After Javier Bardem received the Montecito Award, a long-time Santa Barbara tradition. Montecito is the town just south of Santa Barbara on the 101, most of it tucked within hills and behind trees, a playground with class.

Javier Bardem has class and piercing eyes, and good looks that often get masked behind the intense roles he plays, and the dizzying variety in his body of work. He’s Spanish, from Madrid (where he walks everywhere and doesn’t have to drive a car—so he doesn’t drive), and from a family of actors. His family has been on stage so long that Bardem recounted the time that “actors couldn’t be buried on sacred ground as they were associated with prostitutes.” Times have changed, certainly, not only for Bardem.

In an interview with Festival Executive Director Roger Durling, Bardem mused on his acting career. He really doesn’t drive, so the scene in No Country for Old Men in which he had to drive…well, he was reportedly terrified.

Speaking of No Country For Old Men, Bardem’s role in which has earned him his most recent Oscar nomination (he was also nominated for his lead role in Before Night Falls), it was the Coen Brothers who reportedly decided on the haircut for his character, the sinister Anton Chigurh. After the haircut, Bardem said, he was able to inhabit the character. But the haircut was a tough thing to wear. “Going to the supermarket with that haircut was weird.” Maybe weird, but certainly effective.

To read more about what Felicia wrote about the Javier Bardem tribute, visit: http://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?id=2103

Javier Bardem Receives the Montecito Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival

By Felicia Tomasko

Watch the video on fest21.com