Gael García Bernal

Gael García Bernal
García Bernal at the Guadalajara, Mexico Film Festival, March 20, 2009
Born	November 30, 1978 (1978-11-30) (age 32) Guadalajara, Jalisco, México
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1989–present

Gael García Bernal (Spanish pronunciation: [ɡaˈel ɣarˈsi.a βerˈnal]; born November 30, 1978) is a Mexican actor and director.

Early life

García Bernal was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, the son of Patricia Bernal, an actress and former model, and José Angel García, an actor and director.^[1] His stepfather is Sergio Yazbek, whom his mother married when García Bernal was young.^[2] He started acting at just a year old and spent most of his teen years starring in telenovelas. Gael studied the International Baccalaureate, with chemistry being unquestionably his favorite subject. When he was fourteen, he taught indigenous peoples in Mexico to read, often working with the Huichol Indians.^[3] In his later teens he took part in peaceful demonstrations during the Chiapas uprising of 1994.^[4]

Career

García Bernal was becoming a soap opera heartthrob, but at age 19, he left Mexico's television world to study acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, becoming the first person from Mexico to be accepted into the programme. In the brief period beforehand, he had begun to study philosophy at UNAM, Mexico's national university, before a strike closed the college and he then left for London. Describing his time in London as 'life forming', he considered acting merely an 'odd job profession' until the Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu offered him a part in Amores Perros. Subsequently, García Bernal starred in some of Mexico's most celebrated recent films, including 2001's Y tu mamá también, and El crimen del Padre Amaro (2002). He has also done some theatre work, including a 2005 production of Bodas de Sangre, by Federico García Lorca, in the Almeida Theatre in London. His debut as a working-class dreamer in the Oscar-nominated Amores Perros, however, was what first grabbed Hollywood's attention.

García Bernal also portrayed Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara twice, first in the 2002 TV miniseries Fidel and then, better known, in 2004's The Motorcycle Diaries, an adaptation of a journal a 23-year-old Guevara wrote about his travels across South America. García Bernal has worked for acclaimed directors including Pedro Almodóvar, Walter Salles, Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Michel Gondry, among others. He recently took on roles in English language films, including the Gondry-directed The Science of Sleep, the Alejandro González Iñárritu-directed Babel, and The King, for which he earned rave reviews.^[5] He has been nominated for a BAFTA in 2005 for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for The Motorcycle Diaries and, in 2006, was nominated for the Orange Rising Star award which acknowledges new talents in the acting industry.

García Bernal also directed his first feature film, Déficit, which was released in 2007.^[6][7] García Bernal is also featured on the 2007 Devendra Banhart album Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, contributing vocals on the first track entitled "Cristobal." Bernal was cast for the 2008 film Blindness, an adaptation of the 1995 novel of the same name by José Saramago about a society suffering an epidemic of blindness. Like in the novel, the characters have only descriptions, no names or histories; while director Fernando Meirelles said some actors were intimidated by the concept of playing such characters, "With Gael, he said, 'I never think about the past. I just think what my character wants.'"^[8]

Recently, García Bernal starred in Rudo y Cursi with Diego Luna, directed by Carlos Cuarón.

Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna own Canana Productions. The company recently joined with Golden Phoenix Productions owned by Producer Tom Golden of Hot Springs, Arkansas, to jointly produce a number of television documentaries about the unsolved murders of more than 300 women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas.

On May 2010, García Bernal did a cameo appearance as himself, playing Cristiano Ronaldo in Ronaldo: The Movie for Nike advertisement "Write The Future".

Personal life

Bernal in 2005

He was raised by his mother and stepfather, the photographer Sergio Yazbek. García Bernal studied at The Edron Academy in Mexico City. García Bernal's parents participated in an annual clown competition which inspired García Bernal as a young child to become the actor he is today.

García Bernal is "culturally Catholic" and "spiritually agnostic".^[9] He speaks fluent Spanish and English; and Portuguese, French and Italian to some degree.

On Thursday 8 January 2009, his girlfriend Dolores Fonzi gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Lázaro in Madrid, Spain.^[10][11]

Appearance

Gael has commented on his appearance a number of times, focusing on the fleeting nature of beauty. At an interview in March 2008 he stated that "talent survives and remains while beauty is diluted" He measures 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in), has a large nose, dark hair, green eyes and a fine, strong chin.

Roles in Academy Award-nominated films

Gael García Bernal has been in six Oscar-nominated films:

• De tripas, corazon - (Best Live-Action Short Film)
• Amores Perros - (Best Foreign Language Film, Mexico)
• El Crimen del Padre Amaro - (Best Foreign Language Film, Mexico)
• Y Tu Mamá También - (Best Original Screenplay)
• The Motorcycle Diaries - (Best Song, Best Adapted Screenplay)
• Babel - (Best Picture, Best Director, Best S. Actress, Best S. Actress, Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Score)

Quotations

García Bernal in 2005

• "The talent survives and remains while the beauty is diluted."^[12]
• "Changes occur that way. Suddenly the bricks fall into place in some sort of chaotic serenity." ^[13]
• "I'm an actor. I don't need to abide by any ethnicity."^[14]
• "I was very involved. I helped with sending food, writing and reading about the situation, and demonstrating about it on the marches. It was great. I was young, and it was fun. And I've got to say, I met my first girlfriend – my first real girlfriend - there as well. It was a great place to meet girls!"- Gael on the Chiapas uprising^[4]

Filmography

References

External links

• Gael García Bernal at the Internet Movie Database
• El ojo en la nuca - (Short film on YouTube)
• Gael Garcia Bernal interview for Rudo & Cursi By Alastair Smart, Telegraph, July 8, 2009