Antonio Banderas learned his first Hollywood lines phonetically, barely speaking English
When Antonio Banderas shot The Mambo Kings in 1992, he spoke so little English that he memorised his dialogue by sound. Critics praised him anyway. It was a long way from Malaga, where a broken foot at 15 ended his dream of professional football and sent him toward the stage instead.
He was born Jose Antonio Dominguez Bandera on 10 August 1960 in Malaga, son of a Civil Guard officer and a schoolteacher. After the injury he threw himself into drama schools in his home city, and his theatre and street performances eventually earned him a place with the Spanish National Theatre. He came of age amid La Movida Madrileña, the cultural burst that followed the dictatorship.
Pedro Almodovar spotted him on stage and cast him in Labyrinth of Passion in 1982, the start of a partnership spanning eight films. Law of Desire in 1987 made headlines because his role as a gay man included his first onscreen kiss with another man. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown followed in 1988, and the controversial Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! pushed him toward Hollywood. Madonna, who made no secret of her interest in him in her tour documentary, helped introduce him there in 1991.
American stardom arrived fast. He played Tom Hanks's partner in Philadelphia in 1993, joined Interview with the Vampire, and became an action lead in Robert Rodriguez's Desperado, where one critic said the camera loved him as it had the young Clint Eastwood. He sang the narrator Che opposite Madonna in Evita and put on the mask in The Mask of Zorro, each earning a Golden Globe nomination. Family audiences know him as the father in Spy Kids and the voice of Puss in Boots in the Shrek films.
His range kept widening. His Broadway debut as the film director Guido in the 2003 revival of Nine won Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards and a Tony nomination. Playing Pancho Villa for HBO and Picasso in Genius brought Emmy nominations. His directing debut, Crazy in Alabama in 1999, was poorly received. Decades after their first film, Almodovar's Pain and Glory in 2019 won him the best actor prize at Cannes and an Academy Award nomination.
Source: Antonio Banderas
