Playing the Life of A QV Man
qvMagazine speaks with Academy Award nominee Javier Bardem about playing a QV Cuban author.
By Luther Orrick Guzman

"Before Night Falls" is one of this year's most acclaimed movies. It is a film which stars Javier Bardem, who plays the life of famed QV Cuban author Reinaldo Arenas. Recently, Bardem was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Actor category, and he spoke to qvMagazine about the movie, on playing the QV lead, and gave us his own personal views on homosexuality.

Bardem speaks with humility when it comes to talking about all the awards and praise he's recently gotten. "I'm surprised because I never thought in my wildest dreams that something I'd done would be seen so much," he explains. "I feel threatened because I've received awards for this role, and I've always sort have treated my work as something I just like to do. Now it's like, 'This is serious.' I have to ask myself do I continue my career as an actor on a more serious note, or do I proceed the way I always have? I'm full of hopes because this film is very important and I have hope that more people will see it because it's such an important story. As actors, we make good and bad films, but important films are very few."

Although Javier is heterosexual, he is very secure with his sexuality and says he feels that he can play any role presented to him.

"I can't say it was difficult for me to play Reinaldo," he says. "It was more like a point of no return, I started to see his work, watch his videos, talk to people who knew him, and there came a moment that I understood him mentally. Physically, I was already able to imitate his actions, but then came a moment to become him as a character, to come from where he came from, to stand for what he believed in-fighting for his right to do everything he did and be the way he was. The intention was always there to capture his essence."

Bardem, a native Spaniard, had to spend time in Cuba in order to perfect his character's Cuban accent. He also found that learning to speak Cuban was somewhat of a challenge since the Cuban style of speaking is completely different than the Spanish style from Spain.

Bardem explains, "The difference in speaking Cuban is not just the way you speak, but it's also a philosophy that kind of steers the Cuban language. It's very particular, very sensual, effective, fast, and ironic."

Bardem continues, "Spanish from Spain, especially from Madrid, is a language with closed consonants. It's very stern and aggressive--full of J's."

Although this is the third role in which he has played a homosexual, Bardem does not fear being typecast. He says, "There are always absurd people who say it must be a huge risk to play a homosexual...I always feel like throwing up whenever I hear people talk about morality and judgement of who actors play QV. I've always said that I'd rather go to bed with a man on screen than play a character that kills a thousand innocent people in some war flick! I think that it's a shame that cinema displays so many acts of violence, even sexual violence, with such graphic detail, but yet an act of sex or QV sex is taboo. It's absurd!"

Bardem, furthermore, adds, "I find it incredibly sad to see how so many people find time to point their finger at homosexuality and condemn something that has to do with loving another human being. It's cynical-to think people are wasting their time on this issue when there are real problems in the world."

While Javier finds the success of his film rewarding, true success for him is much deeper. He says, "In my case, success means that I can go home and have my girlfriend happily at my side-that I can have a healthy relationship with my family."

He, furthermore, adds, "On a professional level, success to me would mean to play Reinaldo Arenas and then meet a Cuban who actually knew Reinaldo and to hear that person say, "You did it very well."

Out of all the roles he's played, the one role he's most proud of is "Before Night Falls."
"There are roles that I feel can make you a better person. I feel that playing Reinaldo Arenas was one of those roles. When you play such a positive character, you learn to see the world through this person's eyes. His eyes were very noble. I feel that because of this film, I'm more noble and more tolerant."

Bardem concludes, "Well, I am a nobody to give advice, but maybe because I've played Reinaldo, I can say that the example of Reinaldo is something to learn from. To fight for your identity as he (Reinaldo) has. An identity that he was denied with prison and torture. But in a world without prison and torture, it is even more important to find one's identity. The sooner you find it, the less you will suffer."