Antonio Banderas: The Real Don Juan

"When you see paintings by Picasso, whom I love, some of them make people unbelievably uncomfortable," he says, highly animated. "In the museums in Barcelona, you have all of these people filled with morality, lovers of art, confronted with a Picasso of a woman sucking a man's enormous dick, you know?" He breaks off, miming with his hands a penis the size of Mount Fuji, then continues, "And there's another painting of a man sucking a woman's pussy. It's Picasso and people have to accept it because this is life, it happens, and Picasso reflects that in these paintings. Real artists have the responsibility to break rules."

Given Banderas's refreshing ease with matters sexual and given what must be opportunities galore, has he ever availed himself of a gay experience? "No, never have," he replies. "Nature made me different. I don't know why. Even I don't deny that someday it could happen. I've done gay characters several times in my life and I tried to do it in the most honest way. People have said, What about box office? What about your image? You know, keep your image clean, in terms of morality, in from of society. But I am not afraid of that. I've never played a queen. I always played a guy who was comfortable with his problems, who reacts not so differently from a heterosexual guy. It's not such a big deal. I think most actors think in the same way,"

Though he has scored such strategic successes as Interview With the Vampire, does Banderas feel that maybe he's done too much that is not the best material? "I turned down many opportunities in American movies," he says, sounding only slightly wounded. "Sometimes, I've taken things just because I liked the purl, even if it was small. When I first came here, it was like I was starting alt over again. I had been doing leading characters in my country for five years. There is no tradition of actors from Spain coming to this country. I had done dozens of movies in Spain where, to survive, you have to do a lot of jobs, to jump from movie to movie because they pay you so few dollars to do any movie. You have to keep working, sometimes pick some things that you are not interested in, just because you are a professional. So, I am coming from a work world which is completely different."

Breaking into a grin, Banderas declares, "In Spain, they are proud of me because I am considered like an international soccer player. I have to win a battle outside so that I can represent my country. In a way, they are going, 'Antonio, don't blow it!'"

So, how does this Castilian de Tocqueville suss out his second country? "I am no sociologist, no politician." he says. But he is, he admits, fascinated by America's "contradicciónes." He explains, "Smoking cigarettes is really bad, you know, but what about guns and other serious stuff?" (Spoken like a true smoker.)

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