HOLLYWOOD – Best known for playing disquieting villains in films like Skyfall and No Country For Old Men, Spanish heartthrob Javier Bardem returns to the dark side this summer as the villain in his own biographical picture.
“I have found it thrilling to have a film made about my life,” Bardem said. “I did hope that the studio would allow me to play myself, though.”
The picture, entitled A Man Under the Sun, is reportedly “inspired” by the events of Bardem’s life, rather than being a “strictly factual account,” explained studio executive Goldy Stockwell.
“The original idea wasn’t working for us,” Stockwell said. “The whole ‘raised by a single mother’ and ‘uncle imprisoned by a fascist dictator’ angles seemed pretty played-out to us. We needed more drama.”
Additionally, preview audiences in test screenings responded poorly to Bardem playing Bardem.
“People didn’t find Bardem at all believable in the role of a talented and rigorous actor,” said Stockwell. “They kept going, ‘when’s he gonna murder somebody?’”
“That’s when we invented Hugo Desperon. He’s a great villain. He kills people, he has a curly red mohawk, and he has a weird accent that you can’t quite place. Classic Javier.”
Despite the studio’s enthusiasm, Bardem has seemed less than eager about the role.
“What is it about me that makes it so I must be the villain? Why would they get Channing Tatum to play Javier Bardem when they could have Javier Bardem? This, I do not understand.”
Studio executives maintain that Desperon is a role that Bardem was “meant” to play, but that the project can and will go forward without him.
“If he doesn’t want to be a villain, then fine,” said Stockwell. “There’s always John Malkovich.”
