Letter to ALW

– And what's happening with the fans of Michael Crawford?, what they want is that he interpret THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA on film, as he has done in the theater, instead of you?

Antonio Banderas: I saw Crawford in London and he was magnificent. But I took 25 years working in this in order to get projects like this, and they don't come to me now with … Not only do I have the O.K. [visto bueno] of Andrew Lloyd Webber, the author, but also that of the director, who will be the same as for ELIZABETH, Shekhar Kapur, who is also a good friend and he is going to make a good work. And in the interview that I had with Andrew one and a half months ago, in Las Vegas (he was there because they are going to put a hotel there that will be called The phantom of the opera), he told me that he was breaking down the theater work completely, making new music, taking out some music, and that we are going to do spoken (parts) also, that is to say, with dramatic parts between the songs; not like EVITA, which is an opera.

ELLE Magazine - March 1999

ELLE: Will you finally take the protagonistic in the movie of "The Phantom of the Opera"?

Antonio Banderas: Yes. I think that things came back giving of the most correct manner so that I've arrived at this point. It was why I was going to sing at London some months at the Royal Albert Hall. I thought that it was a birthday party, but in reality, it was a test. I ate pastry [birthday cakes?], for sure. Anyway, it was the first time that I sang in public and it was something scary in a certain sense.

ELLE: Did you like it?

Antonio Banderas: It was very interesting. I remember when I did theater in Spain but singing with an orchestra and opposite 700 people, it imposes. However, after that "suffering," they offered me the role. Everything is already ready, we already have producers and others. We are beginning the recording of the disk. It is a great challenge because you have a character already strongly identified by Michael Crawford, he did an excellent work. I understand that the situation opposite the film camera will be different but it will continue to be a great challenge. I don't want to disappoint anybody.

ELLE: How will you train for this character?

Antonio Banderas: In the cinema your has the opportunity of creating a universe in which your character lives, one which could change little. It is a challenges probably I'll carry myself to a monastery in order to prepare my voice. I will quit smoking and I will do everything which is necessary in order to convince those who adore Michael Crawford that the character could be interpreted in a different manner from him. I saw Crawford in London one month before I enter the stage and I think that he did something incredible.

ELLE: When do you begin the filming?

Antonio Banderas: At the time that I am in contact with Andrew Lloyd Webber, I planned to begin the recording of the album to end of this month and the filming, if all goes well, next June.

"Also in the works is the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "The Phantom of the Opera," a project Banderas has coveted ever since starring opposite Madonna in 1996's "Evita." Banderas said he met recently with director Shekhar Kapur ("Elizabeth"), who told him that the script has been significantly reworked from the stage version with some music deleted and new music added.

"I think it's going to happen," Banderas said. He said the recording of the "Phantom" soundtrack is expected to begin in May and the movie could be in theaters by the end of next year."

"Andrew Lloyd Webber has talked with him about starring as the Phantom in "The Phantom of the Opera."

"I would not want to disappoint all the people who saw Michael Crawford on the stage, but I feel `Evita' was a test to see if I could handle it," Banderas said. "When Webber had his 50th birthday party, I was invited to London. On the stage of the Royal Albert Hall, I sang songs from `Evita' and then with Sarah Brightman the `Phantom' songs."

Of his American films, he felt "Mark of Zorro" was a good role for him. "If Phantom happens," he said, "I'll be the only actor in Hollywood who passed from wearing a black mask as Zorro to a white one as the Phantom."

Whether acting, singing or directing, Banderas seems to be able to handle it all with enthusiasm, energy and caution.

From "The AT&T Connection" - ..."...Speaking of guys who work with masks, Antonio Banderas is trading his Zorro disguise for something a little more dramatic. He's taking the lead in a movie version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's: The Phantom of the Opera. Just like Evita, he plans to do all his own singing and dancing..."

