The bizarre role Antonio Banderas went method for: “It was difficult snapping him out”
When we think of ‘method’ acting, we think of Daniel Day-Lewis. Maybe Christian Bale. Hilary Swank, Robert DeNiro, and Marlon Brando, if you like old stuff. Whether you approve of the practice or not, it’s laced fingers are in warm embrace with serious movies. Oscar-winning performances. Even if they’re not good, the intensity of the method process suggests a life-and-death dedication to film. It also pisses off their co-stars. You don’t hear much about Antonio Banderas in this conversation
There haven’t been any interviews about him wearing a wide brim and domino mask at the grocery store when he played Zorro in the 1990s. Nor Puss in Boots from the Shrek movies, who basically wears the same outfit and delivers the same devastating sword strokes.
But Dougal Williams, the Director of Paddington in Peru notes that Banderas didn’t break character once in costume and stayed true to his role on the production. He says “We thought, ‘Well, it’s going to be fun putting Antonio Banderas into all these costumes. I wonder if he’ll be up for that” as though Banderas isn’t used to wearing halloween costumes on set. Have you not seen Matador? Have you not seen 2020’s Doolittle?
Evidently not, as Wilson is amazed by the idea of an actor in wardrobe. It was more than that, though. Banderas lost himself in his character. It transformed him. Evidently, “He was completely up for it. In fact, it was very difficult snapping him out of the characters when he was wearing those costumes.” It’s strange to think that this outfit hypnotized Banderas the way that it apparently did. He’s really just wearing a linen suit with a Panama hat. Maybe it was the ascot that rendered him so inextricable from his character?
If you have children and you’ve seen the movie, Antonio Banderas plays Hunter Cabot, a treasure hunter and adventurer who helps Paddington reunite with his estranged bear family. He works with Paddington and his daughter to get the treasure, find lost bears, and then steal the treasure. If you haven’t seen it (and are perhaps writing an article about it) it’s puzzling to imagine how he would stay in this character between shots. Was he stealing jewellery from his costars or something?
The Paddington franchise began as a novel in 1958, written by British author Michael Bond. The joke is that the titular bear is British. Kids liked them and continued to do so. With all the mannerisms local to the isles. Bond wrote a lot of these, basing them on a teddy bear he saw in a shop which looked “rather forlorn”. It’s spawned countless adaptations since and reached a level of international success which preservers to this very day. Ask anyone with kids, they’ll tell you.
We haven’t heard complaints about Banderas harassing or offending his colleagues due to the outlandish behaviour we often associate with the method types. But they may have kept tight lips about it. You wouldn’t want to besmirch the dignity of the Paddington media empire.
