Antonio Banderas shed light on anticipated Anthony Bourdain biopic: 'It won't just be about the kitchen or cooking techniques'
The work on the Anthony Bourdain biopic was gruesome, but Antonio Banderas thoroughly enjoyed the experience, reports Variety magazine.
“We spent a month and a half filming in Cape Cod and Newport, constantly surrounded by the smell of fish,” the 65-year-old actor revealed in comments made at the Turin Film Festival, which takes place this year from November 21-29. “Every time I went back to the hotel, I had to take a shower because I smelled terrible, I was cleaning fish every day!” Antonio Banderas said.
He provided the most details so far about Tonythe upcoming film that reimagines the chef-turned-globetrotter as a directionless young man in life.
“After graduating from college, [Bourdain] he initially wanted to be a writer,” Banderas said. “But almost immediately he began to struggle with depression and drug addiction, so the film explores the extremely difficult early years of his life,” the actor explained.
Banderas will play a mentor to Anthony Bourdain
Given the period of Bourdain's life that the film will explore, Banderas will not play the titular role. He will be played by the young American actor Dominic Sessa. At the age of 23, Sessa was considered the revelation of the comedy film The Holdovers from 2023, which was nominated for several Academy Awards.
Instead, Banderas will star in the film Tony the role of a Brazilian-born restaurant chef who takes young Bourdain under his wing. “Through this relationship, Tony really starts to learn how to cook,” Antonio Banderas said.
“So the film is not just about the kitchen or cooking techniques; it's about his life, his identity and his way of being – shaped by this unique mentor,” he pointed out, referring to the beloved TV presenter who died tragically in 2018.
“My character studied at the best institutions, graduating from the most prestigious culinary schools, but he always remained an outsider,” added Banderas. “He created his own restaurant outside the traditional world of elite chefs, developing his own dishes from ingredients accessible to ordinary communities – simple food for ordinary people,” added the veteran actor.
Studio A24 has not yet revealed when it plans to release the film Tonybut filming for it wrapped in the summer, according to local US media. Therefore, it is possible that it will appear in theaters in the first part of next year itself.
The veteran actor explained why we haven't seen him in so many movies in recent years
Banderas spoke volumes about the role of mentors during his visit to Turin, where he received a lifetime achievement award. He even described his own career as the result of providential encounters.
“I'm a stage actor,” he explained. “Cinema came about by accident, thanks to Pedro Almodóvar – an 'accident' that led to 130 films, but it was an accident nonetheless. Theater was my first love, and for the last seven or eight years I've been back home, in Malaga, and home on stage. My life has changed, and now I'm finally doing what was always meant to be my life's project,” he added.
Legendary American actor Paul Newman, the subject of a 24-film retrospective at this year's Turin Film Festival, was another formative figure in Banderas' life. His piercing blue gaze was chosen for the official poster of this year's edition of the Italian film festival.
“I worked a year in New York in a musical,” Banderas recalled. “One day I was on stage, singing, and at one point I saw Paul Newman with those eyes staring right at me. I completely froze. It was incredibly powerful. We did a couple of movies together and worked with his wife, Joanne Woodward, in Philadelphia,” Antonio Banderas said.
“He liked me, so we went out to dinner a lot in New York. He had this weird habit of always asking for a certain type of beer and saying to the waiter, 'In exactly 2 minutes and 45 seconds, please bring me another!' I still think about it,” Banderas said of Paul Newman, who died in 2008.
