Our favorite deep-voiced cat is back in his own movie with "Puss in Boots" with not only Antonio Banderas in the voice cast but the talented Salma Hayek. The two actors have gained international fame throughout the years but it hasn't been a particularly easy road. I got the chance to sit down and talk to the hard-working actors about what the road was like getting to where they are now, the Latino community and, of course, "Puss in Boots."
Before Puss met Shrek and Donkey, he was a swashbuckling hero who protected the innocent. A bunch of old pub thugs tell him that two murderous outlaws called Jack and Jill have discovered an ancient power that can destroy the world. Puss then sets off on a journey with his old friend Humpty Dumpty who also introduces him to Kitty Softpaws, a sly black cat who takes an interest in Puss's journey. With his new sidekicks, Puss sets off on his most adventurous and dangerous journey ever.
Melissa Molina: Well I wanted to talk to you (Hayek) about your character Kitty Softpaws. You were talking about how you didn't have that much time, how you didn't really prepare, but she is a little femme fatale. Is there anything else you brought along to her?
Antonio Banderas: (In deep voice) Yesssss. Can you include this into your recording?
Melissa Molina: Yes, I'm recording it. (Laughs)
Salma Hayek: I think that she's very, very independent and I'm also very independent so I think I had a lot of fun with that aspect of her.
Antonio Banderas: A thief!
Salma Hayek: I'm not a thief.
Antonio Banderas: A traitor!
Salma Hayek: She's everything you need, that's it, that's for sure. So don't criticize my little cat.
Melissa Molina: Are you guys able to work together at all when you were doing the voice recordings?
Antonio Banderas: We did only one session together.
Melissa Molina: What was that like? Especially for you (Hayek) because this is your first voice acting gig.
Salma Hayek: Yes, we had a lot of practice before with the director and by the time we got there we really had the character because at the beginning the character wasn't really, really defined. By the time I got to Antonio, Chris (Miller) got me prepared enough so we were able to improvise together and come up with new things.
Melissa Molina: And I wanted to ask you about how some people are saying that "Puss in Boots" is a victory for Latinos because they're finally in the lead roles of a mainstream movie. Is it easier for you to get bigger roles now? Was it harder when you first started? What's the landscape like now when it comes to that?
Antonio Banderas: It's starting to get... normal. It started getting normal finally.
Salma Hayek: (Laughs) That's so true!
Antonio Banderas: There were some other steps along the way here to normality. When I first arrived in this country we were just destined to play drug traffickers, the bad guys. It was just difficult to find a character that we could play that was a hero. But I remember in "Zorro" the bad guy was a blonde guy while the hero was a dark-skinned Latino...
Salma Hayek: But there weren't a lot of Latinos in there.
Antonio Banderas: I'm sorry?
Salma Hayek: There were not a lot of Latinos.
Antonio Banderas: Oh, she's complaining again.
Melissa Molina: Are you talking about them casting Catherine (Zeta-Jones) in the female lead part?
Salma Hayek: And Anthony Hopkins. They're wonderful, I adore them but really the only Latino in the main group was you (Banderas).
Antonio Banderas: So little by little things are getting normal, again I think behind the effort of the community they show to the world the capacity of work that they have to actually improve in new generations, especially in their families, to send them to study and because they know that they study harder sometimes which some people may take for granted with what life has given them. They come out very prepared and there are Latinos out there now in every institution of America practically and that has a very strong effect in Hollywood. These guys are studying the demographics and you have no idea how excited somebody like Jeffrey Katzenberg, our producer, was when he was telling me the track of the Spanish community for this movie. It's beyond the charts, it's twenty percent bigger than what they expected.
Salma Hayek: I'm sorry, I told you this before Jeffrey Katzenberg gave you the results.
Antonio Banderas: Because you are very smart. (Laughs)
Salma Hayek: Because I know my people.
Melissa Molina: Well we're getting bigger too even in television. Last summer a Univision show ("Soy Tu Dueña") had one of the highest primetime ratings at a point and even beat the U.S. networks.
Antonio Banderas: And now I'm going to make a puntualization here that for me is very, very important. You know who were the first ones who did that?
Salma Hayek: We are.
Antonio Banderas: Us. Why? I have experimented in a press conference once, I'm not going to say what movie, but I have experimented with this information. A Latino journalist asked me 'Antonio, but you know you are always going to play Latinos in movies. You're never going to be able to play the characters that Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt plays, you're always going to play just Latinos.' Think about that, seriously. It's so self-racist to ask a question like that, like he was considering that we are lesser. I have always been very proud of being a Latino. I never hide what I am. I actually think a Latino is dramatically way more interesting.
Salma Hayek: And we're hot!
