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Master of many trades but most well-known for his acting career, Jordi Mollà talks to Garan Holcombe
Photography by Garan Holcombe
Part of the same golden thespian generation as Javier Bardem and Eduardo Noriega, Jordi Mollà is something of a Renaissance Man. Actor, screenwriter, director, novelist and painter, Mollà seems to make every Spanish woman go weak at the knees. I am assured that it’s all in the eyes. Mollà has worked with the best in the Spanish film industry. He followed the directorial orders of Pedro Almodóvar in 'El Flor de Mi Secreto' and starred with Penélope Cruz in 'Jamón Jamón' and Cecilia Roth in 'Segunda Piel.' In the last few years Mollà has been plying his trade in Hollywood, something which is never easy for an actor unknown outside his native land. In 2001 Mollà appeared alongside Johnny Depp in 'Blow,' Ted Demme’s underrated tale of the cocaine-trafficking pioneer George Jung. Two years later Mollà played a drug baron in Michael Bay’s 'Bad Boys II' with Will Smith. His last Hollywood flick was 2004’s 'The Alamo,' with Dennis Quaid and Billy Bob Thornton. The film bombed at the box office but Mollà’s performance garnered a few good notices.
Recently, I managed to grab a bit of telephone time with Mollà. He had just come off the first day on the Turkish set of 'The Stone Merchant,' which also stars Harvey Keitel. Mollà plays a journalist who, after falling victim to a terrorist attack, becomes obsessed with a need to understand the reasons behind it. With the sound of the evening call to prayer in the background, Mollà and I discussed his adventures in Hollywood, the various strands of his eclectic career and the state of the Spanish film industry.
I asked what drew him to 'Ausentes,' Mollà’s most recent Spanish film released this month.“It was very well written, full of surprises, and I like the director Daniel Calparsoro.”When I suggested that 'Ausentes' owed something to Stanley Kubrick’s horror masterpiece 'The Shining,' Mollà was eager to emphasise the differences between the two films. “Not many people know this, but there are various scenes which Kubrick deleted from the final film, which reveal Nicholson’s character as an alcoholic. My character in 'Ausentes' isn’t an alcoholic.”
I wanted to talk more about Mollà’s decision to try his luck in the city of angels. “I was really scared,” he said in a voice which suggested that he can still recall the difficulty of his early days there.“It was all really new to me, and it took a long time before I felt I could control the whole thing.”And what about the challenge of making movies in another language? “I always have to concentrate very hard, there are things I’m not sure of.” Mollà’s Hollywood career may lack the trumpet noise and banners that have at times attended his compatriot Penélope Cruz, but there is no reason why he won’t continue to work across the water.
Moving the conversation swiftly on to Mollà’s multi-faceted creative life, I asked if he is drawn to acting more than directing, to writing more than painting. “One thing fits the other,” he said. “But I always say I’m an actor before anything else, although strangely, I started painting and acting at the same time.” Mollà says it took him a very long time to think of himself as an actor.“I would say to people, ‘I work as an actor’, never,‘I am an actor.’ It wasn’t until I had made 12 movies that I felt comfortable enough with the phrase.”
And with that another phone rings in the background, which signals the end of my interview. I had a second to squeeze in a final question.Was there anyone in Spain with whom he would really like to work? “Well, yes, there are about 12 people I have wanted to work with for a long time. But I’m not going to tell you who they are, because then they’ll know.” I smile to myself at the idea of top members of the Spanish film industry sitting down to a café con leche with a copy of TBS, and say goodbye.
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