Quotes

One of my dreams came true when [Julian Schnabel] showed the movie [Before Night Falls (2000)] to Al Pacino and he called me at 3 a.m. Spanish time and told me he liked my performance. I told him, "There are two things I believe in, God and Al Pacino" [Bardem has, himself, corrected this statements saying "I always said that I don't believe in God, I believe in Al Pacino"]

[on his girlfriend Cristina, who is a translator and coaching him in English] I'm in love with my English teacher. We have many of our lessons in bed.

I live in Spain. Oscars are something that are on television Sunday night, basically, very late at night. You don't watch, you just read the news after to see who won or who lost... The award is important in order to bring people to the movie theater. That's the only principal meaning of any award.

We are so scared about talking about death that we are letting people die in silence. It is good to talk publicly.

It would be amazing to think your film or your performance had the power to make changes, but it's enough that it makes people talk and think. Maybe they shouldn't do anything anyway. The Church has strong feelings and we respect that.

[on his Oscar nomination for Before Night Falls (2000)] It's exhausting, almost a full-time job. Last time I found it was too much about bringing attention to yourself.

I'm proud of the fact that I got so many people to sit down and watch a story like Before Night Falls (2000) even at the expense, I felt, of some of my personal life.

[on No Country for Old Men (2007)] I think the movie speaks of a lack of meaning in violence. I embody violence, I am violence itself in the movie, and there is a man... who is trying to understand the meaning of it and at the end there is no meaning.

I'm getting more comfortable now, but it will never get to the point as if you are doing it in your own language. When I say, "I love you" or "I hate you" in Spanish, many things come to my mind, aspects of my own life. When I say it in English, I don't have the memories.

[on his character of Chigurh in No Country for Old Men (2007)] All the work I usually do: imagining the past, the circumstances of the character in this case I didn't do it. We all saw him as a force of nature, the embodiment of violence.

[on working with Alejandro Amenábar again] I wish I could work with him again. He's so secret. He doesn't even tell me and I go, "Give me a break, man. Give me a role." He works secretly. I guess he will be shooting soon. I hope so, because he's amazing.

All of the good movies are based on how that story was told. And you cannot do it with a bad script, that's for sure, no matter who.

What does my performance have to do with Russell Crowe's? Nothing. If I play Gladiator (2000) and we all play "Gladiator" with Ridley Scott in the same amount of time, maybe we have a chance to see who did it best.

We actors always say how difficult and physically demanding a role was. But give me a break, it's only a movie.

The only thing I can do is act, but it's not something I even feel comfortable doing. It costs me a lot, because I'm a shy person, even if I don't look it.

When the Coens called [about casting him in No Country for Old Men (2007)], I said, "Listen, I'm the wrong actor. I don't drive, I speak bad English, and I hate violence." They laughed and said, "Maybe that's why we called you.".

I truly consider myself non-sexy, which is fine for me. I don't have any problem with that. Sometimes I would like to have Brad Pitt's body. But that's not something that obsesses me in a real way. And second, I truly believe that what I would like to portray on-screen or on stage are human beings, and human beings usually are not as handsome as movie stars. But most times being handsome on-screen or being handsome for real life, has to do much more with your vanity and your profound need to be liked by the rest of the people, be loved by the rest of the people.

[on his preference between playing a villain or a romantic lead] I try to taste both of them with the same intensity. If you're playing a bad guy whose mind is broken, you have to get in there and find out what triggers those feelings. And once you're on the other side, you have to take that and throw it away. Somebody said "The difference between an artist and a person that's crazy is that the artist has a two-way ticket and the crazy person only has a one-way.".

[on any concern he may have with being typecast] I'm not worried. I always try different things. My dream would be, when I'm old, to put all my characters in a room and realize that they can't talk to each other because they don't have anything to share.

I always say "I don't believe in God, I believe in Al Pacino" - and that's true. If I ever get a phone call saying "Would you like to work with Pacino?" I would go crazy.

I like to take a year off between films. Some actors need to work for the money, but money is not a priority for me. I don't have the need for a lot of cars or houses. Since I am a tomato in the market, I have a price. They have to pay the price, but money is not my biggest priority.

[on how has fame changed his life] Mostly, it's the same. I put on a hat and dark glasses and I can walk anywhere. But there are still questions which invade your privacy. I don't really know why people need to know personal details about other people's lives. It's out of control. For a lot of people, the press is now the enemy.

Everybody in Spain is sick of me. But in America, there's a curiosity about the new kid on the block who doesn't speak English very well. The attention makes me feel vulnerable, which is something I hadn't felt in a while. But I like it.

I do respect people's faith, but I don't respect their manipulation of that faith to create fear and control.

Sometimes I say to myself, "What are you doing in this absurd job? Why don't you go to Africa and help people?" But I cannot help people because I'm a hypochondriac.

[on Biutiful (2010)] It's like a Francis Bacon painting. It's ugly. Some people can't take it. But some people can stay still, look at the picture, and see the hope, the compassion, the love behind the horror.

[on being a temporary stripper] I danced one night in a place, there was a club. And they asked for a guy to kind of make a striptease and I did it... It was for ten minutes. I needed money. My mother was there in the audience. She was so proud.

I had the amazing opportunity to meet Brad Pitt a couple of times. What a beauty. He is beautiful and his physicality is so amazing to see. But the beauty really comes from different places - the way he talks, the way he's interested in what you're saying. And that body is like - wow! It's amazing, no? He really made me feel very, like... I don't know, like, I could fall in love with him!

At the time I did Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), the allegations were already well known for more than 10 years, and two states in the U.S. deemed he was not guilty. If the legal situation ever changes, then I'd change my mind. But for now I don't agree with the public lynching that he's been receiving, and if Woody Allen called me to work with him again I'd be there tomorrow morning. He's a genius.