We’ve all got our embarrassing childhood crushes. The ones we like when we didn’t know any better. One particular alien movie was the subject a young Javier Bardem’s infatuation, to the point he barely left the cinema when it was out.
In a feature by Vogue, Bardem was asked about his “childhood movie crush”. His response is a Steven Spielberg classic that’s definitely a bit leftfield. “ET [The Extra-Terrestrial]. I remember the day I saw the film three times in a row,” he says. “I remember when I met Steven Spielberg. He’s such a wonderful man. What an artist.”
To each their own – ET is a brilliant family movie that demonstrates much off the whimsy that’s long been a hallmark of Spielberg’s career. It’s very rewatchable, too, the perfect thing for keeping a child amused for the day with the Taylor family’s struggle to keep the eponymous extra-terrestrial safe, leading to Elliot’s last-ditch effort to rescue him. As Bardem puts it on Spielberg: what an artist.
Bardem is involved due to a number of features from Dune, drama movie Being the Ricardos, and comedy movie The Good Boss. A contrasting set of roles, that’s for sure.
In another question, he was asked about his Hollywood icons, yielding a decidedly more straightforward answer. “My mum. She’s not from Hollywood but she belongs to the realm of the industry,” he says. “Al Pacino, he’s such a wonderful human being; every time I see him I shake like a teenager.”