When internationally recognized actor Javier Bardem regarded by the falling snow Saturday to see a line of individuals stretching from the Boulder Theater and down Spruce Road, he stated he puzzled the place they had been going.
When advised that the road was for his efficiency on the Boulder Worldwide Movie Pageant, Bardem joked.
“Oh, my God, they’re actually losing their time,” he advised the gang of greater than 800 individuals who packed the Boulder Theater to see the star.
Bardem, 53, was a particular visitor on the 18th Boulder Worldwide Movie Pageant, as a part of the primary stay exhibiting of the Awards Chatter podcast. Sisters Robin Beeck, BIFF government director, and Kathy Beeck, director of BIFF, offered Bardem with BIFF’s Excellent Performer of the 12 months Award. He obtained the award for his performances in three main movement photos that had been launched in 2021: “Dune,” “The Good Boss” and “Being the Ricardos.”
“Thanks very a lot for having me. I’ll preserve this near my coronary heart,” Bardem stated as he held the award.
After receiving the award, Bardem talked with Scott Feinberg, columnist from The Hollywood Reporter and host of Awards Chatter. Bardem walked the viewers by his life, shared anecdotes that made the gang burst into laughter and wrapped up by inviting them to ask him questions of their very own.
Bardem’s efficiency as Anton Chigurh within the Coen Brothers’ “No Nation for Previous Males,” received him a Critics’ Alternative Award, a British Academy Movie Award, a Display Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe Award. He additionally claimed an Oscar for the function — changing into the primary Spanish actor to win the award in 2008.
Bardem was born within the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago in southwest Spain close to Africa, and raised in Madrid, Spain. Bardem comes from an extended line of actors in his household, together with his late mom, the legendary Pilar Bardem. His brother and sister, Carlos and Mónica Bardem, are additionally actors.
Bardem stated he noticed how his mother struggled with occasions of unemployment in her performing profession and the way it made him hesitant to choose up the household craft.
“I went by the chilly. I went by the starvation. I went by many issues my mother needed to undergo together with her children, as a result of the cellphone wasn’t ringing,” Bardem advised Feinberg. “I didn’t need that.”
He started finding out to be a painter. However, Bardem stated, he couldn’t ignore what was in his DNA.
“I begin to be the man within the classroom who makes humorous issues. … I can painting each instructor, and I can mimic everyone within the class, so it was like, ‘(expletive), I’ve obtained it,’” Bardem stated.
To help his research in portray, Bardem began working as an additional in films. Typically he obtained one line. Different occasions it was two. The work led him to his function in his first characteristic movie “The Ages of Lulu,” a 1990 Spanish drama. Not a lot later, Bardem would meet his spouse, Penélope Cruz, whereas performing alongside her within the 1992 movie “Jamón Jamón,” directed by Bigas Luna. Bardem, then 21, performs a truck driver turned underwear mannequin.
“I assumed to myself, ‘They’re going to pay me to kiss her? I’ll take it,’” Bardem stated.
Bardem and Cruz married in 2010.
Feinberg stated it was “Jamón Jamón,” that led to worldwide curiosity in Bardem as an actor, opening doorways to return work within the U.S. However Bardem stayed in Spain in the meanwhile, taking up roles together with “Mouth to Mouth,” launched in Spain in 1995. Bardem performs a struggling actor, with a facet gig as a cellphone intercourse operator.
Bardem additionally talked about his unintentional function portraying Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas within the 2000 film “Earlier than Night time Falls,” directed by Julian Schnabel. Initially Bardem wasn’t going to play the lead, however he was supplied the prospect and advised he had a month and a half to study English. Bardem stated he hadn’t thought the film would get a lot consideration, nevertheless it ended up getting nominated for an Oscar — a film Feinberg stated could be within the first Spanish performing nominee class on the Oscars.
“It meant for me one thing completely surreal,” Bardem advised Feinberg.
Bardem recalled how he threw a celebration with roughly 200 individuals at his terrace dwelling to have a good time.
“The elevator broke. It was an incredible celebration,” Bardem stated. “We known as the firemen. We had run out of ice. We requested the firemen to deliver ice.”
Bardem stated the firemen introduced containers of beer and ice as they responded.
“That’s how (a lot) it meant. As a result of, they knew what we had been celebrating,” Bardem stated.
Bardem talked about his work main as much as “No Nation for Previous Males,” a 2007 film a few welder and hunter who stumbles on a drug deal gone mistaken and takes $2 million for himself. This prompts Chigurh, performed by Bardem, to ruthlessly hunt the person down, killing anybody who will get in his manner.
Feinberg described Chigurh as a “psychopathic serial killer, with a nasty haircut and cattle gun.”
“We don’t actually know a lot about this man; there isn’t a lot backstory,” Feinberg stated. “All we all know is he’s just like the Grim Reaper. When he exhibits up, any person isn’t going to return out of that room, and he’s. How does one play, not to mention play properly sufficient to win an Oscar, a man like that? There is no such thing as a info to work with.”
Bardem stated when he thought concerning the function, he noticed that as Chigurh, he was taking part in the symbolism of violence.
“When violence takes place, it’s unstoppable, and it doesn’t do any good for anybody,” Bardem stated. “It solely destroys, and it’s a must to embody that.”
As for the enduring dangerous haircut of the character, Bardem stated he needed to stroll round with it for 3 months and preserve it encased in a hairnet when not taking pictures. When the shoot wrapped, Bardem advised the viewers a few current he obtained: A cake with 17 candles. Each candle featured a photograph of an individual Chigurh killed within the film.
When Bardem received an Oscar for the function, he talked about how the very best half concerning the ceremony was having the ability to look into his mom’s eyes and inform her how a lot he appreciated her as a mother and actress, in addition to what it meant for the Spanish performing craft.
“That second is de facto extra precious than lots of of Oscars, however the Oscar gave me the opportunity of that second,” Bardem stated.