Bardem reflects on busy year of acting despite pandemic
By Javier Romualdo
Los Angeles, USA, Dec 20 (EFE).- Javier Bardem cannot remember a busier period of acting in his 30-year career, the Spanish movie star told Efe ahead of the release in his home country of his latest work, Amazon’s Being the Ricardos, which comes to cinemas following his leading role in The Good Boss and his part in space opera epic Dune.
“It’s extraordinary given that this has been a year of pandemic,” he told Efe in an interview from Los Angeles.
“And it is this way because projects have coincided, but also because, in such a difficult time for so many people, I am not going to refuse work. Quite the opposite, I am thankful and respectful.”
In the final sprint of a busy year, which has seen him pick up nominations for the Goya Awards and the Golden Globes, Bardem acknowledges that although he is immersed in it, promoting movies is his least favorite aspect of the industry.
“What I like is to act, not ‘sell fish,’ but you have to do it, with all due respect to those who sell fish.”
In his latest US trip, the actor from Madrid arrived in New York to attend the premier of Being the Ricardos, in which he stars alongside Nicole Kidman.
He then headed to Los Angeles, where as well as taking part in several interviews with local press, he promoted his Spanish language film The Good Boss (El Buen Patron) in a bid to nudge it toward an Oscar nomination.
The two movies could not be more different. The Good Boss is a satirical exploration of the relationship between a boss and his workers at a Spanish factory, whereas Being the Ricardos invites us into the complicated relationship between Hollywood power couple Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball.
Director Aaron Sorkin (who also shot The Trial of the Chicago 7) focused Being the Ricardos on a moment in which Bell looked on the cusp of losing her career amid accusations she was a communist.
In the 1950s, Arnaz and Bell, a couple in real life, were the two faces of I Love Lucy, a hyper popular TV show that graced half of the TV screens in America, reaching a maximum audience of 40 million viewers.
Bardem plays the role of Arnaz, a Cuban who emigrated to New York while Kidman takes on the role of the iconic Lucille Bell.EFE
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