Before Night Falls

Background:

“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.” Javier Bardem

Flourishing Spanish actor Javier Bardem gained international stardom with his role as Cuban author Reinaldo Arenas on director Julian Schnabel’s Before Night Falls (2000). The performance brought Bardem a lot of recognitions, most notably an Oscar nomination as well as a Venice Film Festival Award and an Independent Spirit Award. With the nomination under his belt, he has created a history in the Spanish cinema for being the first Spaniard ever to snatch the Academy Award nod. He continued to gather wide appreciation and recognition with his Golden Globe-nominated, starring role of the Spaniard Ramón Sampedro on Mar Adentro/ The Sea Inside (2004). His magnificent acting won eight awards, such as a Venice Film Festival Award and his fourth Goya Award (the Spanish equivalent of the Academy Award). Bardem collected his first three Goya Awards for his notable performances in the movies Lunes al sol, Los/ Mondays in the Sun (2002), Boca a boca (1995) and Días contados (1994).

In addition, Bardem has delivered outstanding performances in movies like the international hit Jamón, Jamón/Ham Ham (1992), as a sexy stud, a role that propelled him to an immediate fame, The Detective and Death (1994), Extasis/Ecstasy (1996), Perdita Durango/ Dance with the Devil (1997), Carne trémula/ Live Flesh (1997), Los Lobos de Washington/ Washington Wolves (1999) Second Skin/Segunda piel (1999) and the John Malcovich-helmed The Dancer Upstairs (2002). Other film credits include Michael Mann’s Collateral (2004), with Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx, Milos Forman’s Goya’s Ghosts (2006), opposite Natalie Portman, and the Coen Brother’s No Country for Old Men (2007). He will play roles in Mike Newell’s Love in the Time of Cholera (2007) and Woody Allen Spanish Project (2008), along side Scarlett Johansson.

As for his romantic life, the hunky dark-haired actor currently lives in Madrid with his long-term girlfriend Christina Pales, a translator who also coaches Bardem. The two have been together since 1991.

“I’m in love with my English teacher. We have many of our lessons in bed.” Javier Bardem on his girlfriend

Bardem is Penelope Cruz’s very good friend and shares birthday with David Niven and Frédéric Chopin.


Rugby

Childhood and Family:

Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem was born on March 1, 1969, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. He comes from a renowned acting family in Spain. His mother is actress Pilar Bardem, daughter of actor Rafael Bardem (born in 1899, died in 1972) and younger sister of screenwriter-director Juan Antonio Bardem (born in 1922). He has a sister, Monica Bardem (born on May 4, 1964), and a brother, Carlos Bardem (born in 1963). They are both also actors. Javier began acting as a child and was a member of the Spanish national rugby team when he was a teenager. Aside from acting and athletics, he was also interested in painting.


The Sea Inside

Career:

The youngest member of a popular acting clan in Span, Javier Bardem entered the family business at age 6 when he appeared along side his mother in the miniseries “El Pícaro” (1974). During his teenage years, he worked in several TV series, played rugby for the Spanish National Team, as well as joined in with an independent theatrical group with which he toured throughout the country. In 1990, Bardem landed his first major film role when he was cast as Jimmy in the drama The Ages of Lulu, and followed it up with appearances in Pedro Almodovar’s High Heels (1991) and the comedy Amo tu cama rica (1992). However, it was his role as a sexy stud named El chorizo in the international hit black comedy Jamón, Jamón/Ham Ham (1992) that made Bardem an instant star. Under the direction of ‘The Ages of Lulu’ director Bigas Luna, he won a Sant Jordi and a Cinema Writers Circle for Best Actor and a New Comer honor from the Spanish Actors Union.

