The Rediscovery of Antonio Banderas

Q: You took particular heat in Spain when you left your wife. How is that these days?

A: In Spain, Melanie is totally accepted. At first, we were not. Once they realized it was a serious relationship, not just an affair, then boom, they respected my decision. It's not as though one relationship ending and another one beginning is so uncommon these days. I will never tell the real story of why I got divorced. It was not because of Melanie Griffith. I never want to be explicit about it, because my [ex-wife] would not have the same opportunities to express her opinion. I will never talk about Don Johnson. I respect him a lot. I also believe that I probably hurt him a lot. But I respect that he and Melanie have a wonderful daughter, Dakota, and I always put in her mind who is her father, that he's a wonderful man, that he's a worker.

Q: Having your personal life settled down must help with putting your professional life in order too, doesn't it?

A: I now pretty much know where I am. Before, it was very confusing. I kept wondering, What exactly is my position in this world? It was a constant question. Now, I think I have a position where I feel comfortable. I can start making choices. I didn't have lots of choices before. Now, I want to take big risks. And, now, for me, the movie of The Phantom of the Opera is not only my choice, it's my dream.

Q: What is it about Phantom that makes it such a dream project for you?

A: I saw the play six times. The character fascinates me. It's a man fighting with himself, a man in solitude, a man with something physical that keeps him apart from the world, a man with tremendous love, passion, the power to make people feel, the power to explode with anger. I think many people can relate on different levels to that character. [He rises from the chair, assumes a grand, tortured Phantom-style pose, and slowly sits back down]. It is so spectacular. So romantic. We have an expression in Spain where we say, "I like this cake, but I like this part best because it's got more sugar than the rest of it!" Phantom is like that to me. Now it is surely the will of Andrew Lloyd Webber that I do the movie, and it's mine, and it's also the people at Warner Bros. Many things can happen in the process, but it's the thing I most want to do as an actor.

Q: You're a pretty emotional guy, and I've never seen you so excited about anything, not even Evita.

A: Oh, I tell you--if I get to do this project, I'm going to seclude myself like a monk for a full year. I have so much work to do. Where Evita was massive, very bold, Phantom is intimate and erotic. I have to build a voice. I already have it in my mind. I know it's there in me, I know exactly how I want him to sound, but I have to work and build so I can translate that sound to my throat. That's going to take time. I have to stop smoking. I have to work out my voice daily for at the very least three or four months. After I take those steps, I have to understand the nature of this character visually. What is his soul? Why does he move in a particular way? If I get to do it, I'm going to go out there with a character unlike anything I've done for any other movie. I want to step into territory no one has ever stepped in before. I want that risk! I may ask Andrew to let me play the Phantom for two or three weeks with one of the touring companies, so that I can perform the role on the stage before live audiences.

Q: You're already so committed to this.

A: Yes! Yes! Everybody asked me when we finished Evita what it was like working with Madonna, and I said the truth--that it was beautiful and that I liked how committed she was to the role. Well, it's time for me to put into practice what I learned from Madonna. That seriousness. That toughness. That complete commitment. She fought, fought, fought--to find the voice, to find the character, to find the truth. I saw the movie a couple of weeks ago at our house, and now that I'm not so passionate about it, now that I don't have to sell it, I can say I was in awe of Madonna. The Phantom of the Opera is the dream of my lifetime, and I have to approach it with Madonna's kind of honesty and fierce commitment.

Q: Is there a director for it?

A: Many directors are afraid of musicals. We've lost the vocabulary for musicals that existed in the 30s, '40s and '50s. It's such an abstract art. Hollywood brought to America great directors--Fritz Lang, Josef von Stemberg--but smashed down their expressionism for naturalism. The only flame of expressionism and surrealism Hollywood kept alive is in the musicals. Who has the bravery and talent to photograph a dream? People who direct musicals are the screen's poets.

Q: So, is there a real-world director/poet for Phantom?

A: [Laughs] Alan Parker would be great. Even Alan, who has quite a bit of experience with the genre, used to say to me making Evita, "You come to me for answers, but, believe me, I've got 20 questions for every answer. We're lost if we don't convince the audience in the first five minutes that this is a world where people sing instead of talk. They'll laugh us off the screen!" Ridley Scott is a good friend of mine and there are things in Blade Runner and Thelma & Louise that tell me he would be fantastic. A Phantom of the Opera _directed by Pedro Almodovar would be interesting. Imagine what Milos Forman could do with it, as he did in _Amadeus!

Q: Sure, but after so many lousy Hollywood musicals have flopped, there's an anti-musical bias.

A: It's a very strange reaction against a whole "genre" you find here in America now. I am an actor because of musicals. That's simply the truth. When someone says "Hollywood," I go right away in my mind to Fred Astaire, An American in Paris, Singin' in the Rain, Cyd Charisse, Gene Kelly, all of the big musicals. Musicals are Hollywood.

Q: Right before you sang at a big London concert for a charity sponsored by Andrew Lloyd Webber, the papers announced he wanted you to do The Phantom of the Opera. Was your appearance there a kind of very public tryout for the movie?

A: No. I'd never sung Phantom before, only Evita, which is a whole different thing. And this was the first time in my entire life that I sang in public. I had never so much as sung for friends in my house. I'm too shy to do that. I got this invitation from Andrew to do it, said yes, then thought, "What am I doing?" Then, it was very humid there and we were rehearsing and the air conditioner was so strong, I got an infection in my throat. The first day of rehearsal, I was coughing with every two lines. So, I spent three hours a day in a steam room cleaning out and, finally, the night came. This was one of the most beautiful nights of my entire life. Unbelievable! I keep making this joke: "I want to be the first actor who goes from a black mask of Zorro to a white one in The Phantom of the Opera."

Q: Sounds like your baby daughter will be hearing lullabies by Andrew Lloyd Webber in the near future. The word is, by the way, you're a very good dad.

A: [Beaming] I think so. I would like to spend more time with my baby, though. I feel very good with her. Very loved by her. In the 18 months since she came into the world, I've learned more from her than she's learned from me. A baby is a very powerful weapon and lesson in your life. They are so raw. They ask so directly for everything that it doesn't matter what you think you were going to do or what you want to do, your baby tells you, "I want you, right now." So, I take off the tuxedo and say, "No, I'm not going. This baby needs me right now." That has changed my whole approach to life.

Q: What things do you hope your baby won't inherit from you and Melanie?

A: It's too late! [Laughs] She's got a temper. If she doesn't get what she wants, she doesn't stop moving, asking, wanting. That's something I am, too. I persevere. I keep fighting. Melanie, too. Melanie and I were born one day apart, August 9th and 10th. We're both Leos. Lions! All the time, we have some sparks going on!

Q: In spite of or because of that, you actually seem happy.

A: Happy is quite a word. [Laughs] I prefer to tell you that I'm a person who loves to be alive. I love to interact with people. Happy? I am a fortunate person. I am very, very thankful.

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Stephen Rebello interviewed Dennis Quaid for the July '98 issue of Movieline.

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