Madrid: Spanish actor Antonio Banderas, star of countryman Pedro Almodovar’s latest film La piel que habito (The Skin I Live In), said it will take audiences at least 20 years to fully appreciate the drama/thriller.
Banderas told EFE in an interview that having a director with the courage “to create these universes and continue exploring and posing questions is priceless”, and he does not know if Spain can “appreciate it now”.
The actor was in Madrid this week to present Almodovar’s 18th film, in which he plays brilliant plastic surgeon and psychopath Robert Ledgard, who is haunted by his wife’s and daughter’s suicides.
The film, a futuristic thriller with touches of surrealist and Almodovarian humor that premiered at Cannes in May, tells the story of Vera, a beautiful woman held captive and under observation at the surgeon’s home.
“What Ledgard aims to do goes beyond a thirst for revenge. He’s a man who tries to play God,” Banderas said.
The actor vehemently denied any disagreements with the filmmaker, who “discovered” him in 1982 with Laberinto de pasiones (Labyrinth of Passions) and also cast him in the 1986 film Matador and his two subsequent films La ley del deseo (Law of Desire) and Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown).
“But if there’s a character for me, I’ll be there for Pedro. He just has to whistle.” (IANS)