Antonio Banderas talks ‘The Expendables 3,’ joining the cast and his character
Another chapter in the Expendables franchise arrives this summer and Zorro star Antonio Banderas discusses how he joined the all-star cast.
“I ran into him in a parking lot a couple of years ago, believe it or not. We did Assassins and we kept ourselves in contact. We became friends because we had a great time doing that movie with Dick Donner. He said to me, ‘Man, you have to come and you have to do something.’ And I said, ‘Just write something for me, but I don’t wanna do a villain.’ He said, ‘You don’t wanna do a villain?’ I said, ‘I don’t want to just be dead and have you guys laughing at me in number 4. I wanna be a good guy,'” the Desperado star recounted, discussing Sylvester Stallone’s recruitment of the star during Wednesday’s interview with Collider.
“So he said, ‘Let me think about that.’ So, I did a movie in Bulgaria that I co-produced with my Spanish company and Millennium, called Autómata, which is a completely different animal than this. It’s an art movie about science fiction. It’s a scientific and philosophical concept called singularity, about the moment in which machines overcome human beings. And so, I was in the area when they put together The Expendables, and Sly knew about that, so he contacted me and said, ‘Man, please read this and feel free to just tell me what you think about the character and if you wanna change things.’ So I took it and read it, and I definitely did some changes. I changed even the name of character. And so, I started sending things that I wrote and he accepted them…”
Banderas continued, discussing the name change and taking charge of his character in this film.
“It was Matador, and I have heard that name so many times, with so many characters that I have been offered. I said, “No. Matador, no. We have to do something different.” So “galgo” means greyhound. It’s a very fast dog. Galgo sounds easy and good in English, so they accepted it. And another thing I said to him is, “Sly, you have to give me the possibility to make some comedy here.” The whole entire project, and how the concept is created, I don’t see it as a very realistic approach to action. We’re not doing the type of thing that is very realistic and goes through certain narrative rules and cinematic rules. This goes in a completely different direction. And he said to me, “You do whatever you wanna do and we will decide it, as we go. If we’re going in the right direction, we’ll talk.” So I took over the character with that idea, and I ended up improvising a lot, which is not easy for me, believe me, ‘cause it’s not my language. But I think that actually adds some comedy, too. So, I am the type of pain in the ass guy who never stops talking and where everyone’s rolling eyes when he arrives, but at the end, he’s tender and has some kind of past story that actually makes him lovable, in some way.”
He discusses a few more details, being 60-years-old and shooting the action sequences and the weapons use. Check out the full interview HERE
The third Expendables stars Stallone, Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kelsey Grammer, Mel Gibson, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Ronda Rousey, Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Victor Ortiz, and Glen Powell.
The film opens August 15th in theaters.
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