you define a man by
his dogs, Antonio
Banderas is happy,
welcoming, and
eager to please. His
three pooches—
a boxer, a pit bull–
Labrador mix, and
a mutt—trot toward
my car as I pull into
the driveway of
his 1925 Spanish-
Colonial home in
the heart of Los
Banderas leads me inside to a book-lined study. Now 51, he
grew up in Málaga, Spain, when dictator Francisco Franco
was still in power. Twenty years ago he moved to the United
States, becoming one of the most successful Europe-to-
Hollywood crossover actors of our time. He has played
wildly different roles in films including Evita, The Mask of
Zorro, Spy Kids, and the Shrek series, metamorphosing from
sizzling sex symbol to action hero to comedic adventurer to…
a cat? This month he will reprise his turn as Puss in Boots in
the movie of the same name. “Puss has got a huge heart, he’s
very bold, very devilish, very romantic,” says Puss in Boots
director Chris Miller. “I would say he’s a lot like Antonio.”
As we chat, Maxwell, one of his family’s two kitties,
slinks up behind me on the back of the couch. More than
once Banderas rises and gently moves Maxwell to the
floor. (“Lucky cat,” I think.) The actor’s warmth and
affability—his casual, sensual charm—are well-known
to his colleagues and friends. “He makes
everyone around him relaxed,” says Robert
Rodriguez, who cast Banderas in Desperado
in 1994. “He’s very generous and one of the
Those good-guy qualities are especially
evident when Banderas talks about his off-
screen role as family man, which began in
1996 with his marriage to Melanie Griffith.
(His first marriage, to Spanish actress Ana
Leza, ended in divorce.) At the time, Griffith,
now 54, had two children—Alexander, from
her marriage to Steven Bauer, and Dakota,
from her marriage to Don Johnson—and
Banderas enthusiastically embraced the
role of stepfather. Soon he and Griffith had
a child of their own, Stella, now 15, and the
family has successfully blended together.
Banderas admits that he and his wife have
struggled at times, notably with Griffith’s
IF
substance abuse. (Griffith candidly discusses her marriage
and the road to sobriety in “Melanie’s Point of View,” on
page 60.) But the challenges, he says, have only strengthened their relationship. As we talk about the peccadilloes
of famous men, Banderas reveals his thoughts on how
couples—he and Griffith included—can keep passion alive.
And I think: “Lucky Melanie.”
Q: When you came to the U. S. to do The Mambo Kings,
you were an accomplished actor in Spain but you didn’t
speak English. Was it hard for you to adjust?
A: It was difficult. I was living in New York, and I went to
Berlitz two months prior to starting shooting, studying
eight hours a day. But making the movie was not the most
difficult part. The problem was living in a place where I
didn’t understand anybody. I was staying in a hotel, and I was
afraid even to call room service. There was a deli on the same
street as the hotel, and I spotted a tag on a guy there that said
“Rodriguez.” I used to go down and talk to Rodriguez and
buy sandwiches, then take them back to my room.
Q: How did the opportunity occur for you to come here
in the first place?
A: I had done a lot of films with the Spanish director
Pedro Almodóvar, and one of them, Women on the Verge of a
Nervous Breakdown, was nominated for an Academy
Award. I came to Los Angeles for the awards show, met
some agents, and was eventually asked to read for The
Mambo Kings. I thought that I would do that movie, go
back to Europe, and just have the story of what happened in
America that I could one day tell to my grandsons.
Q: Soon after that you did Philadelphia, playing opposite
Tom Hanks, then Desperado. At what point did you finally
say, “Okay, I’m here for a while”?
A: When I met Melanie and had to make a decision about
where we were going to live. She had two
kids, and they had two different fathers in
America. It would have been very difficult
if we moved to Europe, because those kids
needed to visit their parents. The kids cannot
pay the price of whatever love story was happening between Melanie and me. We cannot
be putting them on planes every 15 days. I
was alone—in my first marriage I didn’t have kids. So
it was clear: I am the one.
FROM LEFT: EVERE T T COLLEC TION; COURTESY OF DREAM WORKS ANIMATION
ONE COOL CA T
His roles range from
a musician in The
Mambo Kings to a
cat in Puss in Boots.
Q: Did that decision
feel like a sacrifice?
A: Not really. If she had
been living in Uganda
[laughs], yeah. But we’re
talking about the United
States of America—a really
great country.
