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Interview with Antonio Banderas
HBO
Tell us what it's like working on Pancho Villa.
ANTONIO BANDERAS
This particular movie and this particular character is a pleasure. And the story itself is just unbelievable. Unbelievable. Many people who we talk to about this story, they say, you know, there was an American crew filming Pancho Villa in 1915 in Mexico, they say, that's not true, that is a fantasy, a legend, but it's true. It happened.
And we're telling that story. And it's a portrait at the beginning of the century, the portrait of a very strong personality, a man who was an angel and evil all at the same time.
HBO
How are you approaching your character?
ANTONIO BANDERAS
Basically I don't go away from the script. But obviously I did a lot of research. I read the three Mexican historians who (wrote) about Pancho Villa. Sometimes (they had) differing opinions about the personality of Pancho Villa, some are more defenders of the figure of Pancho Villa as a revolutionary. And the (others say) Pancho Villa was a bandit. He was both things.
I think Pancho in a way is a metaphor of what mankind is all about. He is the best and he is the worst of mankind in a certain way. And also, I am not here to judge Pancho, that's a job that God has been doing from 1923 when he died. I just want to understand him as best as possible. And just try to do a portrait that is accurate with the reality of what this man was at that time. And situating him in context. That is very important, too.
I think when there are interesting characters, a story like this is very good to tell what happened in history, why things move in a specific way (and) not in another. This is a story for Mexico. Mexico is a brother country with American. You know, destiny put them together, and they're going to be together for the rest of their lives. [LAUGHS] So, I think it's good to know about that.
But also there is another lesson in the movie that it has to do with manipulation of the image. You know, this is practically the first documentary of war ever done in history. And the reaction to these movies, they were sort of documentary, (they were) very, very low quality, because they were shooting in the middle of the battles. They went back to the United States and they decided to do a feature film, you know, a dramatic film.
So, they brought actors down here. An American played Pancho Villa, and in the movie (he) was portrayed like a hero. But in the second one, they took the same material that they used to make him a hero, and they made a villain with him in the movie. So, [LAUGHS], you can use the same material and you can present a character like Pancho Villa as a hero, or as a villain.
(So) it's a reflection about the manipulation of image, and about the use of this type of new art of the time.
Productions like this are beautiful to shoot, but at the same time are sometimes dangerous. And they're hard, many hours, it's a lot of dust, a lot of hours under the sun. But for Pancho, I love that type of thing. It doesn't matter if we get a good product. And I think that we are getting something different and extraordinary. Truly.
I'm very happy with this fusion of Americans, Australians, and Mexicans. We are all very happy. You can feel it on the set. You know, this is a happy set.
There are so many opinions about Pancho Villa. The people in Mexico love (him) very much. Why? Because at the time that Pancho Villa came (to) power (there was) incredible poverty. People didn't have anything so Pancho Villa gave them something. They could belong to something.
Zapata and him were the first people who gave that to the people. You know, gave the power to the people for the first time in Mexico so at some point if you look at the character of Pancho Villa from a political point of view, he was very important character. Of course he's controversial. But they were in the middle of a war.
Pancho Villa was also a very happy guy in certain moments. Very funny. Very witty, very sharp. And he loves his men, he tells jokes every night. He dances a lot. He was a character with all of these different elements.
But from a dramatic point of view, Pancho Villa is a dream. He's flexible. You can stretch him as much as you want. You can do practically anything that comes to your mind and put it in this king of Pancho Villa.
Because everything is acceptable. Everything is acceptable.
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