring the dark side in television limited series with his SAG- and Globes-nominated role as Jose Menendez in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and his upcoming turn as notorious killer Max Cady in a new TV version of Cape Fear and the role none other than Robert Mitchum and Robert De Niro made famous in previous big-screen versions.
Barden joins me for this week’s edition of my Deadline video series The Actor’s Side to talk about this rare detour to television and the irresistible lure of taking on characters with an evil edge, something he has certainly done before, most memorably in his chilling Oscar-winning turn in No Country For Old Men.
Of course he hasn’t abandoned movies where he has spent most of his celebrated career and will also be seen opposite Brad Pitt later this month in the racing drama F1, and is eagerly getting ready to reprise his role of Stilgar in Denis Villeneuve’s final chapter of his Dune trilogy. A three-time Academy Award nominee for Best Actor (Before Night Falls, Biutiful, Being the Ricardos) and winner of Best Supporting Actor in that aforementioned Coen brothers movie, Bardem has had created a legacy in all sorts of roles including surprising musical turns of late in family outings like Lyle Lyle Crocodile (no relation to Lyle Menendez), the animated Spellbound, and the live-action The Little Mermaid, not to mention his brilliant Desi Arnaz opposite Nicole Kidman’s Lucille Ball. Nevertheless he had made a real mark with characters not so nice including Bond villain Raoul Silva in Skyfall; Pablo Escobar in Loving Pablo; and of course Anton Chigurh, that man of few words, in No Country For Old Men.
We talk about all of these roles and how he approached the tricky assignment of playing the father of the Menendez brothers who was accused of sexual abuse as a reason his sons brutally murdered him and their mother in the Ryan Murphy limited series that has sparked a movement to get the brothers out of their lifetime prison sentences. Bardem tells me he purposely avoided direct contact with the real brothers and strived to present a three-dimensional of picture of Jose to go beyond the headlines of the lurid true story. He also talks about his currently in-production limited series version of Cape Fear co-starring Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson, which is based on the book but of course famously was made twice as a movie with Robert Mitchum and then Robert De Niro as the cold-blooded Max Cady, a job Bardem freely admits is challenging to say the least. But if anyone can fill those imposing cinematic shoes it is this star.
In addition, we talk about his upcoming June 27 release F1 where he co-stars as Ruben opposite Brad Pitt’s Formula One racing star, and just where he thinks Stilgar may be heading in the final installment of Villeneuve’s enormously popular Dune saga. He has much to say about all of this and more.
To watch our conversation and to get the “actor’s side” of things from Javier Bardem, click on the video above.
Join me every Wednesday during Emmy season for another edition of The Actor’s Side.
