Gael Garcia Bernal: he plays everybody's favorite revolutionary onscreen, but he's not just playacting

Interview, Nov, 2004 by Juliette Binoche

In Walter Salles's Motorcycle Diaries, Gael Garcia Bernal's portrayal of Che Guevara, one of history's most vaunted rebels, showcases the actor's gift for bringing a hard-won freshness to the screen, but it also reveals something about his approach to acting. The film charts a 1952 motorcycle journey across South America that the famed revolutionary took as a young medical student--a trek that wound up sparking his nascent social conscience to action. But in the film, rather than evoke Guevara's principled heroism through the insurgent waving of his arms, Bernal chooses to do so through the painful, almost primal, opening of his eyes.

For Bernal, himself an outspoken advocate for raising awareness of social issues affecting South and Central Americans, his work in The Motorcycle Diaries is a watershed performance--and part of a trajectory of work that's seen him take on increasingly difficult, often politically minded projects. In Alfonso Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001) and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Amores Perros (2000), the 25-year-old Guadalajara, Mexico, native captured young men grappling with growing up in impoverished parts of his homeland, and moving into adulthood in the face of those conditions. In his other recent film, Spanish director Pedro Almod6var's Bad Education, which examines the effects of Francoera religious schooling and sexual abuse on the lives of two friends, Bernal takes on the church as well as multiple characters, including a drag queen. In all these projects, Bernal's work demonstrates the sensitivity--to both the power of his craft and the world around him--that's made him one of the movies' most intriguing new talents, one who constantly works to break the homogenization of Hollywood filmmaking by creating characters that not only move people, but also enlighten them. Actress Juliette Binoche caught up with Bernal at this year's Toronto film festival.

JULIETTE BINOCHE: So, in two days I've watched three of your films, and I wish I'd seen more. I saw Amores Perros, and I saw your two new movies, La Mala Educacion [Bad Education] and The Motorcycle Diaries. I haven't seen all the others yet, but I will. What I really love in your acting is how you listen, and the way you re-create life in each take. I could see it in each movie I watched, even though they're very different.

GAEL GARCIA BERNAL: Oh, great. Thank you!

JB: Anyway, I've got, like, 30 pages of questions, so let's get started. What colors are you wearing?

GGB: What colors? Blue and white.

JB: And what did you have for breakfast?

GGB: I haven't had breakfast today. [laughs] I don't have breakfast often. I kind of grew up like that, just eating a big lunch.

JB: Don't you feel dizzy in the morning?

GGB: Sometimes. I don't usually wake up early.

JB: Tell me, what did you do last night?

GGB: I went to see a Spanish film called Mar Adentro with Javier Bardem. It was really good. And I actually did something unusual, which is that I didn't have a beer, so I woke up different this morning. Usually at a film festival I like to go out every night. It's kind of necessary to exorcize all the demons that get built up from talking about oneself all day, but last night I made a commitment to not have anything so I'd be very sober talking about how wonderful the film was.

JB: We've talked about your morning, so now let's go to your childhood. [Bernal laughs] From what I understand, both your parents work in the theater.

GGB: Yeah. My mother [Patricia Bernal] is an actress, and my dad [Jose Angel Garcia] is an actor who now mainly directs. In Mexico, theater is very underground, so if you're a theater actor it's very difficult to make a living. But it's also a very beautiful pathway to knowledge and to an open education. My parents were pretty young when they had me, and because there was no one else to take care of me, they took me to the theater with them quite often.

JB: Did you have sisters and brothers?

GGB: No. I mean, not at that time.

JB: Were you a planned child?

GGB: Oh, I think it was definitely an accident. My mother was about 18, and my dad was 22. I think it always comes as a surprise at that age.

JB: And if you had been given the chance to choose your parents, do you think you would have chosen them?

GGB: That's something I've never asked myself. There are plenty of choices that are presented to you, and it gives me a lot of comfort to know there is nothing that you can do about that one. When I was little there were times I wanted my parents to be normal. I wanted them to have a religion. I wanted them to have a job, like the parents of every other kid I went to school with. But there was a good side, which was that as a family we could get away with anything. My father and mother could dress up the way they wanted to, and when we were very late it didn't matter.

JB: So you had a lot of freedom and insecurity at the same time?

GGB: Yeah. Insecurity comes with freedom.

JB: Can you share a memory from watching your parents onstage?

GGB: I remember the smell of the theater they worked in--it was wood combined with the smell of people. In Mexico it generally rains at night, so it also had that smell of wet dirt. Also, the theater was in this big cultural center at the university, which had, like, seven theaters and a bunch of auditoriums and studios. I remember walking beside the center's walls and thinking how long they were. The spaces seemed infinite. And I remember going from one theater to another without going outside--just going backstage to see other shows, like 20 minutes to see a bit of some other play because there was a really funny part in it, and then going and having an ice cream. A lot of the actors or people in the theater had kids as well. They were my best friends.