Bardem once again showed his sex appeal when he starred as an oversexed guy in Luna’s Golden Balls/Huevos de Oro (1993) and was handed a Fotogramas de Plata for Best Movie Actor for his performance. Fearing to be stereotyped as nothing more than a burly sex symbol, he decided to keep away from such roles later, and in 1994, he gave a change of pace turns in The Detective and Death/ El Detective y la muerte, playing the title law man, and Dias contados/ Numbered Days, as a Basque terrorist. His bravura acting in the latter production even won him a Goya (the Spanish equivalent of the Oscar) for Best Supporting Actor, a Spanish Actors Union for Supporting Performance as well as a Silver Seashell for Best Actor at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.

The acclaimed performer further proved he was versatile in the following year when he played the starring role of a would-be actor who supports himself by working as a phone sex operator in Manuel Gómez Pereira’s comedy Boca a boca/Mouth to Mouth. Delivering a bright turn, he was handed numerous awards such as a Goya, a Fotogramas de Plata, a Peñíscola Comedy Film Festival, an Ondas and a Premio ACE for Best Actor. Boca a boca was released in America in 1997. Bardem also stood out portraying the hoodlumism characters in Extasis/Ecstasy (1996) and his English-language debut, Perdita Durango/ Dance with the Devil (1997), opposite Rosie Perez. Along with Almodovar’s Carne trémula/ Live Flesh (1997), his performance in the latter film won him a Fotogramas de Plata for Best Movie Actor. Bardem closed out the decade by making his producing debut on and serving as star of the Mariano Barroso-directed action-thriller Los Lobos de Washington/ Washington Wolves (1999), from which he picked up a Best Actor Ondas, tying with costar Eduard Fernández, as well as portraying a surgeon connecting in a relationship with a married man in Second Skin/Segunda piel (1999), where he netted a 2001 Fotogramas de Plata for Best Movie Actor.

With more than 25 films and countless awards on his pockets, Bardem eventually got his international breakthrough when director Julian Schnabel had him play the role of the persecuted Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas in Before Night Falls (2000), based on Arena’s posthumously published memoirs. Bardem’s performance was critically applauded, and he was handed a Venice Film Festival, an Independent Spirit, a National Board of Review, a National Society of Film Critics, a Southeastern Film Critics Association, a Premio ACE, for Best Actor, as well as Best Actor Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.

After the huge victory, Bardem made his American film debut in the Sundance-screened The Dancer Upstairs (2002), the directorial debut of actor John Malcovich. He won acclaim for his role as Agustín Rejas, a South American police detective devoted to hunting down an avant-garde guerilla leader. He returned to the Spanish movies as Santa, the so-called leader of a small group of employees who were discharged by the local shipyards, in Los Lunes al Sol/ Mondays in the Sun (2002), for director Fernando León de Aranoa. The movie won 35 awards, including seven honors for Bardem: a Goya for Best Lead Actor, a Spanish Actors Union for Lead Performance, Male, a Fotogramas de Plata for Best Movie Actor, and a Premio ACE, a Cinema Writers Circle as well as an ADIRCAE for Best Actor.

In 2004, Bardem found himself appearing with Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Mark Ruffalo and Jada Pinkett Smith in Collateral, a crime-thriller directed by Michael Mann, before enjoying his next massive success with Mar Adentro/ The Sea Inside (also 2004), for writer-director Alejandro Amenabar. Starring as Ramón Sampedro, the Spaniard who fought an over 25-year campaign to win the right to end his life with self-respect, the actor received eight awards, including a Best Actor Venice Film Festival, a Best Lead Actor Goya, a Sant Jordi for Best Spanish Actor and a European for Best Actor, as well as several award nominations, including a Golden Globe nomination.

Next, Barden played the lead of menacing priest, Brother Lorenzo, in Milos Forman’s Goya’s Ghosts (2006), about the last years of the Spanish Inquisition, and more recently costarred with Eduardo Antonio Garcia on the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2007. As for his upcoming projects, he will have a supporting role in the Mike Newell-helmed Love in the Time of Cholera (2007), adapted from a book by Gabriel García Márquez. Besides, he is set to team up with Scarlett Johansson and reunite with Penélope Cruz for the 2008 Woody Allen Spanish Project.


