Biutiful

[Uxbal] has to go through a journey,” Bardem says. “He has to struggle and evolve in himself as a human being, and see the best and the worst of himself—and in him, we see ourselves. If you are not ready to see that, then well you’re not and that’s okay, but… [when I experience a film] I want to see something that explains the complexity of ourselves on screen.”

To prepare for the role, Bardem returned to the acting school he’s been attending for over 20 years. After meeting with his coach, he realized he was going to have to live the pain of his character in order to achieve the emotional veracity demanded by the role. “I didn’t perform in this one,” he confessed. “There was no way to perform it rather than be it.”

Guillermo del Toro has called Bardem’s performance ‘monumental’; Sean Penn said it’s the best thing he’s seen since Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris. ‘When I saw King’s Speech, I thought Colin Firth gave the best performance I’d seen in a couple of years,’ Ben Affleck told me at a party for The Town a couple of weeks ago. ‘Then I saw Biutiful.’ He shook his head. ‘Javier is on another level from the rest of us.’

http://biutiful-themovie.com/