Getting under his skin

After 20 years, actor Antonio Banderas is working with director Pedro Almodovar again. It was worth the wait, says Helen Barlow

IT seems incredible that more than 20 years have passed since Antonio Banderas, who started out at age 19 in the films of Pedro Almodovar, has worked with his old friend. It, in fact, took a decade for their new movie The Skin I Live In, based on French-born writer Thierry Jonquet’s novel Tarantula, to come to fruition. It was worth the wait.

“Pedro started talking about the movie nine years ago,” recalls Banderas, 51, “but then things started to cool off and at one point I thought it had almost disappeared. Then one day in New York my cell phone rang and it was Pedro. ‘Hey Pedro, what’s up?’ He said ‘It’s time!’ And I said ‘Sure. Ok!’”