This is really a nice guy

Tune in to Fresh Air today (Thursday) for my interview with actor Javier Bardem, shown here playing the psychotic killer in No Country for Old Men.

Bardem turns out to be a really smart, enjoyable and even down-to-earth guy, for somebody who’s already won an Oscar and married Penelope Cruz.

In our interview Bardem talks about speaking and acting in English. He says “there’s a little office” working in his head when he has to function in English. But he also says he’s freer to experiment, since the words he’s using are less connected to existing ideas in his head than Spanish words.

Bardem has his third Oscar nomination for the new film Biutiful, in which he plays a complicated man – a small-time criminal in Barcelona who struggles to care for two kids while coping with a bi-polar wife and a life threatening illness.

It’s a gut-wrenching film at times, and Bardem tells me in the interview how the five-month shoot actually changed his personality.

On a lighter note, you can hear how he came up with the goofy haircut for his role in No Country for Old Men.

You can hear the show at 3 and 7 p.m. on WHYY. If you’re listening outside the Philly area, find a station here.

And you can always listen to the interview or download podcasts at the Fresh Air website.

NOTE: This will be my last post for a few days as I’ll be on a short family getaway.