God & I: Jordi Mollá

YOU ARE THE leading actor in the film Anthony, God's Warrior, where you play the part of Saint Anthony himself. When and why did you decide to become an actor?
I'm still asking myself that question, and I'm still not sure whether I really want to be an actor. I decided to start acting when I was 18, but at that age I didn't know what acting really implied. My doubts increased with time, and every day I still ask myself whether I really should continue with this profession or not.

Apart from your commitments as an actor, you also work as a film director, a painter and a writer. What does artistic inspiration mean to you?
The inspiration which leads me to these diverse activities is irrational. I have a great desire to be creative. The film industry is a world I feel safe in; maybe because I'm afraid of the world outside, and find life hard to put up with. So I need to create this sort of 'temple' of creativity, of fantasy and imagination where things are 'real', but are not as 'real' as true life is. I feel safe in this 'haunt' of fantasy and fiction. So whenever I paint or act or direct a film, I feel surrounded by harmless things tailored to my taste.

Actors often appear on TV, newspapers and magazines, and so become celebrities. Are you comfortable with being a successful actor?
I'd be the happiest man on earth if the film industry were a place where you could simply go on the set, act, with everything else taking place in all seriousness, while at the same time the video camera was shooting with no film inside it. What I'm trying to say is that generally I'm not interested in results; I'm more interested in the pleasure you get out of doing things. Anyway, I do not see myself as a hero or a super person. I have no idea why people want to be famous; all I can see is that it brings a kind of captivity.
Generally, people think the cinema is a fascinating place, and that life in the film industry is magic. This may be true, but not because of us actors, but because life itself is interesting.

As an actor, you have to slip into other people's shoes to interpret them. This, however, involves the risk of losing your own identity. Do you feel this danger in your profession?
No, I don't. I'm not the type of actor who confuses his own life with that of the people he interprets. I don't exchange fiction for reality. I believe that we already have many personalities within us, so I don't need other characters to come and live within me. I don't allow them to do this. I give them just a certain amount of time - as long as the film lasts. After that, I close my door to them.
The character of Saint Anthony has taught me a few things of great importance. This is why I've had so many differences with the director, Antonello Belluco, during the shooting of the film. I often felt that Anthony was saying to me, I can teach you something, Jordi.

What interests you most about Saint Anthony?
Silence is very important for me. Modern life is an enemy of silence, and most people are terribly afraid of it, but Anthony's whole life was lived in silence and penance. He was able to say to himself, I don't need this; I don't need that. Nowadays we live in a world without silence where useless things are constantly being proffered to us.
Anthony found everything he needed in silence, this is because, while he was silent, he was actually talking to Someone.
I'm a very religious person, even though my religious orientation is not well defined. One of the things that frightens me about modern life is that there are so many people who are not religious, who don't believe in anything at all. If you talk about anything which is invisible, no one will believe you: our modern world is really crazy.

Were you already familiar with the figure of Saint Anthony or did you not know anything about him before this film?
I knew absolutely nothing about him. A lot of my relatives have that name, but in honour of Saint Anthony of Egypt. I was personally more familiar with Saint Francis.
In any case, I prepared myself for my role by visiting Padua and the Saint's Basilica in that city, where he is buried. I also read some of his sermons and one of his biographies.

As you said, Anthony was a man who loved silence, but he was also a great communicator. While playing the role of Anthony, how did you reconcile these two extremes?
My impression is that any human being is a combination of personalities. We are never just one person. This is true of Anthony as well. The silence was but one aspect of his personality, and the communication another, but silence is really the complementary aspect of communication; if there is no silence within you, you have nothing meaningful to say to people.
I see in Anthony at least three different aspects. While filming I told Antonello Belluco, the director, I sense in him the soul of a child, so a child should be seen in him. I also detect the soul of an adult in him, and I want to impersonate both these souls. In the end, however, these two souls complement, integrate, each other, but not always at the same time. So I acted a three dimensional character, who appears sometimes as a child, sometimes as an adult, and sometimes as a synthesis of both, but never as a superman.
While playing the role of Saint Anthony I got inspiration from Pope John Paul II because of his intelligence in knowing how to transmit the faith, but also from Gandhi because of his great humility. Anthony, however, was also a sort of revolutionary, a 'Che Guevara' of the spirit.

