Does every interview need to include a ritual denunciation of Donald Trump? New Yorker writer Helen Rosner interviewed Spanish actor Antonio Banderas about his role in the upcoming biopic about the late Anthony Bourdain, as you can see in "Antonio Banderas’s Acts of Faith."
First Rosner praises Banderas for his outstanding performance in that film, as "Tony":
The movie—which comes out August 7th—is a star turn for Dominic Sessa, who plays the young Tony with adenoidal swagger. But the most extraordinary thing on the screen is Antonio Banderas, who delivers an astonishing, devastating performance as the proprietor of the restaurant where Bourdain finds work, and on whose porch Tony ends up sleeping for the summer....
Banderas has been, for well over thirty years now, one of our most bombastic, most movie-star movie stars, whether he’s brandishing a period-accurate rapier or succumbing to Almodovarian psychodrama. In the very human-scale role of Chef, all that glamour and pageantry seethes just beneath the skin. The movie doesn’t shy away from letting Tony make mistakes—at times, the character edges toward outright villainy—and Banderas animates Chef with a contrasting moral clarity whose force feels almost physical.
So far, so good. Unfortunately, Rosner then proceeds to interview Banderas and attempts to get him to validate her unyielding Trump Derangement Syndrome while congratulating Spain on winning the FIFA World Cup:
And then for Trump to be the one to hand them the trophy and to try to insert himself into the photo is so—
I remember the Spanish captain going, “Please, we have to make the picture.”
“You’re not on the team.”
You know, in Spain, really, he was not highly criticized for that. It was just a laughing matter. It was funny. It was actually funny to see.
Since Banderas brushed off Bosner's slam on Trump in a light-hearted, good-natured way she just couldn't let it go without trying again to elicit some sort of Trump hate from Banderas in a more forceful manner by portraying Trump as an "echo" of Spain's Francisco Franco, i.e. as a fascist autocrat.
It must be a little surreal for you. You grew up in the Franco regime, and to see things of a similar shape happening in American politics—does that bring out any echoes for you?
Well, they are different characters. Franco came from a completely different background. Franco was never elected democratically, and Trump was elected democratically. And, whether you like it or not, that is a fact. And those facts should be respected. That is a very important thing...
Wow, the facts broke out. Thank you, Antonio Banderas for not being drawn in to Helen Rosner's mental obsessions by rejecting the notion of Trump as some sort of dictator.
