How Puss in Boots became one of the most prominent characters in Antonio Banderas’ career

SINGAPORE – When Spanish actor Antonio Banderas arrived in Hollywood, he was already 32 years old, but did not speak English.

In his first American film, the musical drama The Mambo Kings (1992), he learnt the dialogue phonetically.

So when he was asked to use his heavily accented voice as Puss in Boots in the animated feature Shrek 2 (2004), it felt as if he had made a second breakthrough.

“Somebody calling me for the use of my voice – that was something I never thought would happen. Puss became one of the most prominent characters in my career,” he says.

The outlaw cat would be a hit and appear in two more Shrek films before breaking out into a standalone film, Puss In Boots (2011). The Shrek and Puss In Boots films have earned a combined US$3.5 billion (S$4.8 billion) worldwide.

Banderas, 62, was speaking to journalists at an online conference for Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, the follow-up to the first movie.

In the film, the career thief discovers that his recklessness has cost him eight of his nine lives. Gripped by the fear of death, he vows to change his ways, but finds that life without danger is not worth living. When he learns of a magical place that can make wishes come true, he grabs the chance to regain his lost lives.

Besides being his first English-language voice role, the character holds a special meaning for Banderas because he helped shape the feline’s final form.

In Shrek 2, Puss was meant to be a normal cat, complete with “a tiny voice”, says the star, who has a 26-year-old daughter with his ex-wife, American actress Melanie Griffith. They divorced in 2015.

He was eager to board the Shrek franchise because he was a fan of the first movie, released in 2001. Instead of going with the original idea of a meek Puss, he suggested that the cat be gripped by delusions of grandeur. It is why he came to resemble a certain masked vigilante from Mexico – in Puss, Banderas was mocking his own title character in The Mask Of Zorro (1998). Audiences picked up on the Zorro reference immediately, he says.

“The Shrek saga used fairy-tale characters, looking at them from a completely different angle. Zorro became one of those fairy-tale characters, put into a cat. Everyone recognised Zorro. It creates comedy,” he says.

When he came to Hollywood, he was already a star in his homeland and on the festival circuit, thanks largely to his work with celebrated Spanish film-maker Pedro Almodovar. His work on Almodovar’s award-winning films such as the dark comedies Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown (1988) and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989) helped him find work in the United States.

He and Almodovar have continued their relationship, most recently on the drama Pain And Glory (2019), which earned Banderas an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

Banderas made Puss into the image of his Zorro character, but if Puss were to return the favour and gift Banderas with one of his traits, the actor hopes it would be his signature adorable wide-eyed look, the one the criminal uses to disarm enemies.

“I think I gave a lot of my own personality to Puss, but the thing I don’t have are the eyes. They are a weapon of mass destruction. I would like to have that to manipulate people,” he says.

But in the upcoming sequel, Puss is confronted by his own mortality, a truth that forces him to retire from adventuring and become a house pet. There is a pathos to his character audiences have never seen before, Banderas says.

“He’s afraid of losing the only life he has, and it takes the character to a different place. He gets into a kind of depression, he’s not taking care of himself, his eyes are not sparkling. He is devastated.”

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish opens in cinemas Dec 8.