Awards:

- Goya: Best Lead Actor (Mejor Actor Principal), Mar adentro, 2005
- Sant Jordi: Best Spanish Actor (Mejor Actor Español), Mar adentro, 2005
- Spanish Actors Union: Lead Performance, Male (Protagonista Cine - Categoría Masculina), Mar adentro, 2005
- Bangkok International Film Festival: Golden Kinnaree Award, Best Actor, Mar adentro, 2005
- Cinema Writers Circle: Best Actor (Mejor Actor), Mar adentro, 2005
- Fotogramas de Plata: Best Movie Actor (Mejor Actor de Cine), Mar adentro, 2005
- European Film: Best Actor, Mar adentro, 2004
- Venice Film Festival: Volpi Cup, Best Actor, Mar adentro, 2004
- Premio ACE: Cinema - Best Actor, Lunes al sol, Los, 2004
- Goya: Best Lead Actor (Mejor Actor Principal), Lunes al sol, Los, 2003
- Cinema Writers Circle: Best Actor (Mejor Actor), Lunes al sol, Los, 2003
- ADIRCAE: Best Actor, Lunes al sol, Los, 2003
- Fotogramas de Plata: Best Movie Actor (Mejor Actor de Cine), Lunes al sol, Los, 2003
- Gramado Film Festival: Golden Kikito, Latin Film Competititon - Best Actor (Longa Metragem em 35 mm, Latinos - Melhor Ator), Lunes al sol, Los, 2003
- Spanish Actors Union: Lead Performance, Male (Protagonista Cine - Categoría Masculina), Lunes al sol, Los, 2003
- Fotogramas de Plata: Best Movie Actor (Mejor Actor de Cine), Segunda piel, 2001
- Independent Spirit: Best Male Lead, Before Night Falls, 2001
- National Board of Review: Best Actor, Before Night Falls, 2001
- National Society of Film Critics: Best Actor, Before Night Falls, 2001
- Premio ACE: Cinema - Best Actor, Before Night Falls, 2001
- Southeastern Film Critics Association: Best Actor, Before Night Falls, 2001
- Venice Film Festival: Volpi Cup, Best Actor, Before Night Falls, 2000
- Ondas: Film Award, Best Actor (Mejor Actor), Lobos de Washington, Los, 1999
- Fotogramas de Plata: Best Movie Actor (Mejor Actor de Cine), Carne trémula and Perdita Durango, 1998
- Premio ACE: Cinema - Best Actor-Drama, Boca a boca, 1998
- European Film: Audience Award, Best Actor, 1997
- Goya: Best Lead Actor (Mejor Actor Principal), Boca a boca, 1996
- Cinema Writers Circle: Best Actor (Mejor Actor), Boca a boca, 1996
- Fotogramas de Plata: Best Movie Actor (Mejor Actor de Cine), Boca a boca, 1996
- Peñíscola Comedy Film Festival: Best Actor, Boca a boca, 1996
- Ondas: Film Award, Best Actor (Mejor Actor), Boca a boca, 1995
- Spanish Actors Union: Supporting Performance (Secundario Cine), Días contados, 1995
- Goya: Best Supporting Actor (Mejor Actor de Reparto), Días contados, 1995
- San Sebastián International Film Festival: Silver Seashell, Best Actor, Días contados, 1994
- Fotogramas de Plata: Best Movie Actor (Mejor Actor de Cine), Huevos de oro, 1994
- Ondas: Film Award, Best Acting (Mejor Interpretación), 1993 (tied with Penélope Cruz)
- Cinema Writers Circle: Best Actor (Mejor Actor), Jamón, jamón, 1993
- Spanish Actors Union: Newcomer Award, Jamón, jamón, 1993
- Sant Jordi: Best Spanish Actor (Mejor Actor Español), Jamón, jamón, 1993