In an interview with Fresh Air‘s Dave Davies on NPR, Javier Bardem explains that as soon as he read the script for Biutiful, he connected with his character — because he enjoys playing people who are full of contradictions.
“You have to create a normal person under strange circumstances, and that’s always challenging because you don’t have a stereotype to create,” Bardem explains. “You have to really go to the bottom of the heart of this man and try to live with him for five months, which is what the whole shoot lasted.”
Read more, and access the audio interview, here.