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Has the church come out against the movie?
The church always goes over, you know, every word. Yeah. I mean, they basically condemned the movie before even [seeing it]. They haven’t seen it. So I don’t have any respect about their opinion. I mean, I do respect their opinion but I don’t share it. It’s like I show the same respect that they show to my work. They haven’t seen it and they condemn [it], okay?

Was the scene with the bishop based on an actual event?
That’s true. The whole thing, the whole situation where he had to go upstairs and downstairs, the boy going up and down. And the dialogue is also true because Ramon Sampedro wrote that dialogue, remembering that moment. The priest also, in another book, wrote that dialogue. I mean, that was four hours [of] conversation but we put in like two minutes of it.

Has he commented on the movie?
It’s funny. He denied that situation. But he wrote it in a book about that situation. It’s like very sick, man. They are sick. I do respect people’s faith, but I don’t respect their manipulation of that faith in order to create fear and control. I guess [the] church is deciding to realize, I don't know about the world, but in Spain, they are losing control because neither of them are separating church and state.

What did you take from Sampedro’s book as opposed to the script?
The book, there are thoughts on letters that he sent to different people. There’s a beautiful letter to God, for example, to the Pope, to the President, to try to dramatize them, make circumstances where we can feel those thoughts instead of read those thoughts.

And those circumstances were based on real events. Like Julia was based on different characters because there were a lot of women, like five, six, seven women that fell in love with him. And some of them wanted to help him but at the end, they pulled back. So what Alejandro does is to put that in one character.

What about him made him so charming to women?
I guess he was a brilliant mind, a very tolerant person. In a machismo society, especially…back in the ‘80s [and] ‘90s. I hope we are changing, but it was very surprising to see somebody from a village being that tolerant and that even with women. He has a beautiful sense of humor, a nice smile and beautiful, blue eyes, so... And Freud would say, I guess, that women didn’t feel threatened, sexually threatened by him.

How did your girlfriend think you looked in that state?
Once again, I come back to the movie thing. It’s a movie and it’s like if I would do this on theater, I don't know if I will be able to create this man. But in movies, you are so well protected by the light, the way they put the camera, the music supporting you. Everything is like if I’m like that and my shoulders are too big, then he moves the camera and it looks like that. It’s like this whole thing that creates an atmosphere and something that you believe. But it’s not about me going in that bed and [making] you believe that I’m that man. It’s more about a group of people doing their job.

Are you looking for more challenging roles or something lighter? Che Guevara?
No, those films are not real. “Che,” “Killing Pablo,” those things you were going to ask, they’re not real. They are up in the air. I haven’t heard anything from them. No, I just look for the same thing I’ve been looking [for] always, which is characters that are interesting to watch, that they are going through any kind of struggle with themselves or with their circumstances. That talk about us as human beings, you know? Basically, if I can choose, I would choose those.

To clarify, you haven’t spoken to Steven Soderbergh about “Che?”
No. So you are not attached to it?
I am not attached. They say it, it is wrong.

PAGE 3:Javier Bardem on Awards and American vs. Spanish Projects