Are we able to love without possessing? That's the question, I guess, in this movie 
Javier Bardem could easily have become typecast as a Latin stud following his shirt-off performance as a hock-weilding hunk in Jamón, Jamón. He wisely resisted similar roles, and instead emerged as one of the most exciting and versatile actors of his generation. His international breakthrough came in 2000, with an Oscar-nominated performance as the persecuted Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, in Before Night Falls. Five years later, his performance as Ramón Sampedro, a Spanish quadriplegic who battled Church and state for the right to die, has helped to earn a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination for Alejandero Amenábar's moving The Sea Inside.
How hard was it to act being confined in a bed this way?
We actors always say how difficult and physically demanding a role was. But give me a break, it's only a movie. I guess the only difficult thing was relaxing and trying to think of yourself, as Ramón said, as a living head in a dead body. So you put your whole intention in the voice or in the eyes, the rest doesn't exist. It's a work of concentration more than anything.
Did you speak either to Ramón's family or with a quadriplegic to understand the experience?
I went to the most important and famous hospital in Spain that work at rehabilitating people in this condition. I was worried because basically I was there to learn something in order to play a character that was against what they were teaching, but they were great. They saw how respectful and tolerant I was with everybody's ideas and they put me on a bed for some days and treated me like a man with that condition. That's why I tell you the physicality was not that difficult. It's about what's in this person's brain. If this had happened to Ramón two days ago, I could have put myself in that situation. But I can't imagine how it would feel to be like that for 30 years.
Were you able to leave the character behind at the end of each day's shooting?
Not really, but it's not so bad that you want to. When you play Ramón Sampedro, you don't want to put that person away. You want to live with that guy as long as you can, because that guy is telling you some things that are going to make you grow. Not as an actor but as a person. That guy is putting you in a place where you're having to face things you don't normally want to face. Like death, life and truly a sense of love. Are we able to love without possessing? That's the question, I guess, in this movie.
You recently appeared in Collateral. Did you enjoy working in Hollywood?
The Collateral thing was what I call an act of curiosity. Michael Mann asked me to go there, it's a cameo, and it was a way for me to see the inside of a so-called Hollywood, high budget kind of movie. It's fine, but it's the same as playing in a normal Spanish movie. They say 'action', they say 'cut', and you have to be ready. There are more people with microphones all around, you know? But that doesn't work at all. I was after a glass of water and I had to stand up and get it myself. [Laughs]
Would you like to do more films in America?
I don't really care where movies come from as long as they're worth making. There are so many movies and it's a waste of time and a waste of money. Basically, movies are made with what it costs the external debt of all Africa. So sometimes you go, "F*** it! Is this worth it?" And they're not. It's what they call entertainment but I'm not entertained by those movies: I'm bored.
What makes doing a movie worthwhile for you?
The need of telling a story that somebody gave their life for; good roles with a deep respect for human contradiction; not those heroes and caricatures that are constantly on screen, where you go, "How do you expect me to believe in that person? He is not a human being - he is a hero or he is a villain." People are evil because they have been hurt before. I want to see the pain of that evil to understand why someone is evil. I guess that's what I want.
Steven Soderbergh is now going to direct the biopic of Ché Guevara with which you have long been connected. Are you still involved?
I don't know. I talked to Terrence Malick a long time ago and then he stepped out of the project. Honestly, I don't care. I was talking about two or three projects where I was really in love with them and they fell apart, so I don't want to know anything. When they have a contract and the money, if they want me they will call me and I will be there. I'm never going to fall in love with anything outside Spain again. In Spain we do very little movies, but we do them.
The Sea Inside (Mar Adentro) is released in UK cinemas on 11th February.
