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.
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00:00Javier Bardem played one of the most ruthless killers in film history, but when it comes
00:05to violence in his personal life, the actor will have none of it. And as Bardem's heartbreaking
00:11true story reveals, there's a good reason why.
00:15Javier Bardem grew up in the Canary Islands, an archipelago belonging to Spain off the
00:20coast of Africa. His father, José Carlos Encinas, left his mother, the Spanish actor
00:26Pilar Bardem, when Javier was a child. Since she was alone raising her children as a working
00:32actor, he understood that a life in cinema could lead to financial hardship. Bardem told
00:36The Guardian,
00:37"...I saw it from the inside. I knew how difficult a career in acting was."
00:42But showbiz ran in his family. In addition to his director uncle, Juan Antonio Bardem,
00:47the future star's grandparents also got into the acting game.
00:50Nevertheless, things were tight for the Bardems. The financial struggle and the abandonment
00:57of his father made their family extremely tight-knit. Bardem told GQ in 2017,
01:03"...My parents separated when I was small, but we were so close. My mother, my brother,
01:08and my sister. We were like a gang of wolves. We would attack anyone we felt was a threat."
01:13His mother continued to work her whole life. Things came full circle in the 1997 film Live
01:19Flesh, when she played Penelope Cruz's mother, with Javier also appearing in the movie. Javier
01:25later married Cruz, making it seem like the cinema world is a lot smaller than it actually
01:30is.
01:32Breaking into the acting world was no easy feat for Javier Bardem, and once he did tap
01:36into Hollywood, the feeling of isolation didn't abate. His perceived language barrier meant
01:41that he always felt like the odd man out, and imposter syndrome meant that he never
01:45believed he could properly take on a role.
01:48While speaking about 2000's Before Night Falls, a film about the gay Cuban writer Ronaldo
01:53Arenas, who died by suicide amid an AIDS-related illness in 1990, Bardem told The New York
02:00Times,
02:01"...When I first saw the movie, I look at myself, and I see a Spanish person who's trying
02:06to be understood by an English-speaking audience and is putting a lot of energy in that, instead
02:11of into expressing in a free way and feeling comfortable."
02:15That sense of loneliness was no different when Bardem played Anton Chigurh in the Coen
02:19brothers' No Country for Old Men, which was exacerbated again by the language and cultural
02:25differences. Bardem told The Telegraph,
02:27"...I felt isolated for many reasons. I was the only foreign guy on the whole set, and
02:32being in deep Texas is a hard place for a Spaniard to be."
02:36But Bardem's saving grace in all of this was his mother and her message to him of what
02:41it meant to be an actor.
02:42He told The Telegraph that she warned him never to buy into any of it, the fame or the
02:47criticism. Instead, she saw it as a right and privilege to work as a performer, and
02:52that was enough.
02:55For whatever reason, Javier Bardem has a long history of being cast as the villain. He played
03:01James Bond's nemesis Raúl Silva in the 2012 movie Skyfall, with bleached blonde hair and
03:06a coolness that gave viewers the creeps.
03:09His most famous role, and the one he won an Oscar for, was playing Anton Chigurh in No
03:15Country for Old Men, where he's a calm and ruthless killer with a particular sense of
03:20morality that somehow contributes to his ruthlessness.
03:23"...You don't know what you're talking about, do you?"
03:26Despite the violence that Bardem shows through his characters, the actor is verminantly against
03:31any form of brutality in real life. When he was young, Bardem was in a bar and got into
03:35such a bad fight, he nearly died. The actor told GQ,
03:40"...If my friends hadn't been there, those guys would have killed me. It drove home a
03:44sense of mortality for me. I learned about respect, about keeping my boundaries, about
03:48keeping my mouth shut sometimes, about friendship and about how violence will always come back
03:53to you."
03:54The brutal fight had long-term effects on the actor, too, and he takes an extreme stance
03:58now against any kind of cruelty. When speaking to the outlet, Bardem added,
04:03"...From that moment on, I couldn't stand violence. I still can't even watch it. I can't
04:08bear it."
04:09He stressed this again while speaking with The Guardian, saying that violence never does
04:13any good. So how does he justify this with acting? Bardem says that it's simply creating
04:19characters. Real life and family life are what count.
04:24In July 2021, Javier Bardem's mother died in Madrid of lung disease at age 82. Penelope
04:30Cruz shared a touching tribute for her mother-in-law on Instagram, writing in part,
04:35"...you were always so good to me. I couldn't have dreamed of having a better mother-in-law.
04:40Thank you for all the love that you've given us, your children, grandchildren, family,
04:44and friends."
04:45The legacy of Javier's mother continues to impact him even as an actor, since she also
04:50knew the terrain. He still relies on his mother as a guiding light. Bardem told The Guardian
04:54in December of 2021,
04:56"...every decision I make now, I think, would this make my mother proud? And if not, I immediately
05:02reject it."
05:03That's a powerful legacy to leave, but she was a very powerful person.
05:07The reason Javier leans on his mother still for her creative inspiration is that he knew
05:11how hard she had to work to be an actor, especially as a woman and a single parent in Spain. Her
05:17dedication to the art form also came with stigma at the time. Javier told The Guardian,
05:22In 1960s Spain, it was a very hard time to be a woman, especially divorced, with three
05:27kids and an actress. You were referred to as a prostitute.
05:32So if his mother could stay dedicated to acting despite these hurdles, Javier knew he had
05:36no excuse and would use the art as a legacy to her memory.