It’s been a long road to Skyfall, Bond’s twenty-third outing, and as well as our review and red carpet interviews we had the chance to sit down with the cast and crew of the film and over the next three days we’ll be bringing you the six interviews.
Today we begin with Javier Bardem, the latest actor to face off against Mr. Bond and his character, Silva, is one of the more memorable villains in a long and distinguishing line-up.
Huge thanks to Neil Alcock AKA The Incredible Suit for being our man in the thick of it. If you haven’t been keeping up with his epic BlogalongaBond then now is the time to catch up. When it comes to Bond, nobody does it better.
Did you base your character on anyone in particular?
No, Sam and I brought ideas and pictures of people that we know, and that are publicly known – I prefer not to give any names – to find the physicality of him, but it was a little bit of here, there, that, it wasn’t any one thing. It was Sam and I working together, saying what does it make sense for him to look like? Everything was based on this idea of discomfort, like Silva wants to constantly create this feeling of discomfort in his opponent. That has to be in the physicality and also has to make sense dramatically. When you watch the movie you understand why this guy looks like that. He’s going through something and he wants to be the opposite of that.
Silva is quite a sexual character, isn’t he?
Again this belongs to the idea of creating an uncomfortable situation with the enemy. But it’s one note of the melody, it’s not the whole song. Silva is not attached to anything or anybody, only to his own pain.
Is it true that Daniel Craig approached you for the role?
Yeah, years ago he came to me at a private event and we introduced ourselves, and he asked if I’d ever be interested in doing a James Bond movie with him and Sam, and I said, “well, that sounds very cool”. It’s funny because I didn’t know him, but the moment I shook his hand I said, this guy’s awesome.
Were you a Bond fan before you were cast in Skyfall?
Yeah, I’m 43, so since I was 11 or 12 I think, I’ve seen them all. Bond’s big, in Spain also. But whether you’re a fan or not, that’s not the right reason to do something. It’s about having the material to bring something to it, otherwise you’re doing it for the wrong reasons. Even Marlon Brando, who was a genius, he couldn’t make it without a good character. And if Brando couldn’t do it, the rest of us can’t do it. You need a good role to have at least 50% of the performance done.
Did you get involved much in the action scenes?
I had a glimpse. I’m a great believer in the stunt double! I think they do an amazing job. But I saw Daniel doing that himself, and it was scary, it was crazy. He’s so well prepared and committed to what he does. If you’re on a Bond film you want to have a taste of the action, and it was fun to do.
