Javier Bardem played one of the most ruthless killers in film history — but
when it comes to violence in his personal life, the actor will have none of it. And,
as Bardem's heartbreaking true story reveals, there's a good reason why.
Javier Bardem grew up in the Canary Islands — an archipelago belonging to Spain off the
coast of Africa. His father, José Carlos Encinas, left his mother, the Spanish actor Pilar Bardem,
when Javier was a child. Since she was alone raising her children as a working actor,
he understood that a life in cinema could lead to financial hardship. Bardem told The Guardian:
"I saw it from the inside, I knew how difficult [a career in acting] was."
But showbiz ran in his family; in addition to his director uncle, Juan Antonio Bardem,
the future star's grandparents also got into the acting game.
"I guess it was in my DNA."
Nevertheless, things were tight for the Bardems. The financial struggle and the
abandonment of his father made their family extremely tight knit. Bardem told GQ in 2017:
"My parents separated when I was small, but we were so close — my mother, my brother and
my sister. We were like a gang of wolves. We would attack anyone we felt was a threat."
His mother continued to work her whole life. Things came full circle in the 1997 film Live
Flesh when she played Penélope Cruz's mother, with Javier also appearing in the movie. Javier later
married Cruz, making it seem like the cinema world is a lot smaller than it actually is.
Breaking into the acting world was no easy feat for Javier Bardem,
and once he did tap into Hollywood, the feeling of isolation didn't abate. His
perceived language barrier meant that he always felt like the odd man out,
and imposter syndrome meant that he never believed he could properly take on a role. While speaking
about 2000's Before Night Falls, a film about the gay Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas who died
by suicide amid an AIDS-related illness in 1990, Bardem told The New York Times:
”When I first saw the movie, [...] I look at myself, and I see a Spanish person who's
trying to be understood by an English-speaking audience and is putting a lot of energy in that,
instead of into expressing in a free way and feeling comfortable."
That sense of loneliness was no different
when Bardem played Anton Chigurh in the Coen brothers' No Country For Old Men,
which was exacerbated again by the language and cultural differences. Bardem told The Telegraph:
"I felt isolated for many reasons. I was the only foreign guy on the whole set,
and being in deep Texas is a hard place for a Spaniard to be."
But Bardem's saving grace in all of this was his mother and her message
to him of what it meant to be an actor. He told The Telegraph that
she warned him never to buy into any of it: the fame or the criticism. Instead,
she saw it as a right and privilege to work as a performer, and that was enough.
For whatever reason, Javier Bardem has a long history of being cast as the villain. He played
James Bond's nemesis Raoul Silva in the 2012 movie Skyfall with bleach-blond hair and a coolness that
gave viewers the creeps. Perhaps his most famous role — and the one he won an Oscar
for — was playing Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, where he's a calm and ruthless
killer with a particular sense of morality that somehow contributes to his ruthlessness.
"You don't know what you're talking about, do you?"
Despite the violence that Bardem shows through his characters,
the actor is vehemently against any form of brutality in real life. When he was young,
Bardem was in a bar and got into such a bad fight he nearly died. The actor told GQ:
"If my friends hadn't been there those guys would have killed me. It drove home a sense of
mortality for me. I learnt about respect, about keeping my boundaries, about keeping my mouth
shut sometimes, about friendship, and about how violence will always come back to you."
The brutal fight had long-term effects on the actor, too, and he takes an extreme
stance now against any kind of cruelty. When speaking to the outlet, Bardem added:
"From that moment on I couldn't stand violence. I still can't even watch it. I can't bear it."
He stressed this again while speaking with The Guardian,
saying that violence never does any good. So how does he justify this with acting? Bardem
says that it's simply creating characters; real life and family life are what count.
In July 2021, Javier Bardem's mother died in Madrid of lung disease at age
82. Penélope Cruz shared a touching tribute for her mother-in-law on Instagram, writing in part:
"You were always so good to me. I couldn't have dreamed of having a better mother-in-law. Thank
you for all the love that you've given us, your children, grandchildren, family, and friends."
The legacy of Javier's mother continues to impact him even as an actor,
since she also knew the terrain. He still relies on his mother as
a guiding light. Bardem told The Guardian in December of 2021:
"Every decision I make now, I think: 'Would this make my mother proud?' And if not,
I immediately reject it. That's a powerful legacy to leave, but she was a very powerful person."
The reason that Javier leans on his mother still for her creative inspiration is that he knew how
hard she had to work to be an actor — especially as a woman and a single parent in Spain. Her
dedication to the art form also came with stigma at the time. Javier noted to The Guardian:
"In 1960s Spain, it was a very hard time to be a woman,
especially divorced with three kids and an actress. You were referred to as a prostitute."
So if his mother could stay dedicated to acting despite these hurdles,
Javier knew he had no excuse and would use the art as a legacy to her memory.