NEW YORK – Antonio Banderas knows where you begin is vitally important to how you might finish.
Both in his native Spain and in Hollywood, Banderas, 59, had superlative starts.
Friday’s Pedro Almovodar Spanish-language, semi-autobiographical “Pain and Glory” marks the eighth time the two have collaborated since the 1982 “Labyrinth of Passion.”
As an aging writer-director reflecting on his life and loves in “P&G,” an obvious stand-in for Almodovar, Banderas was named Cannes’ best actor. Now, along with the film and its auteur, he is a contender for Golden Globe and Oscar nominations.
“I was 19 when I met Pedro,” Banderas, 59, began in his flawless English at the Whitby Hotel. “We know each other but we respect the other’s privacy. I knew his mother and knew many of the events reflected in the movie.”
Was it weird to be playing a character when the inspiration for that character is a few feet away behind the camera? When your Madrid apartment in the film is an exact duplicate of Almodovar’s? When your Prada suits are copies of Almodovar’s?
“No, it wasn’t weird. But complex. Because it’s difficult if that person you’re portraying, if that person existed and if that person is directing you. But at the same time you have all the sources to put the character together.”
As to how autobiographical, “Certain things are the truth and others are fiction. I formulated a question to the movie and to myself: What are we? Are we the things we’ve done or said? Or the things we wanted to do or say and never did?
“Pedro was putting pieces of the puzzle that is his life onscreen. We see him say to his mother, ‘I’m sorry I never was the son you wanted me to be.’ He probably didn’t say that — but he wanted to say it.”
When Hollywood beckoned in the 1990s, Banderas barely spoke English. His first Oscar night in 1994 for “Philadelphia” — he played the lover of AIDs-stricken Tom Hanks — was only his second Hollywood film.
“After, we went to Elton John’s party,” Banderas recalled. “I was sitting there with Steven Spielberg, Bruce Springsteen, Christian Slater. And Spielberg says, ‘Do you know the character named Zorro?’ I said yes. ‘Do you want to play him? Come to my office tomorrow morning.’ ”
And with that, his international career was launched. Next up: January’s “The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle” with Robert Downey Jr.
