The actor from Malaga who has challenged stereotypes in Hollywood

Andalusian influencers

Writing in the Hollywood Reporter in February 2023, Antonio Banderas said, “One of the things that I always loved about Puss in Boots is that he’s a hero with an accent...it is one of the greatest joys of my life"

Jennie Rhodes

The section of coastal road running along the west side of Malaga city is named after one of the city’s most famous natives and arguably one of Hollywood’s best-known Spanish actors: Antonio Banderas. He is also the founder of the city's Soho theatre and owns a number of restaurants on the Costa del Sol.

Born in Malaga city on 10 August 1960, Banderas got his first major Hollywood breakthroughs thanks to his role playing Andrew Beckett's partner Miguel in Philadelphia in 1993, then as Ché, the narrator in Evita, performing alongside Madonna. However, it was the 1998 blockbuster, The Mask of Zorro, which made him a household name when he became the first Spanish actor to play a heroic lead in a major Hollywood film.

One of his greatest influences is arguably the one he has had on non-native English speakers in English-language films and he has spoken out about being typecast, especially in the early days when he first arrived in Hollywood in the early 1990s. Banderas has described having to complete his first demographic forms when he began working in the United States as ‘white’ but being told he should mark the ‘Hispanic’ box. However, he said of the situation, “I’m happy to be Hispanic, happy to be a Spaniard, happy to be Latino”.

But he also has a presence in English-speaking roles in Interview with a Vampire with Brad Pitt and in Philadelphia, successfully showing that he could get roles without the Latino tropes. Writing in the Hollywood Reporter in February 2023, the actor said, “One of the things that I always loved about Puss in Boots is that he’s a hero with an accent. That Puss would go on to delight so many children who had rarely seen or heard a character at the centre of the cinematic story who maybe sounded like them is one of the greatest joys of my life.”

Banderas has lived in Surrey in England for a short period of time and he joined forces with the British composer and producer Andrew Lloyd Webber in 2023 to produce a Spanish version of The Phantom of the Opera. And of course this wouldn’t be complete without mentioning that is his role in the most recent Paddington film, even if it did see him reprising a somewhat stereotypical 'Latino villain' character. Still, not bad for the actor from Malaga who could barely speak English when he first arrived in Hollywood.