 |
 |
|
|
Javier Bardem
Mini biography
Javier Bardem is the youngest member of a family of actors that has been making films since the early days of Spanish cinema.He got his start in the family business at age six when he appeared in his first feature, «El Picaro» (The Scoundrel). During his teenage years he acted in several TV series, played rugby for the Spanish National Team, and toured the country with an independent theatrical group. Javier’s early film role as a sexy stud in the black comedyJamon, jamon (1992) (Ham Ham) propelled him to instant popularity and threatened to typecast him as nothing morethan a brawny sex symbol. Determined to avert a beefcake image, he refused similar subsequent roles and has gone on to win acclaim for his ability to appear almost unrecognizable from film to film. With over 25 movies and numerous awards under his belt, it is Javier’s stirring, passionate performance as the persecuted Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas in Before Night Falls (2000) that will longbe remembered as his breakthrough role. He received five Best Actor awards and a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a strong-willed man who survived censorship, imprisonment, and homosexual intolerance for the privilege to write freely, only to commit suicide at age 47 in New York, ending a battle with AIDS.
IMDb mini-biography by
http://us.imdb.com/SearchBios?Dana%20Spiardi/%3Cfabdana@hotmail.com%3E
Trivia:
Brother of Carlos Bardem and Monica Bardem.Son of Pilar Bardem
Nephew of director Juan Antonio Bardem
Grandson of Rafael Bardem
Is the first Spanish actor ever to be nominated for an Academy Award.
Says in interviws that he doesn’t know how to drive.
Played rugby as a teen and was on the Spanish National team.
Originally wanted to be a painter.
Ten years ago a stranger in a disco asked him his name. When Javier replied, the man punched him in the face for no apparent reason, breaking his nose.
Javier’s original interest was in painting, and he studied at Madrid’s Escuela de Artes y Officios. Eventually deciding he’d never be a talented painter, he drifted into a number of odd jobs, working as a bouncer, a writer, a construction worker and even a stripper.
To portray Reinaldo Arenas, Javier not only learned Cuban-Spanish, but Cuban-accented English, and lost 30 pounds to better resemble the smaller-framed Arenas.
Javier, his mother, Pilar Bardem and his siblings, Monica Bardem and Carlos Bardem often appear in each other’s films.
Personal quotes:
«One of my dreams came true when Julian [Schnabel] showed the movie [Before Night Falls (2000)]
to Al Pacino and he called me at 3 a.m. Spanish time and told me he liked my performance.
I told him, ’I don’t believe in God, I believe in Al Pacino.’»