Antonio Banderas: But it's us, the ones who have to start to believe that. I remember when we did "Zorro" that somebody at the studio commented to me that the Latino community wasn't going to see the movie so much because the Latino community wanted to see American movies with American actors because that, in a way, was the perception that they have of what they want to be. That is changing too. That is changing too because they can start feeling proud of their representation that they may have in art in general, not just in movies. That is very important that we believe in ourselves. If we don't believe in ourselves then nobody's going to do it.
Melissa Molina: I agree. And --
Salma Hayek: And I have to say something!
Antonio Banderas: She always has to have the last word!
Salma Hayek: That's so not true! For one of two times that I do this he doesn't forgive me. I was going to say that, speaking of how we need to believe, I think that this movie is so important because our children will see that the Latinos are the heroes which will help their self-esteem. I think it's important for the children now to grow up in a different world where we're not only the servants and the bad guys but we are the heroes that fight for honor and fight for community. I think these movies are very important like that.
Antonio Banderas: I'm going to make a t-shirt that is going to say "Accents Are Cool."
Melissa Molina: I like "Puss in Boots" too because it integrates a lot of the beautiful Spanish culture and more people need to be aware of it. But another thing I liked about "Puss" was how he was animated this time around, he seemed to have more cat-like characteristics. I'm a cat person so I really liked that part too.
Salma Hayek: I love cats and I love dogs too. I love all animals but I really do love cats.
Antonio Banderas: I deeply love all animals and they play a very important role in our family. For Estella it was essential, she was totally in love with animals ever since she was born and at some point we've had six dogs in our house. We now have two cats here in Los Angeles with another three dogs and yeah... and my mother-in-law has seventy-two lions.
Melissa Molina: (Pauses) What?
Antonio Banderas: Yeah, she owns a ranch twenty-five minutes from Los Angeles and she got a preservation for animals. They are big cats, there's lions, tigers, panthers, two elephants, and snakes too... but she doesn't have those anymore. So this is a very feline family.
Melissa Molina: So how many years have the two of you been working together now?
Salma Hayek: Seventeen, eighteen?
Antonio Banderas: Eighteen. She just reduces the years so she can feel younger.
Salma Hayek: I am just a couple of years younger!
Antonio Banderas: She's going to start saying that "Desperado" was done last year.
Melissa Molina: Now I have to admit, people have a certain list of actors they think are A-listers with like Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, blah blah. But you guys are up there too in my mind. I probably shouldn't be saying that but whatever... (Laughs)
Salma Hayek: No no, it's fine. For example, now that you've talked to us and how this interview's been... it's like this, no? (Points back and forth) So you're up there where you think we are.
Melissa Molina: (Giggles) Really?
Salma Hayek: Yeah. Are we not on the same level right now?
Melissa Molina: Yeah... yeah!
Salma Hayek: See how easy that was? (Laughs)
Antonio Banderas: We were not born stars. We ate a lot of shit. I lived on nine pensions in Madrid when I went to work there. I was just literally expelled out of each one of them because I had no money to pay. I don't know how I ate for two years but you know what? I think this is something that's interesting too: I was happy because I was exactly where I wanted to be, fighting for my life and fighting for a dream. That was it. If people think I am happier now because I have financial solutions for everything, not so much. You know, it's inside you and so --
Salma Hayek: I will tell you what, he's exactly the same as he was eighteen years ago and he has the same passion for the same dreams, it's incredible.
Melissa Molina: Wow, so do you see yourself as the same too?
Salma Hayek: No.
Melissa Molina: No? Why not?
Salma Hayek: I think I've been -- since them ten different people, my life has changed so much. I have changed so much. I probably have gone full circle to where I've gone back to some things, but I think I have changed. I will tell you, I love what I do but I envy him. I don't have the same passion as I had like when I started.
Antonio Banderas: Yep, I do.
Salma Hayek: And I don't know anybody else that does except for Antonio. It's different. I have a love for what I do but it's different.
Melissa Molina: Well now you have a daughter...
Salma Hayek: Yeah, I'm a little softer around the edges now. (Laughs)
Melissa Molina: So what do you hope not only latino audiences get but movie-goers in general get from "Puss in Boots" other than just a really cute cat?
Antonio Banderas: Besides just to have a movie that's an epic, it's an adventure and there's a lot of comedy. There are actually some beautiful messages in the movie that reflect about friendship, that reflect about brotherhood and that reflect about betrayal and forgiveness mainly. I think it proves actually after the many things he (Puss) goes through being an outcast and a noble guy, I think at the end he's got a very pure heart. I love that about him. (Laughs)
Salma Hayek: I think one of my favorite things about this, for the kids, is the subject matter of bad influences and how you have to be strong and keep your personality, do things you believe in and do not surrender to peer pressure.
Antonio Banderas: That's what you're saying? You're copying that answer from me. Salma Hayek: I know but what I'm saying is that it's come to be my favorite thing about it, it's a thing that's extremely important."Puss in Boots" arrives in theaters everywhere this Friday, October 28th.