The Miami Herald, October 17, 1999

Banderas: It was time I directed
RENE RODRIGUEZ
rrodriguez@herald.com

NEW YORK -- The trend of actors turning directors has become so common, no one really pays attention anymore. But when Antonio Banderas decided it was his turn to go behind the camera, his choice of material left many in Hollywood wondering, ``What is he thinking?''

For his filmmaking debut, Banderas settled on Crazy in Alabama, a tale of civil unrest and madcap lunacy set in the tumultuous American South in 1965. Through his Green Moon Productions company -- which he formed with wife Melanie Griffith three years ago -- Banderas optioned Mark Childress' script and cast Griffith in the lead role of Lucille, the glamorous eccentric who kills her abusive husband, sticks his severed head in a Tupperware container, and takes it along with her to California where she hopes to become a movie star. Left behind in the Alabama backwoods is her adoring nephew Peejoe (Lucas Black), who is about to come face to face with racism and prejudice.

For Banderas, Crazy in Alabama represents the latest accomplishment in a career that began back in 1980 with a small part in a raunchy Spanish comedy called Labyrinth of Passion, directed by a then-unknown Pedro Almodovar. ``Come on, let's go,'' Banderas says as sits down in a Manhattan hotel suite, lights the first in a chain of Camel Lights and begins talking in rapid-fire Spanish about directing his wife, the American civil rights movement, and the whole ``Latin lover'' thing.

Q: Your acting career is going so well. What made you decide this was the time to try directing?

A: I had been thinking about it for five or six years. When I was making Philadelphia, I started writing a screenplay, which I still have lying around somewhere. I felt the need to share my point of view, how I see the world and how I see human relationships, that kind of thing. When you start questioning why a director is placing a camera a certain way, and then you start wondering ``What if I . . . ?'' That's the time when you have to assume the responsibility yourself, put yourself on the line of fire and take risks.

Q: You jumped into it without any kind of warm-up. A lot of actors start out by making a short film or a music video.

A: I understand that could be the logical path for a young director, start with something easy. But I have to follow my heart. I've done that my whole life and I can't change. I know that can lead to problems, but that's the way I am. I'm already 40, man. I'm not going to change now.

Q: Why Crazy in Alabama?

A: I just fell in love with the story. After we put Green Moon Productions together, we started receiving a lot of material from young screenwriters and novelists. We amassed an incredible amount of material, and in there was Crazy in Alabama. I had a very clear vision of it.

Q: Did the fact that it was a story set in the American South in the late 1960s give you any pause? You were just a kid living in Spain at that time.

A: Yeah, there was some apprehension, a certain fear. But you're always going to have those fears when you take on new responsibilities. I just tried to be as accurate as possible, especially with the fact that we have the civil rights movement coursing through the entire movie. I tried to present it in a manner that respected the spirit and doctrine of Martin Luther King Jr.

Q: You did a lot of research into the civil rights movement before you started shooting. What kind of interpretation did you come away with?

A: I wanted the movie's scenes of racial conflict to represent the attitude of the African-American community in that time. They don't confront their oppressors with crime or violence, but with dignity and perseverance. There's a scene in the movie where a father goes and swims in the same public pool where his son has been killed, because he was black. That's how the civil rights movement worked: simply doing the same, logical things that white people were allowed to do. They just kept working at it, whether the goal was to break the chains, open the doors or just swim in the pool.

Q: Even though it's set in the 1960s, a lot of the themes in the story still resonate today.

A: Yes. Unfortunately, 35 years later, there is still racism in the world. When I first read it, Alabama became for me a symbol for the world. I'm not talking only about America. I'm also talking about Europe. The abuse of women in Spain is a big issue. Three months ago, there was a discussion in the Spanish parliament because 60 women were killed by their husbands in Spain last year. And there were thousands more who were abused. So the issues in the movie are definitely worth reflecting about.

Q: Melanie was really great in the movie. Why doesn't she work more?

A: What happens to actresses in Hollywood after they hit 40 is that they don't get work. You have actresses like Meryl Streep and Jessica Lange who are forced to make independent movies. It's funny, because I had been the prince of independent movies in Europe for a long time, and now I have become a big mainstream Hollywood guy. And Melanie has now become an indie queen. She's filming a movie now in Baltimore with John Waters and is probably going to work with Almodovar next.

Q: So were you nervous about directing her?

A: Yes, I was hesitant at first, because I know actors are very sensitive and insecure when we're in front of the camera, and I wondered if that would affect our personal relationship. I also wondered if I would be able to give Melanie the direction she needed. But fortunately, we put all those things on the table long before we got to the set, so we were conscious of them. By the time we started shooting, I think she knew exactly what my vision was, the path I wanted the movie to take.

