Born March 1, 1969: Happy Birthday, Javier Bardem!
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A group of psychiatrists studied 400 movies and identified 126 psychotic characters. They chose Javier Bardem’s portrayal of Anton Chigurh in “No Country for Old Men” (2007) as the most clinically accurate portrayal of a psychopath.
When directors Joel Coen and Ethan Coen approached Bardem about playing Chigurh, he said, “I don’t drive, I speak bad English, and I hate violence.” The Coens responded, “That’s why we called you.” Bardem said he took the role because his dream was to be in a Coen Brothers film.“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.”The Coens used a photo of a brothel patron taken in 1979 as a model for Anton Chigurh’s hair style. When he first saw his new haircut, Bardem said, “Oh no, now I won’t get laid for the next two months.” The Coens responded by happily high-fiving each other; Bardem’s response meant Chigurh would look as creepy as they had hoped.
Bardem won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance…. He was the first Spanish actor ever to win an Academy Award.
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Sorry, Sir Tony. Better luck next time.
And he’s a really nice guy. Flew him and Charlize Theron to Nice and back for the Caen Film Festival. While Charlize was busy looking at pictures of herself with her entourage, Javier and I had a nice conversation about the flight home. He was pretty good in Dune 2. And married to Penelope Cruz. It’s a trifecta!