Javier Bardem Answers the Web's Most Searched Questions

Hello, I am Javier Bardem,

and this is the Wired Autocomplete Interview.

[cheerful music]

I'm fine, I'm good.

I'm good to go, I'm good to go. It's okay.

Oh wow, all of those.

Where did Javier Bardem grew up?

I grew up in Madrid.

I was born in Canary Island, in Las Palmas.

My parents moved to Madrid,

and I consider myself Madrileno, from Madrid.

Yeah, and I love Madrid. It's a great city.

How did Javier Bardem learn English?

I learned English by listening music, by listening to AC/DC

and trying to understand what they were saying.

And of course, I learned how to curse in English,

and I learned the bad words, and I still love those lyrics.

I guess now it's easier to act in English than it was,

let's say 15 years ago.

But still, it's always demanding,

and it's always hard to let yourself go.

I still have to work a lot

in order to feel comfortable with the lines.

When I work in Spanish, I can let myself go.

At the same time, in a way,

I'm less shy in English than in Spanish

because I have less attachment to it.

So I can jump off a cliff with the English,

because I don't have memories in English.

It is not like when you speak your own language,

your mother tongue,

where everything is related to an emotion.

Why does Javier Bardem not drive?

I dunno, because I've always lived in the city,

and I've always used the buses and the underground.

Mostly I walk, I like walking.

But still, I can drive in movies.

If they gimme that car with two weeks in advance,

I can learn how to drive in a movie without killing anybody.

Javier Bardem, how to pronounce?

Ah, Javier Bardem, Javier Bardem.

You can pronounce whatever the hell you want it.

I mean, it's okay.

They call me everything you can imagine.

Javier Bardem, Javier Bardem.

Some people call me Caviar Bardem. What about that?

Bye, bye. Okay.

What does Javier Bardem do?

Do what? Do where, do when?

I'm an actor, that's the only thing I can do,

and I almost not know how to do it.

What was Javier Bardem first movie?

Wow, very first movie,

I was six years old and it was called, El Pícaro,

and it was playing someone that I was stolen.

And the kid who was going to play the role

didn't go to the set for whatever reason.

And my mom said, I'll bring my kid, and then I was there.

And I was supposed to laugh, but I cried,

and the director said,

Okay, he's a dramatic actor, it's okay.

Javier Bardem, Jamon, Jamon.

I would say that's the first movie that I did

where I had a very important role to play.

I was 21 and it's the first movie

that my actual wife did, Penelope.

She was 16, and that's when we met.

And it was a very important movie for many reasons,

because of the movie and what the movie meant for both of us

and how it helped our careers, and also because we met.

And the director, Bigas Luna, is my mentor.

He's a person that I will always adore and worship

for the chance that he gave us.

And I always call him Papa Bigas.

And God bless him, I love him.

Javier Bardem, best movies.

I don't know, I don't know.

I mean, it depends on so many things.

Some people may like one and may hate the other.

It's hard to make a good movie.

Dune: Part Two, I have to say, and yes, I'm promoting it,

but it's not because I'm promoting it.

Dune: Part Two, is a great movie,

and it happens that I'm in it,

but it's a fantastic piece of work of so many people,

but especially by Denis Villeneuve.

Throw the board. Okay.

Is Javier Bardem, Jesus, saying my name out loud,

it's the worst thing, a nice guy?

I can be a nice guy and I can be an asshole, absolutely.

I can be a tough one and I can be loving.

I can be many things. I'm a human being.

I try to do my best.

The ultimate goal is to teach my children

how to be good people.

And for that, you have to really show them

the example of it, so I try.

Does Javier Bardem play piano.

No, look at my fingers. No, no, no, no.

I play drums. I like playing drums.

I like the beats, I like the congas and the bongos.

I'm not a good drummer, but I like playing drums.

Javier Bardem, Collateral.

Yeah, that was my first big movie.

My scene was with Jamie Foxx, sitting down at a table,

I have to make this little speech.

And it was very intimidating to be in such a big set

with such a big star, and also directed by Michael Mann.

But Michael Mann made it a beautiful experience,

I have to say, because he was so much focused

on every detail of the performance,

that made me feel like, wow, I'm in such great hands.

He loves acting, he loves performances,

and he really takes the time to make sure

that the actor is giving what he needs,

but also what the actor needs to express.

So it was a great experience, and I love the movie.

Javier Bardem, education.

I studied in Spain. I didn't go to university.

I went to Artes y Oficios, which is like Bell Arts,

where I was painting, and doing sculptures,

and doing drawing, which I like very much.

I mean, I kind of move away from it.

And if you don't practice daily, you lose it. But I love it.

Javier Bardem won an Oscar.

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, yeah, I did.

[Javier laughing]

I was there. I saw it with my own eyes.

It was a great moment. I loved it, of course.

And it was a great honor.

But I like the most that my mother was there

for me to be able to say thank you.

And the reason why I was there that night on that stage,

it was because of her and her parents, who both were actors,

my grandparents, and because of their sacrifice,

I was able to be there on that stage.

Does Javier Bardem sing and dance?

Yes, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.

It's a great movie where I have the chance to dance and sing

and I have the fun of my life.

I learned magic in that movie.

I was doing my magic trick,

but I'm so clumsy that we have to repeat several times.

And in the, you say bloopers, the bloopers?

Yeah, you can see all my mistakes and it's fun blooper.

Javier Bardem, call it.

