Antonio Banderas attended the premiere of his new animated film Justin and the Knights of Valour at the May Fair Hotel yesterday. Banderas said he came close to a stint on the West End stage before a call from Pedro Almodóvar put a spanner in the works. “I was meant to come here to appear in a production of Zorba the Greek four years ago,” he explained. “But when Pedro offered me a role I had to cancel. I planned to come back but then things have happened so fast.”
The Spanish actor, who is married to actress Melanie Griffith, has been based in the US since making his name in films such as The Mask of Zorro, but takes a distinctly Latin approach to his return to treading the boards. “I feel sometimes that the theatre is a beautiful woman,” he said. “I loved her and I left her, but now I can’t remember why. So I’ll be back soon.”
