Biography for
Javier Bardem More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

1 March 1969, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain

Birth Name

Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem

Height

6' (1.83 m)

Mini Biography

Javier Bardem is the youngest member of a family of actors that has been making films since the early days of Spanish cinema.He got his start in the family business at age six when he appeared in his first feature, "El Pícaro" (The Scoundrel). During his teenage years he acted in several TV series, played rugby for theSpanish National Team, and toured the country with an independent theatrical group. Javier's early film role as a sexy stud in the black comedy_Jamón, jamón (1992)_ (Ham Ham) propelled him to instant popularity and threatened to typecast him as nothing morethan a brawny sex symbol. Determined to avert a beefcake image, he refused similar subsequent roles and has gone on to win acclaim for his ability to appear almost unrecognizable from film to film. With over 25 movies and numerous awards under his belt, it is Javier's stirring, passionate performance as the persecuted Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas in Before Night Falls (2000) that will longbe remembered as his breakthrough role. He received five Best Actor awards and a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a strong-willed man who survived censorship, imprisonment, and homosexual intolerance for the privilege to write freely, only to commit suicide at age 47 in New York, ending a battle with AIDS.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Dana Spiardi/

Trivia

Brother of Carlos Bardem and Mónica Bardem.

Son of Pilar Bardem

Nephew of director Juan Antonio Bardem

Grandson of Rafael Bardem

His Best Actor nomination for Before Night Falls (2000) made him the first Spanish actor to receive an Academy Award nomination and his Best Supporting Actor victory for No Country for Old Men (2007) made him the first Spanish actor to win an Academy Award.

Says in interviews that he doesn't know how to drive.

Played rugby union as a teen and was on the Spanish National Team.

Ten years ago, a stranger in a disco asked him his name. When Javier replied, the man punched him in the face for no apparent reason, breaking his nose.

Javier's original interest was in painting, and he studied at Madrid's Escuela de Artes y Oficios. Eventually, deciding he'd never be a talented painter, he drifted into a number of odd jobs, working as a bouncer, a writer, a construction worker, and even a stripper.

To portray Reinaldo Arenas, Javier not only learned Cuban-Spanish, but Cuban-accented English, and lost 30 pounds to better resemble the smaller-framed Arenas.

Javier, his mother, Pilar Bardem, and his siblings, Mónica Bardem and Carlos Bardem, often appear in each other's films.

Has four Goya Awards (the Spanish equivalent of the Oscar).

To become Ramón Sampedro, a 55-year-old Spanish man who made headlines with a crusade to end his own life, Javier, who was in his thirties at the time, was on the set of Mar adentro (2004/I) at the crack of dawn for a five-hour makeup session that produced the necessary aging.

Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005

Spanish citizen.

Actors Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna list him as their favorite actor.

Very good friends with Penélope Cruz.

Beat out Johnny Depp for the role of Florentino Ariza in Love in the Time of Cholera (2007).

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#73). [2007].

Dedicated the Oscar he won for No Country for Old Men (2007) to his mother, Pilar, whom he brought with him to the ceremony. At the end of his acceptance speech, Javier said to her (originally in Spanish), "Mom, this is for you, this is for your grandparents, for your parents, Rafael and Matilde, this is for the comics of Spain, who have brought, like you, the dignity and the pride to our job. This is for Spain and this is for all of you.".

The Bardem family owns a restaurant in Spain called La Bardemcilla. The restaurant is managed by Javier's sister, Monica.

Good friends with Josh Brolin.

Had a long relationship with Cristina Payés. They were together for ten years.

Is one of eight actors to have won an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award and SAG Award for the same performance. The others in chronological order are Geoffrey Rush for Shine (1996), Benicio Del Toro for Traffic (2000), Jamie Foxx for Ray(2004), Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote (2005), Forest Whitaker for The Last King in Scotland (2006), Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood (2007), and Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight (2008).

Has been in a relationship with Penélope Cruz since they began working together on Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008).

Was originally cast as Guido Contini in Nine (2009), but he turned the role down and Daniel Day-Lewis was eventually given the part.

Was originally cast in Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps (2010), but dropped out of the project and was replaced by Josh Brolin.

Personal Quotes

One of my dreams came true when [Julian Schnabel] showed the movie [Before Night Falls (2000)] to Al Pacino and he called me at 3 a.m. Spanish time and told me he liked my performance. I told him, "There are two things I believe in, God and Al Pacino".

