Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem comes from a family of actors and made his acting debut at the age of six. He played rugby as a teenager and later for the Spanish team. International audiences first noticed him as the stud-like gigolo Raul in Jamon Jamon in 1992. He was the first Spanish actor to receive an Academy Award nomination (for Before Night Falls) before winning a best supporting actor Oscar for No Country For Old Men. He played opposite his now-wife Penelope Cruz in the Woody Allen comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona. The couple have recently welcomed their baby son into the world. Now he stars in Biutiful, an epic tale examining love, loss, forgiveness, poverty, exploitation and the afterlife.

What was it like winning an Oscar for your role as a psychopath in No Country For Old Men?

And where do you keep the statuette? Ihave it in my office. I see it and remember the fun it brought. I brought 17 people with me [to the ceremony], all my friends. And that was the major pleasure – to express gratitude to those who helped me become who I am.

Can you understand why people break down on hearing they’ve won?

It’s because of the whole process up until that moment.

It’s months and months of promotion and campaign. The day it finishes is like election day.

What are your chances in the “election” this year for your performance in Biutiful, for which you’ve already taken the best actor prize at Cannes?

That’s a good one, I don’t think I’m running for president this year.

How did playing petty criminal Uxbel, who seeks redemption in discovering he’s terminally ill, in Biutiful affect you?

Physically, psychologically and emotionally. It was five months of shooting, three more of preparation, so eight months in that state [of grief]. It’s difficult because you create this fictional world and put yourself in there. You’re not that person, but you have to understand that person from emotional memory. This becomes bigger and bigger because you’re shooting 12, 14 hours a day, six days a week, for five months. You become smaller and smaller, then you realise reality seems like fiction.

Did you realise the role would be allencompassing as soon as you read the script?

When you have this kind of material, you know you’re going to jump into an ocean of doubts and fears. You want to do it right, to do it justice. You want to give yourself completely over to it.

How do you feel about Francis Ford Coppola describing you as the heir to Robert De Niro and Al Pacino – but what sets you apart is that you’re never lazy?

I think the more homework you do, the more free you’re going to be on the set. Creativity comes from the pleasure of doing the homework. Fear is what drives men – and insecurity. Those things are good as long as they’re under control. As long as it’s in a healthy range, it’s a motor to make you go forward.

And this job is about insecurity all the time.

Biutiful’s director, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, has described both of you as “neurotic perfectionists”. Do you agree?

We work hard, we want perfection but sometimes you have to stop because you want to go further and further. We had to remind ourselves, me to him or him to me, “Stop, that’s enough”. Like on the second day of shooting, we did this scene where the doctor tells Uxbel he has cancer. We did that 50 times. I said, “Man, this is the second day, we have five months”.

Was it difficult to forget the role?

This is the heaviest movie I’ve done in my life and one of the heaviest I will ever do. It’s not the kind of film where you deliver the lines and go back to your hotel to sleep. This is a personal journey. You give yourself up in the name of the role and pray to survive.

After that you went off and starred in a movie with Julia Roberts.

I needed to do Eat Pray Love. I was like, “It’s time to go to Bali, wear nylon shirts and play golf”.

* Biutiful (15) is now showing in cinemas.