That's funny because reading the book first,

Cormac McCarthy, and then the script

of No Country for Old Men,

I didn't get the thing of call it,

because the literal translation will be

[Javier speaking in foreign language]

What does it mean when you say, Call it?

It doesn't make any sense.

Even though when I was shooting it, I knew what it meant,

but still I will do it,

kind of not owning the whole meaning of it,

and I guess that helped for the lack of sentiment or emotion

into the, Call it, line.

There was one day that I went to a gas station near Vegas,

and the guy looked at me like very scared.

I said, No, I'm only an actor, I'm fine.

I don't have any coins in my pocket.

Javier Bardem, Dune character, Stilgar.

When I read Dune, back when I was 25,

the character I loved the most, it was Stilgar.

So when Denis Villeneuve called me and said,

I have a role for you,

and he was explaining me the role,

and until the end of the conversation he said,

You know his name?

And I said, Yes, he's Stilgar,

and I can't believe that you're offering me that.

It's an absolute gift.

And it's a dream, it's a dream to be able to work

with this amazing cast in such an epic movie,

directed by Denis Villeneuve,

playing a role that you kind of dream with it

when you were younger.

Thank you.

Hair no country.

Well, the Coens brought this picture from a brothel

in the '60s, in the border with Texas,

of a guy having a drink with that haircut.

And Paul, hairdresser, did like

[Javier imitating scissors cutting]

and he show up in 10 minutes in front of me in the mirror.

They were laughing their asses off.

And I was very worried like, shit, really?

Do I have to wear this for the next three months?

But it was genius.

It was genius that such a maniac

like Anton Chigurh had that haircut cut.

And that's the magic touch of Paul, the hairdresser,

but also the Coens.

They know that there's something very uncomfortable

and funny in that, un-scary, spooky.

Bond villain, having a chance to work with Daniel,

it was, I adore him.

He's so funny, and such a great colleague,

and an amazing actor.

And Sam Mendes, and Barbara Broccoli,

and the whole team, we had fun.

Sam Mendes invited me to the party, and he told me,

Okay, let's build up this character from the ground up.

What can we find that has not been done yet in some way?

And we were like, okay,

we have to make Bond physically uncomfortable,

and let's create this character where he's very unreadable.

You cannot read him.

We thought of him like he had many operations,

because of the signer and the signet,

and we put some stripes behind the hair line.

So I was all the time with a face like this.

And it was very uncomfortable to be like that the whole day.

But it helped to give a very strange look.

Javier Bardem, fun facts.

I like painting. I like playing rugby.

I can't play rugby anymore,

but I played rugby for 19 years and I love it.

I just was last year

in the Rugby World Championship in Paris.

It's one of my passions.

Javier Bardem and Julia Roberts movie, Eat, Pray, Love.

And again, it was one of the first times

where I had the chance to work with such a big star,

and I was very nervous.

She was so collaborative, she was so helpful,

so generous, so fun to work with, an amazing actress.

You will start doing the scene with Julia,

and she will get into the emotional state,

like in a, like within a second.

And you are like, oh fuck, that took me off guard, okay.

And then she will get out of it,

and she will keep being the nice woman that she is,

and then she will come back into it.

And being in the drama, it was amazing to see

that unfolding in front of your eyes.

And I was in Bali, which is a paradise.

Javier Bardem, romance movies.

I don't have many romance movies.

Eat, Pray, Love, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, crazy movie.

That's it. Romance?

I wish I would do more.

[Interviewer] Would you do a romantic comedy?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Right now.

I mean, it has to be good.

It has to be good in the sense

that it makes sense for me to be there.

Otherwise we would be ridiculous.

[Javier laughing]

Javier Bardem, rugby.

Okay, I talk about it.

I play rugby since I was nine years old until I was 25.

I played in the national team in Spain, and I loved it.

It taught me a lot about movie making

because rugby is a sport where there are 15 players

and no one is a star.

It's not like soccer, football,

where you have amazing stars like Messi or Ronaldo.

In rugby there is not such a thing.

There are great players, but you have to play your note,

you cannot play any symphony.

And that's what movie making is, is you are part of a team,

and you have to do your thing, no more, no less.

I was taught that by playing rugby for so many years.

Javier Bardem, Little Mermaid.

I love Rob Marshall, I know him since a long time ago,

and I wanted to work with him so badly.

And then I texted him saying,

I heard you're doing 'Little Mermaid,'

and if there's a chance that King Triton speaks

with a foreign language, I would love to.

And he said, I'm shopping in the grocery store,

and I was thinking about texting you

to ask you if you wanted to do it.

And I was like, wow.

Then I went to my daughter, which at the time was eight,

and I said, I may do 'The Little Mermaid.'

And she look at me, almost crying,

and asked me, Are you playing Ariel?

I said, No. [Javier laughing]

Thank God, no.

And it's a movie that I'm very proud of,

and it's a beautiful movie.

And everybody, again working with Rob Marshall,

it's like with Denis Villeneuve,

you are in the hands of great people,

great human beings doing amazing work.

So it's a loving experience.

Javier Bardem, last one, today.

Today I'm promoting Dune: Part Two,

and you should watch this movie on a big screen

because it's a masterpiece.

It's everything that you expect

for a movie like this, and way more.

And today I have the luxury and the gift

of working with directors like Denis Villeneuve,

and it's something that I would have never dreamed of,

like years ago.

Bye bye, Google Javier Bardem.

[card clattering] [Javier laughing]

I haven't said my name so many times in a row.

That's the most Google I've done on myself ever.

[upbeat music]