Javier Bardem stars as the frightening, bent on revenge, Captain Salazar in the upcoming Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. With an impressive body of work including Vicky Christina Barcelona, Skyfall and No Country For Old Men, he has to be used to press junkets. But could he handle walking into a room full of 25 female bloggers? Let’s see. 🙂

Javier Bardem Interview: He Talks Johnny Depp, Rugby And Pirates

Javier Bardem: Oh my God! I’m so scared right now! I thought it was just a woman or two. You are all moms? I’m a daddy so don’t be too tough on me.

[Javier has a small child with his wife, Penelope Cruz, from Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. We all had a good laugh and then we got into the questions. We talk about how long it took him to get into the Captain Salazar makeup every morning – 3 hours! – and about the black goo that comes out of his mouth during the movie.]

Javier Bardem: They told me it was supposed to be like chocolate, chocolate my *ss… [I] was supposed to put it on [my] teeth. I said give me that, so I drunk it and then I went to play the first scene, I think it was with Geoffrey Rush and it starts to pour out of my mouth and he was very disgusted. And I thought it was like a rage pouring out, like something more physical, like a bull.

[One of the coolest parts of the movie is the special effects involving Captain Salazar’s hair. It floats around him in a really eerie, Medusa style, throughout the movie. Then we asked him what got him involved in the Pirates franchise.]

Javier Bardem: Penelope was shooting “Pirates 4” so I went to the set in Hawaii, Los Angeles and London. I was seeing all this amazing production taking place, the water, the special effects, the boat, the sword fighting. I wanted to be one of those. I said to Jerry [Bruckheimer], “Jerry please, give me a job.” …then he called me five years after and I was so surprised and honored because as a movie goer, I love the franchise.

[Most of the movie was shot in a studio, so the actors really had to use their skill to portray their parts believably. So, when the actors saw the finished product, they kind of really “saw” it first in the movie, like we did. However, one of the on-location shots was on Whitehaven Beach in Australia – a place that most of the actors raved about in our interviews. Javier also shared with us about his other creative outlet, art.]

Javier Bardem: I bring my own sketches…I studied painting and I wasn’t very good at brushes. I was more into the pencil and the ink. And I’ve always been drawn into faces and bodies and expressions so I guess that’s why I’m an actor. Rather than landscapes or motorcycles, I draw people’s faces, so I’m good at that and I like to bring that part into my process.

[Then Javier shared with us about what it’s like working with Johnny Depp.]

Javier Bardem: I met him in 1999 in Mexico in Vera Cruz doing a movie called “Before Night Falls” by Julian Schnabel…a beautiful movie about a gay, Cuban poet that was imprisoned by the Castro regime and then he came to the states and [was] a very important figure in the Cuban culture, also in the gay community. In one, he’s playing this very strong Cuban general, and another one, he plays a drag queen…very [well] known in prison [for smuggling manuscripts out of prison for publication]…he was a gentleman then. He was super nice, very caring, very funny, and don’t give himself too much importance at all.

I remember that it was so hot, we were sitting on a roof and it was summertime. It was 3 p.m. We were all — people were like fainting out of the heat, and there was only one umbrella and of course the production went running to watch him with the umbrella and he was like “No. The umbrella is not for me. The umbrella is for Javier because that’s the guy who has to keep shooting when I leave. You need to protect him.” That talks a lot about him.

In 2015, he [is] the same guy except that he’s playing Jack Sparrow which is an iconic character. And he’s so funny to watch and he will do and say anything and he will be brilliant. He’s a great colleague and a beautiful guy.

[Did you know that Javier Bardem played rugby? He played for almost 20 years and And he was quite good, too!]

Javier Bardem: I play European rugby. I play #3…being a rugby player in Spain is like being a bull fighter in Japan, it doesn’t make any sense…in the sense that we don’t have a very strong rugby culture. We love it, more and more now, because it’s become professional so people are now getting to know it better, but back in my day, there were not so many. I was captain of the national team. But I loved it…it’s a great philosophy on the field. I mean, there are rules to follow, and also there is no room for stars.

*Thanks to Louise at MomStart.com for the epic pictures. 😉

Be Sure To Watch Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales In Theaters May 26th!

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