Javier Bardem on Biutiful, Barcelona, and the Economy of Exploitation (Oscars Included)

You have an even more intriguing moment here when Uxbal exhumes his father. As a father-son moment it's kind of unprecedented in movies. Can you walk me through that?

That's scene's beautiful because it's the only one in the whole film where he can go back to his roots of once being a son. We were talking about that scene being the experience of Uxbal being 10 years old; to face that body like that would be like him going back to being 10 years old. Then he sees the body, and he sees the father is even younger than him. I like that scene because there, you can tell the weakness -- the emptiness, the lack of affection -- that he had. It explains a great deal about what he's able to do with his own kids.

It's never clear, but did Uxbal have an impulse at that moment to channel his father's spirit, much the way he channels the dead children's spirits elsewhere in the film?

Yes. That's a great question. We talked about it: Does he want to do that? We had several options. We had the option where he was into that: "Can I hear anything? Is he telling me something?" But thanks to that question, the answer came along by itself: In that moment he gives up everything. Any gift, any necessity. Asking for the hug he never had. It's when his kid -- Uxbal's kid -- shows up the next time that he asks for the first time in the whole movie, "I'm a kid. Who's taking care of me?"

How did you approach this role physically? The posture, the face, the walk... How did those develop?

As I said, I always thought of him as being a person of few words, and having a chest where something is stuck there emotionally. This whole experience is about opening the chest. And throughout the whole movie, we see until the very end how he is holding it inside. It's in the way that he walks -- like a stray dog, like a coyote. And in the end, he's more under the center of gravity of his stomach. His chest is open, and he's able to share --- in the birthday cake -- an expression of something that very deep in him. Like affection -- that is so hard for him. For example, the scene with [his wife] Marambra, when they go to visit the kids, and she wants to make love. And he goes, "No, no, no." It's in the end, you know he's thought about it, but he can't do it. He's very shy about affection because he's so scared to be hurt again. He has to be protected. So that body has to be like that.

There's a lot going on here between you and Maricel Álvarez -- even in the spaces between you. When she lies about having hit your son, the pause that ensues belongs to both of you, but then you're sharing it with the audience as well. How does that even work?

That's the great thing about Alejandro. He knows that we're dealing with very delicate material in the delivery, in the scenes, in the lines, and in the actors. So he really let us take our time. And then... Maricel is an extraordinary actress who never did a movie before. She's a great actress who had done a lot of theater in Argentina, but she was worried. Alejandro said, "Why are you worried? You are that great. It's about timing; take your time." And when she took the time -- very early in the process, in the shooting -- you could tell all the feelings, all the thoughts, all the processes there, because she's a great actress. And then it's just a pleasure to play with her: "OK, you take the ball, you throw me the ball, I'll throw it to you..." It's that easy. And the great thing is that he's there with a camera holding that. And when he gets to the editing room, he respects that. That is where the really important things happen.

Obviously were in the middle of a big awards push for this film. You've been here before; to what extent do you think it helps -- or maybe even compromises -- the movie itself and the way we think about it?

We live in a world where everything needs to be sold. This is a movie. This is a market thing. Some people can create real art in movies, but movies are products. And I am a product. It's normal that they want to label things and put names on it and put prices. [Awards] help to bring people's attention, no doubt about it. That's why people look for them desperately. Which is not my case; I was born into a family where my mother and uncle and grandparents were actors. I've seen the ups, I've seen the downs, I've seen the gold, I've seen the dark. My mother taught me not to believe any of those -- not the gold, not the failure. Just be committed to your work. So when these things happen -- because we all have vanity, and we all like to be liked by the other -- it's great because they're telling us, "We like what you do." That makes us happy. But to get crazy and to get desperate about you telling me how much you like me? That's insane. So it's like: If it happens, great -- for the movie. Because then people say, "Hey, I want to see that." If it doesn't happen, enh. The movie's still the same.

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