Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem (born March 1, 1969) is an Academy Award-winning and critically acclaimed Spanish actor who has starred in over two dozen films in Spain. He had garnered critical acclaim as an actor for films such as Jamon, Jamon, Carne tremula, Boca a boca, Los Lunes al sol and Mar adentro.
Bardem has been awarded a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award, BAFTA, four Goyas, two European Film Awards and two Coppa Volpis for his work. He is notable as the first Spanish actor to be nominated and win an Oscar, the nomination being for Before Night Falls and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the 2007 film No Country for Old Men.
Biography
Early life
Bardem was born in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain, the son of Carlos Encinas and the actress Pilar Bardem.[1] Bardem comes from a long line of filmmakers and actors who have been working since the earliest days of Spanish cinema; he is the grandson of actors Rafael Bardem and Matilde Muñoz Sampedro, and the nephew of screenwriter and director Juan Antonio Bardem.[2] Both his older brother and his older sister, Carlos and Mónica Bardem, are actors. His film debut was at the age of six and a half in the film El Pícaro (The Scoundrel) and he appeared in several television series before turning to painting and, eventually, sports. Before acting professionally, Bardem was a member of the underage Spanish national rugby team.[3]
Career
Bardem starred in his second major motion picture, The Ages of Lulu, when he was 20. In 1992, he made his first international hit with Jamón, Jamón, which also starred Penélope Cruz. After starring in roughly two dozen films in his native country, he would eventually land his international breakthrough performance role in Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls in 2000, as Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the role, the first time for a Spaniard. This also marked Bardem's first English language speaking role. In 2002 he starred in John Malkovich's directorial debut, The Dancer Upstairs.
Bardem won the Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for his role in 2004's Mar Adentro, released in the United States as The Sea Inside, in which he portrayed the quadriplegic turned assisted-suicide activist Ramón Sampedro , who unsuccessfully brought his case to the Spanish courts, yet eventually succeeded in persuading several friends to assist him and committed suicide. That year he also made a brief appearance as a vicious crime lord who summons Tom Cruise's hitman to do the dirty work of dispatching witnesses, in Michael Mann's crime drama Collateral, which also starred Jamie Foxx. In 2007 Bardem acted in two film adaptations; the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men, based upon the novel of the same name and the adaptation of the classic Colombian novel Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez. In No Country for Old Men, he plays chilling sociopath killer Anton Chigurh. For that role, he became the first Spanish actor to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also won a Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for Best Supporting Actor, and also won the Critics' Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor as well as the 2008 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Best Supporting Actor. Bardem's rendition of Chigurh's trademark phrase, "Call it, friendo" was named Top HollyWORDIE of 2007 in the annual survey by the Global Language Monitor that tracks the words from Hollywood that most influenced the English Language.[4] Anton Chigurh was placed in EW's 50 Most Vile Villains in Movie History in a recent issue at #26.[5]
He starred in Woody Allen's 2008 film Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Bardem was in talks to play fictional filmmaker Guido Contini in the film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical Nine, but the role went to Daniel Day-Lewis instead. Javier is rumoured to be in a project with two up and coming Directors Matt Calabro and Oliver Ritchards.
Personal life
Bardem consistently refers to himself as a "worker" and not an actor.[6] Following the legalization of same-sex marriage in Spain in 2005, Bardem incited controversy when he stated that if he were gay, he would "get married tomorrow, just to fuck the church" (mañana mismo, sólo para joder a la Iglesia).[7] Bardem's life's work was recently honored at the 2007 Gotham Awards, produced by IFP (Independent Feature Project). He is also known as a big rugby fan.
Filmography
Nominations and awards
Nominated
- 1993: Goya Awards, Best Lead Actor, Jamón, jamón
- 1994: Goya Awards, Best Lead Actor, Huevos de oro
- 1998: European Film Awards, Best Actor, Carne trémula
- 1998: Goya Awards, Best Lead Actor, Carne trémula
- 2001: Academy Award for Best Actor, Before Night Falls
- 2001: Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, Before Night Falls
- 2002: European Film Awards, Best Actor, Mondays in the Sun
- 2005: Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, The Sea Inside
- 2008: MTV Movie Awards for Best Villain, No Country for Old Men (Nominee)
Won
- 1994: Donostia-San Sebastián International Film Festival, Silver Seashell Best Actor, Días contados and El Detective y la muerte
- 1995: Goya Awards, Best Supporting Actor, Días contados
- 1996: Goya Awards, Best Lead Actor, Boca a boca
- 2000: Venice Film Festival, Best Actor, Before Night Falls
- 2001 - Independent Spirit Awards, Best Male Lead, Before Night Falls
- 2003: Goya Awards, Best Lead Actor, Mondays in the Sun
- 2005: Goya Awards, Best Lead Actor, The Sea Inside
- 2004: European Film Awards, Best Actor, The Sea Inside
- 2004: Venice Film Festival, Best Actor, The Sea Inside
- 2007: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role - Motion Picture, No Country for Old Men
- 2008: Broadcast Film Critics Choice Awards, Best Supporting Actor, No Country for Old Men
- 2008: Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, No Country for Old Men
- 2008: BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, No Country for Old Men
- 2008: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, No Country for Old Men
- 2008: Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor, No Country for Old Men
References
- ^ Javier Bardem Biography - Yahoo! Movies
- ^ Rodriguez, Rene (2000-12-17). "Javier Bardem Comes Across", The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-10-12.
- ^ Pierce, Nev. "Interview with Javier Bardem", BBC. Retrieved on 2007-10-12.
- ^ "Tú decides, amigo" · ELPAÍS.com
- ^ 50 Most Vile Movie Villains Part 2, Entertainment Weekly. Accessed May 26, 2008.
- ^ "OSCAR FILMS/ACTORS; 'Don't Call Me Actor,' says a Nominee for Best, Um . . .", The New York Times (2001-03-04). Retrieved on 2007-10-12.
- ^ "Sólo para joder a la Iglesia" : Si fuera gay, Bardem se casaría ¡mañana!
External links
