Entertainment

Banderas In The Ring

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 17, 2000 / 10:23 AM EST / CBS

Although Antonio Banderas plays a struggling boxer in his latest film, Play It to the Bone, he says the film is only one third action.

"The rest is about a relationship," Banderas told Jane Clayson on CBS' The Early Show.

Banderas plays Cesar Dominguez, a boxer who is just about over the hill and hoping for one more chance to rule the boxing world.

He says it's a story about three losers.

"The only thing they have is each other. I think it's...a triangle love story between two men and a woman," Banderas says.

Banderas co-stars with Woody Harrelson in the movie, and during the boxing scenes the two actors developed a rivalry.

For three months they boxed every day for hours.

"And you start getting in shape," says Banderas. "It was pretty tough. It was pretty intense...In the ring, there was like three days that Woody and I didn't speak with each other almost."

"We were hitting each other pretty heavy and we woke up in the morning with just a fixation."

Banderas would think to himself, "I got to knock him out. I got to knock him out today."

Aside from that however, Banderas says he and Harrelson were buddies.

"When you have that fun, you give that to the audience, too. It's a comedy with an edge," Banderas explains. "I think people will laugh a lot."

He points out that now that he's fluent in English, his roles demonstrate other qualities besides his physical agility (and stunning good looks).

When he made his American debut in 1992 as a Cuban musician in Mambo Kings, he had to learn all his dialogue phonetically.

Last year he appeared in The Mask of Zorro, opposite Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

He also took a shot at directing his wife Melanie Griffith in the 1999 film Crazy in Alabama.

And even though he is also musically talented (he sang in Evita and Desperado) Banderas says his focus for now is in the film world.

Some of Banderas' previous films that made him popular in Europe include Pedro Almodovar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

Banderas hopes to work in Europe again.

"I would like to establish a bridge and start working in both continents if it's possible," he says. "But this year I had to dedicate the time to America. It's the mecca for any actor to work in Hollywood."

"For me every day in America is an adventure. I never know how far I'm going to go."

Play It to The Bone opens Jan. 23.

For more film information, visit the Play It to the Bone Web site.