El Mundo - August 2000 (Interview segment from Spain with Antonio Banderas)

Antonio BANDERAS
ŤMe falta la estabilidad para hacer lo que quiero como actorť GUILLERMO BUSUTIL

P. - Another pending project is the musical The Phantom of the Opera...

Antonio Banderas - The ghost is going to have a long period of gestation, because it is a rare picture that leaves the habitual thing, and the producers are scared of not finding a market to place the film in because we've lot the tradition of musical film. What delights me the most though is musical theater.

P. - Have you thought about doing theater in the United States after the hit Nicole Kidman had with "The Blue Room?"

Antonio Banderas - If I do theater it has to be in Spanish. This year I was offered to make in London the opening of a very good work, but I am still not prepared to do theater in English. In any case, I must before do other things in cinema, like a comedy of action that I am going to film later in Canada and, in the 2001, a Zorro second part. Then I will probably return to Spain to work with Penelope Cruz and Pedrito (Petey) Almodovar.

Biography Nov. 2000

    Besides singing his wife's praises, Banderas does quite a bit of singing of his own: anything from the Beatles to the blues to the Backstreet Boys (daughter Estella's favorites.) "I am an amateur musician-I play piano and guitar," he says. "In Los Angeles I have my own studio with 48 tracks and I love to compose. I have a lot of songs but I don't want to make them public. It is something I do for myself and if I put it into the hands of producers or record companies they are going to kill it. I know I could probably make a lot of money-Spanish singing is very hot right now-but I think it would be a mistake."
    However, he will croon, again onscreen, should Evita's composer, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, make him a formal offer to star in the movie version of Phantom of the Opera (there have been initial talks). "Oh, I would love to do it," he sighs. "It is an incredible role, and if they offer it to me, I think I should take it, no?"
    Is Antonio Banderas actually asking advice? "Well, not really," he admits. "I tend to make up my own mind very quickly and just do it."

HispanicOnline.com - March 2001
March Question and Answer Session with Antonio Banderas
(Banderas states that he saw the play twenty-five years ago??)

Antonio Banderas: I think we're going to do it. I've been preparing for The Phantom practically all my life. I first saw the play when I was fifteen and since then I've seen it at least six more times and I never get tired of it. I've known all the songs by heart for years and I've sung them so many times over the last year to so many of my friends and anyone who will listen that people keep telling me to shut up!

Banderas speaks fluent English with a thick, husky accent, smokes with an unashamedly European relish and, sitting in a suite in London’s Dorchester Hotel, talks with animation and enthusiasm. He begins with happy tidings both for his own fans and those of Lord Lloyd-Webber. He is going to star in a film version of The Phantom of the Opera, which begins shooting next year.

"Two weeks ago, Andrew Lloyd Webber called me. He was very excited on the phone. He said, "Antonio, we got it. We’ve got the script that we want to have. And I wrote the new music I wanted to write."

Though it is well known that Banderas starred in Evita – that other version of a Lloyd Webber smash, what is less well chronicled is his almost obsessive love of the British peer’s ouvre.

"I know Phantom like I wrote it, not just Phantom, but practically everything that Andrew wrote," says Banderas, who was born in Malaga. "In some way I think I owe being an actor to Andrew because I saw Jesus Christ Superstar in 1973 and it had an incredible effect on me. And from that I started getting into musical theatre. When I was a teenager, I came to London for nine days to visit and I went to the theatre every night, sometimes during the day too. And the first time I saw Phantom it stunned me, the unbelievable music and drama. The moment when I was offered Evita was one of the biggest of my life."

The actor acknowledges that a strong rear guard action has been fought by fans of Michael Crawford who made the Phantom his own on stage, but seems to take the attitude of all is fair in love and war.

"Michael Crawford, he made what actors call a creation, something that was his own, but what happens in the movies is not for an individual to decide. I am not the only actor. If you said it was going to John Travolta, not me, I would shrug and wait for another project. With this film we are not trying to draw in people who really love the theatre and go to the movie to see what they saw on stage. That would be wrong," he says. "We are creating a completely different concept, looking at it from a completely different point of view. It will be a new creation with even new music. A lot of the music you have heard in the theatre version is being cut out."