[on his girlfriend Cristina, who is a translator and coaching him in English] I'm in love with my English teacher. We have many of our lessons in bed.

I live in Spain. Oscars are something that are on TV Sunday night, basically, very late at night. You don't watch, you just read the news after to see who won or who lost . . . The award is important in order to bring people to the movie theater. That's the only principal meaning of any award.

We are so scared about talking about death that we are letting people die in silence. It is good to talk publicly.

It would be amazing to think your film or your performance had the power to make changes, but it's enough that it makes people talk and think. Maybe they shouldn't do anything anyway. The Church has strong feelings and we respect that.

[on his Oscar nomination for Before Night Falls (2000)] It's exhausting, almost a full-time job. Last time I found it was too much about bringing attention to yourself.

I'm proud of the fact that I got so many people to sit down and watch a story like Before Night Falls (2000) even at the expense, I felt, of some of my personal life.

[on No Country for Old Men (2007)] I think the movie speaks of a lack of meaning in violence. I embody violence, I am violence itself in the movie, and there is a man . . . who is trying to understand the meaning of it and at the end there is no meaning.

I'm getting more comfortable now, but it will never get to the point as if you are doing it in your own language. When I say, "I love you" or "I hate you" in Spanish, many things come to my mind, aspects of my own life. When I say it in English, I don't have the memories.

[on his character of Chigurh in No Country for Old Men (2007)] All the work I usually do: imagining the past, the circumstances of the character in this case I didn't do it. We all saw him as a force of nature, the embodiment of violence.

[on working with Alejandro Amenábar again] I wish I could work with him again. He's so secret. He doesn't even tell me and I go, "Give me a break, man. Give me a role." He works secretly. I guess he will be shooting soon. I hope so, because he's amazing.

All of the good movies are based on how that story was told. And you cannot do it with a bad script, that's for sure, no matter who.

What does my performance have to do with Russell Crowe's? Nothing. If I play Gladiator (2000) and we all play "Gladiator" with Ridley Scott in the same amount of time, maybe we have a chance to see who did it best.

We actors always say how difficult and physically demanding a role was. But give me a break, it's only a movie.

The only thing I can do is act, but it's not something I even feel comfortable doing. It costs me a lot, because I'm a shy person, even if I don't look it.

Sometimes I say to myself, what are you doing in this absurd job? Why don't you go to Africa and help people? But I cannot help people, because I am a hypochondriac.

When the Coens called [about casting him in No Country for Old Men (2007)], I said, "Listen, I'm the wrong actor. I don't drive, I speak bad English, and I hate violence". They laughed and said, "Maybe that's why we called you".

I truly consider myself non-sexy, which is fine for me. I don't have any problem with that. Sometimes I would like to have Brad Pitt's body. But that's not something that obsesses me in a real way. And second, I truly believe that what I would like to portray on-screen or on stage are human beings, and human beings usually are not as handsome as movie stars. But most times being handsome on-screen or being handsome for real life, has to do much more with your vanity and your profound need to be liked by the rest of the people, be loved by the rest of the people.

[On his preference between playing a villain or a romantic lead] I try to taste both of them with the same intensity. If you're playing a bad guy whose mind is broken, you have to get in there and find out what triggers those feelings. And once you're on the other side, you have to take that and throw it away. Somebody said 'The difference between an artist and a person that's crazy is that the artist has a two-way ticket and the crazy person only has a one-way.

[On any concern he may have with being type-cast] I'm not worried. I always try different things. My dream would be, when I'm old, to put all my characters in a room and realize that they can't talk to each other because they don't have anything to share.

I always say 'I don't believe in God, I believe in Al Pacino' - and that's true. If I ever get a phone call saying 'Would you like to work with Pacino?' I would go crazy.

I like to take a year off between films. Some actors need to work for the money, but money is not a priority for me. I don't have the need for a lot of cars or houses. Since I am a tomato in the market, I have a price. They have to pay the price, but money is not my biggest priority.

(On how has fame changed his life) Mostly, it's the same. I put on a hat and dark glasses and I can walk anywhere. But there are still questions which invade your privacy. I don't really know why people need to know personal details about other people's lives. It's out of control. For a lot of people, the press is now the enemy.

Where Are They Now

(October 2009) Filming Eat, Pray, Love (2011) in Bali, Indonesia

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