Q: What kinds of things did you discuss with her?

A: One of the hardest things I had to do was to keep the actors grounded in reality. When actors read a script this unusual and eccentric, they tend to shift into farce mode and play the characters that way. I didn't want farce to take over the movie. I wanted naturalistic performances. Melanie understood that very quickly. She never plays her character as crazy.

Q: Let's talk about some other movies. What happened with The 13th Warrior?

A: What do you mean?

Q: Well, it sat on a shelf for a couple of years, no? And [director] John McTiernan has disowned it.

A: Look, I'll tell you something. The box-office of that movie has been extraordinary, considering no one did a single interview to promote it. They just sent the movie out there and it's made $35 million in the U.S., $8 million in France, $5 million in Germany. It is going to wind up making its costs back. It's not going to be the disaster everyone expected.

Q: Yes, but it wasn't very good, either. It had some really great battle scenes in it, but the movie was kind of a mess.

A: There were a lot of problems between the producer [Michael Crichton] and the director, but I can't talk about them because I really wasn't involved. In the middle of shooting, I dislocated two discs in my back during a fight scene. I spent a month and a half working in tremendous pain and on medication, rolling around in the mud and rain and wearing chain mail that weighed a ton. So when all the arguments started, I stayed out of it. I just wanted to finish the movie.

Q: What did you think of the movie itself?

A: I am very happy with the finished result. There have been a lot of people who liked the movie. And I walked away unscathed in that the bad reviews didn't attack me. But I think the movie has a lot of good stuff in it. There's a lot of Kurosawa in there.

Q: Are you going to play Zorro again?

A: I think so. They're writing a sequel, and if Catherine [Zeta-Jones] is game, and Martin Campbell wants to direct it, I think we'll do another one and have some fun.

Q: What about Phantom of the Opera? Your name keeps popping up in conjunction with the movie.

A: Yes, that is going to happen. I went to London three weeks ago to interview with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Shekhar Kapur, who is going to be the director. They're reworking the structure of the play. A lot of old music is coming out, and a lot of new music is coming in. They are writing talking parts in the movie, so it's not going to be full opera, like Evita.

Q: Fans of Michael Crawford are going to hate you.

A: (Laughs.) I'm going to make the movie despite the opinion of Michael Crawford's fans, whom I respect very much.

Q: Do people still consider you a sex symbol?

A: You mean that whole Latin lover thing? I prefer the Latin side only. The lover . . . no. I'm a Latin husband. It's very curious. I think all that has to do more with my persona than with what I do as a living, because in America, I haven't really made any love stories. I don't play heartthrobs. There are a bunch of movies where I'm not even part of a couple: Assassins, Evita, The 13th Warrior . . . in Zorro and Desperado, I have relationships with girls, but they're in the context of an action movie.

Q: In Evita, didn't Che have some unspoken thing going on with Evita?

A: Che is an infatuation! He is talking to a political entity that never responds to him. I'm talking to the camera all the time. In Assassins, I don't have a girlfriend or anybody else around me. In Interview With the Vampire, I am more involved with a guy than anyone else. And in Philadelphia, I am homosexual! So where does this Latin lover come from?

Q: Maybe they're just hoping.

A: (Laughs.) I would love to make a love story. I would love to make a romantic comedy here in New York. But nobody offers me those things.

Q: Maybe now you and Melanie can produce one for yourselves.

A: I don't think we should act together. It's too obvious. We'd become a tabloid story on the screen. Even with Crazy in Alabama, the studio was insisting that I should act in the movie. But the only character available was a bellboy. What am I going to do, show up on the screen, kissing my own wife, distracting the audience for 5 minutes? It's cheap. And I'm not ready to direct myself, either.

Q: Have you talked to Almodovar recently? He's going to get an Oscar nomination for All About My Mother.

A: I think he's going to win it. It's about time, don't you think?

Q: Has he seen Crazy in Alabama?

A: Yes! He came to my home in L.A. and I showed him the movie. He was the first trial by fire for me. I knew if he liked it, that meant the movie was working. And he loved it.

Q: How could you tell he wasn't just being polite?

A: (Laughs.) No, he's very sincere. If he hadn't liked it, he would have said ``Good try, Antonito. Keep working at it!'' But no, he said some really nice things about it. He said it doesn't feel like a first movie. After that, I was much calmer.

Rene Rodriguez is The Herald's movie critic.