Anthony was a great herald of human rights. He fought strenuously, but non-violently, for the rights of women, who were not much respected during the Middle Ages. He fought against those who harass the weak, and he even fought against corrupt clergy. Anthony was, in other words, anxious to help people in need. Were you interested in portraying this vital aspect of his personality?
I was indeed. Anthony was quite a revolutionary figure for his times. He was a fighter for human rights who wanted to help people. I trust people of this sort. I also try to help, but in silence. No one is to know who I'm helping. I don't take advantage of my fame (at least in Spain), to help people, because it is not Jordi Mollá the 'symbol' who's helping; it is Jordi the ordinary human being who's helping. If I want to help people I do it, but then I don't go on TV programs and proclaim, I've helped this or that person or group. I don't need to prove to anyone that I'm good.

Anthony is known the world over: in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas, etc. How did you prepare yourself to play this role?
I tried to understand him moment by moment, day by day. From the first day I embarked on this project to the day it ended, I humbly asked Anthony to explain himself to me.
Haste, efficiency, scientific method and practicality may work for other things and people, but not for Anthony. With Anthony it's important not to ask too many questions, but to ask the right questions. I don't think Anthony, wants a scientific approach. I tried to feel Anthony close to me, and all I had to do was just listen and act as a channel for his inspiration.

Who is God for you? What is your idea and image of Him?
He has no face. I experience Him as a power who listens to me. Someone I can talk to, and who protects me, guides me, forgives me, and Who is always there for me. He is someone I can confide my fears to, my unhappiness. I don't really know Who He is, but I talk to Him. I experience a direct contact with Him, and feel Him close to me.
I prefer my faith to be real, irrational and pure, and not filter it through my intellectuality. Maybe I got this from my mother. She talks to God the whole day through. I belong to that category of people who pray.

When do you feel closer to God?
As I grow older I feel closer and closer to Him. When I was a child I felt Him, but in a different way from now. As I grew older I lost touch with Him. In the last four or five years, however, I have begun to feel Him again. He's like a vibration, an energy, which I would like to continue to experience, because it enables me to live my life to the full, not only the happy moments, but also the painful ones. Every morning I thank God for everything.

You are well know in Spain because of your work. You have worked in the US, in Hollywood, and now with the Italian film industry. Do you see any big differences between the European and the American movie industries?
For the Americans the cinema is indeed more like an industry, so therefore you are just a number. In Europe the relationship is a lot more friendly; it's more based on human relationships. Apart from this, the movie industry is pretty much the same wherever you go.
Make-up artists or costume designers bear the same stamp on their faces wherever you are, you can identify them a mile off. Each profession confers on people this common mien and physiognomy. So in the end the film industry is like a big family the world over.
About a week before I start performing for a new film I feel very apprehensive, then, when I see the camera, I begin to feel at ease. Before I see the camera I don't even know where I am; what I'm doing... When I see the camera I say,  Oh great! The cinema; I have to act! So the camera for me is like a friend, because it, and it alone, knows all my secrets. The director doesn't know them, no one knows them except the camera.
One often feels very lonely while shooting. Before any take, everyone's around you, putting make-up on you, setting your clothes in order, giving you advice and so on, then, when the time comes, they leave you, and you are alone with the camera. My only real friend is the camera because it sees everything, and I can't lie to it. I can lie to the director, even to myself, but not to the camera, and that's why it's a friend.

BIOGRAPHY

ONE OF SPAIN'S best-recognized artistic personalities, Jordi Mollá is an actor, film director, painter and a writer.
Born in Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), Spain, on July 1, 1968, Jordi was trained as an actor at the Barcelona Institute of Theatre. He also studied in Italy, Hungary and England. As an actor, he has worked in more than fifteen films, with prestigious directors like Bigas Luna, Montxo Armendáriz, Pedro Almodóvar, Ricardo Franco and Fernando Colomo.
Jordi first received an acclaim in Bigas Luna's Jamón, Jamón, in 1992. Since then Jordi has appeared in Historias del Kronen (1994), directed by Montxo Armendáriz; La flor de mi secreto (1994), directed by Pedro Almodóvar; La Celestina (1996), directed by Gerardo Vera; La buena estrella (1997), directed by Ricardo Franco (nominated for the GOYA Awards); Los años bárbaros (1998), Director: Fernando Colomo; Volavérunt (1999), Director: Bigas Luna; Nadie conoce a nadie (1999), directed by Mateo Gil; Segunda piel (1999), directed by Gerardo Vera and Son de Mar, (1999), directed by Bigas Luna.
Critically acclaimed Blow (2001) with Johnny Depp and Penélope Cruz, was Jordi´s debut film in Hollywood, where he also appeared in Bad Boys II (2003), and The Alamo (2004).
Jordi has also directed two short films in 1993 and in 1995, and a feature film, No somos nadie, in 2002.
Additionally, Jordi has written two books: Las Primeras Veces and Agua Estancada.
This multi-faceted artist is also a self-trained painter, who believes painting should be an act of spontaneity.