The Untold Truth Of Antonio Banderas

Banderas opened up about his heart attack in a 2020 NPR interview promoting his newest Almodovar movie, "Pain and Glory."

"I suffered a heart attack about 2 ½ years ago and was an alert in my life," he explained. "And when I say this, people may just think that I am crazy, but it's one of the best things that ever happened in my life because it just gave me a perspective of who I was."

Of course this also set him up to play the role of Salvador Mallo, a thinly-veiled depiction of Almodovar in "Pain and Glory" a la Fellini's Guido Anselmi in the Oscar-winning "8 ½" (ironically, or maybe not, Banderas played Anselmi in a recent Broadway production of "9," the musical based on "8 ½").

In "Pain and Glory," Mallo's dealing with aging and bad health in an industry known for pushing its players to physical and mental extremes. Banderas' heart attack may have led him to the role, for which he received an Oscar nod.

"Pedro said to me, you know, I don't know how to describe it, but since you have the heart attack, there is something different in you," Banderas revealed to NPR, adding that the director told him, "It's going to be very close to all of these pains that I describe in the movie."