THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 24, 1995 TAG: 9508240014
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 126 lines
``HE'S GOT THAT Latin male thing going on heavily,'' his ``Desperado'' co-star Salma Hayek was saying. ``Yes, Antonio is so intense. When he raises an eyebrow, I know what he means.''
A good percentage of the movie-going women around the world are also beginning to notice Antonio Banderas. He's making his action-movie debut in ``Desperado,'' opening Friday. He plays a former guitarist who now carries high-powered weapons in his guitar case. In the movie's first 10 minutes, he guns down, maybe, 40 people.
It is not a love story.
Still, Banderas is constantly hit with the ``Latin Lover'' tag.
He shakes his mane of black hair and moans, ``I don't think Hollywood has just been sitting around for 60 years waiting for me to fill the vacancy left by Rudolph Valentino.''
Since Valentino, there have been Ricardo Montalban (before ``Fantasy Island'') and Fernando Lamas (before Billy Crystal slugged him with the ``You look mahvelous'' imitation).
Banderas seems to be stuck with the label currently. The comedies ``Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!'' and ``Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown'' were in Spanish with subtitles but were still big hits on the art-movie circuit. With his first English-language film, ``The Mambo Kings,'' he was typecast as a smooth character with hot rhythms. (To get the part, he took English lessons for eight hours a day for a month).
``I didn't realize I was so passionate at all,'' he chuckled, ``until I came here (to America). In my country, we are all like that - very open to everything in life.''
Hayek, the first Mexican actress to get top Hollywood billing since Dolores Del Rio, is loath to explain the secret of the so-called Latin Lover, but she claims Banderas has all the characteristics.
``So intense. Very intense he is,'' she vowed. ``Although making movie love scenes is very boring. As for comparisons, I could not tell you. In real life, I have never been involved with a man who is not Latin - so there.''
For anyone less handsome, his varied roles would have certainly prevented typecasting. He played Tom Hanks' companion in ``Philadelphia.'' He played a seductive vampire with homoerotic undertones in ``Interview With the Vampire.'' He will next play the villain opposite Sylvester Stallone in ``Assassins.'' He'll be seen opposite Rebecca DeMornay in ``Never Talk to Strangers'' as well as in one segment of ``Four Rooms,'' again with ``Desperado'' director Roberto Rodriguez. Then he'll star with Madonna in the long-awaited movie version of ``Evita.''
It is his romance with blond Melanie Griffith, the former two-time wife of Don Johnson, that has fueled the Latin Lover tag. They met on the set of the comedy ``Two Much'' in Florida. He plays a man who pretends to be his own twin so that he can romance two sisters, Griffith and Daryl Hannah.
When we spoke, he was just off a plane from Spain, where he and Griffith reportedly visited his family. The romance has ended his eight-year marriage to Ana Leza.
Before he entered the room, his publicist asked that there be no questions about Griffith, even if newspapers around the world have already run photographs of their Caribbean vacation together before their trip to Spain.
But Banderas wearily brought up the subject himself.
``It has been rough this past month,'' he said. ``There have been many fantasies printed. I don't quite understand. The fantasy is unbelievable, but at the same time, I know I am a public person. I try to pay the price - and pay it with a sense of humor. I'm trying to relax and let the storm pass.''
There was no word on how his mother accepted his new girlfriend and his breakup with his wife, but Banderas did talk about Mama on other levels.
``She never wanted me to become an actor,'' he said. ``I think she would have liked for me to be a banker or something, but I have made over 40 movies now, all but six, or so, of them in Spain. Now, she finally says she is proud of me, but she doesn't like that I felt Spanish films were not enough. She is an old woman now, in the 70s, and I had not been home for a year and a half because I was working in movies here. I think she was beginning to think, `If he continues working like this, I won't see him but once or twice in years.' ''
In Spain, he said, ``about 40 journalists followed me everywhere. They camped out in front of our house. When I went sailing, they rented a boat and came out too. I can't really see the point of it. Do they think I will do something really important? Like jump from a building?''
When asked what Griffith is like as an actress, he replied: ``She is very natural in her ability to do comedy. She is very beautiful.''
What do the two of them have in common as actors?
``No, I should not talk about Melanie anymore,'' he said quickly. ``I don't know if we have things in common. I no tell you more.''
He'd like, instead, to tell everyone that he did all his stunts himself in ``Desperado.''
``I'm very proud of that,'' he said. ``I'm not interested in action movies, but since I was doing this one, I thought I should do the stunts.''
The movie is a sequel to director Roberto Rodriguez's legendary $7,000 Mexican cheapie ``El Mariachi,'' which become a hit. Columbia pictures wanted a remake of the film, but the director, with Banderas taking over the role of the mariachi (street musician), made a sequel instead.
Banderas laughed when reminded of the scene in Madonna's controversial documentary ``Truth or Dare'' in which she publicly stated that Banderas was the only movie star she wanted to meet. When she did meet him, though, his wife was along. Now, Madonna and Banderas will sing together in ``Evita.''
``I have been practicing the music for months,'' he said in a thick Spanish accent, ``but I must stop singing it in the shower. Now, I will work only with the music director, who will teach me to sing it correctly. I don't want to repeat my mistakes.''
He does his own singing in ``Desperado,'' with the group Los Lobos.
He's also hep to doing the much-discussed upcoming remake of ``Zorro,'' a part once mentioned for Andy Garcia. Rodriguez, who may direct, said: ``Antonio wants to do the part badly. He's bought a horse and and is practicing daily.''
And a possible sequel to ``Interview With the Vampire'' is being talked up, with him repeating his heated role.
With a schedule like this, he'll be seen almost constantly in big movies for the next year. Obviously, there'll be little time to visit Mama back in Spain. And will there be time for Gri [ffith? Will she adjust to this schedule any better than his es]tranged wife?
``I don't really know where home is,'' the reluctant Latin Lover said. ``It is wherever I am working. Things are sometimes funny, sometimes disgusting, but I love this profession. I want to enjoy this, while it lasts.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
Antonio Banderas, with co-star Salma Hayek, did his own stunts for
"Desperado." opening Friday.
RICO TORRES /Columbia Pictures
Antonio Banderas stars as El Mariachi, a mythic vigilante, in
``Desperado.''
by CNB