What Antonio Banderas learned from portraying Picasso
Published Apr 29, 2018 16:05 pm
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Updated Apr 29, 2018 16:05 pm
Los Angeles – Handsome and dashing Antonio Banderas talked to us about portraying Pablo Picasso on the TV series, “Genius.”
Is there a genius in the 57-year-old actor?
“I don’t think everybody has a genius in him," he said. "I think if you can understand life as an art that I understand and you can be curious, imaginative in any activity that you just do in your life as you said before you can be a cook, you can be anything. You can actually be very creative but genius is some other thing.”
Antonio Banderas (Photo courtesy of Janet R. Nepales/HFPA)
Antonio continued, “Genius to me is somebody who actually breaks the rules of what was known to give us something new that was slightly better than what we had and can affect a very large number of people.”
Doing Picasso, Antonio discovered that “Geniuses are not perfect people. They are just human beings like us who makes a lot of mistakes too. You can see that in the portrait that we did of Picasso in the 10 episodes that you're going to see. Geniuses come almost necessarily with a big deal of egotistical moods, arrogance. There are a number of things that are a little bit more negative than we think so.
“We talk about painting, of course, when we are doing this movie and art. But we talk about relationships and events too, how he behaved in front of politics, how he behaved in front of social issues, how he behaved with women, how he behaved with his friends, what is the conception that he's got about friendship. So all of those themes are the spectrum that we try to present when we do Pablo Picasso, trying to understand what genius is.”
As for Picasso’s art, he described, “In all of his paintings, you can see different styles. So Picasso is almost as many as his styles. He changes with women. He changes as he goes as an artist. He’s curious. He never stops. He’s always searching for something new.”
Portraying Picasso, he admitted, made him realize that “To be a real artist is very painful. It is very painful because you have to be very honest and that same honesty that makes you a great artist is the same one that becomes a misery to you, the same honesty that he had to take the boos. He was booed many times in his life as a painter because he didn’t want to just follow what people wanted to see for him.”
“He is broke. That kind of honesty is the same honesty that creates a lot of problems for him. It’s the honesty of saying I don’t love you anymore.”
Antonio believes “You can build your own destiny sometimes unconsciously. I do believe in that. I do believe in what they call the law of attraction. I believe that if you want something very much and you are honest with yourself, at the end you will get it. I do believe in those things.”
Proud of Stella
Divorced from actress Melanie Griffith, his wife of 19 years, since 2015, the Spanish actor dotes on their daughter, Stella Bandera, 21, who is an actress.
“She is at Coachella right now with a million other people from Los Angeles,” he disclosed of his daughter and then smiled. Turning serious, he added, “She is a great girl and a young woman with 21 years going to the University of Southern California. She is doing narrative studies. That’s what it’s called and she may end up in front of a camera. I don't know. She may end up behind a camera. More possible I think.”
“She may write. I don’t know but she's a very consequent woman with the life that she’s living and the world that surrounds her. She is very conscious about what is happening all around the universe and that is very important for me because Hollywood can be very deceiving especially for young kids.”
“The war in Syria that is just making us all puke when we are in front of the television. There are a lot of injustices going on in the world, a lot of confusion and violence and she’s conscious of that. I want her to be because that's her time. She and all the young people have to be conscious of that otherwise this is not going to change ever so I am very proud of my daughter. Her mother did a great job not only with her. Also with (half-sister) Dakota (Johnson) and with the other kids. So I salute her for that.”
The actor, whose net worth is $45 million, continued, “Stella is a very good girl too. She doesn’t have anything to do with my profession which is great. I married two actresses before and she’s a financial adviser. She doesn’t have anything to do with this world. She flipped out being here. Going on the set for her is everything magical but it gives me also a chance to talk to her about normal things. She has her friends who don't have to do with my profession and I am becoming friends with those friends who are architects, engineers and doctors. They talk about other things and that is actually very enlightening to me. I like to talk to people who are not in this business. It’s actually good.”
Antonio Banderas (Photo courtesy of Janet R. Nepales/HFPA)
Antonio continued, “Genius to me is somebody who actually breaks the rules of what was known to give us something new that was slightly better than what we had and can affect a very large number of people.”
Doing Picasso, Antonio discovered that “Geniuses are not perfect people. They are just human beings like us who makes a lot of mistakes too. You can see that in the portrait that we did of Picasso in the 10 episodes that you're going to see. Geniuses come almost necessarily with a big deal of egotistical moods, arrogance. There are a number of things that are a little bit more negative than we think so.
“We talk about painting, of course, when we are doing this movie and art. But we talk about relationships and events too, how he behaved in front of politics, how he behaved in front of social issues, how he behaved with women, how he behaved with his friends, what is the conception that he's got about friendship. So all of those themes are the spectrum that we try to present when we do Pablo Picasso, trying to understand what genius is.”
As for Picasso’s art, he described, “In all of his paintings, you can see different styles. So Picasso is almost as many as his styles. He changes with women. He changes as he goes as an artist. He’s curious. He never stops. He’s always searching for something new.”
Portraying Picasso, he admitted, made him realize that “To be a real artist is very painful. It is very painful because you have to be very honest and that same honesty that makes you a great artist is the same one that becomes a misery to you, the same honesty that he had to take the boos. He was booed many times in his life as a painter because he didn’t want to just follow what people wanted to see for him.”
“He is broke. That kind of honesty is the same honesty that creates a lot of problems for him. It’s the honesty of saying I don’t love you anymore.”
Antonio believes “You can build your own destiny sometimes unconsciously. I do believe in that. I do believe in what they call the law of attraction. I believe that if you want something very much and you are honest with yourself, at the end you will get it. I do believe in those things.”
Proud of Stella
Divorced from actress Melanie Griffith, his wife of 19 years, since 2015, the Spanish actor dotes on their daughter, Stella Bandera, 21, who is an actress.
“She is at Coachella right now with a million other people from Los Angeles,” he disclosed of his daughter and then smiled. Turning serious, he added, “She is a great girl and a young woman with 21 years going to the University of Southern California. She is doing narrative studies. That’s what it’s called and she may end up in front of a camera. I don't know. She may end up behind a camera. More possible I think.”
“She may write. I don’t know but she's a very consequent woman with the life that she’s living and the world that surrounds her. She is very conscious about what is happening all around the universe and that is very important for me because Hollywood can be very deceiving especially for young kids.”
“The war in Syria that is just making us all puke when we are in front of the television. There are a lot of injustices going on in the world, a lot of confusion and violence and she’s conscious of that. I want her to be because that's her time. She and all the young people have to be conscious of that otherwise this is not going to change ever so I am very proud of my daughter. Her mother did a great job not only with her. Also with (half-sister) Dakota (Johnson) and with the other kids. So I salute her for that.”
The actor, whose net worth is $45 million, continued, “Stella is a very good girl too. She doesn’t have anything to do with my profession which is great. I married two actresses before and she’s a financial adviser. She doesn’t have anything to do with this world. She flipped out being here. Going on the set for her is everything magical but it gives me also a chance to talk to her about normal things. She has her friends who don't have to do with my profession and I am becoming friends with those friends who are architects, engineers and doctors. They talk about other things and that is actually very enlightening to me. I like to talk to people who are not in this business. It’s actually good.”