Image Credit: Francois DuhamelJulia Roberts didn’t quite get it when she found out Javier Bardem would be playing her love interest in the big-screen adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert’s soul searcher Eat Pray Love. “I couldn’t get the image of him in No Country for Old Men out of my mind,” she says of Bardem’s Academy Award-winning portrayal of a flat-eyed killer with a blunt pageboy. “And that’s not really what you want to be thinking about going into some situation where you want to create a chemistry.”
The story follows our heroine as she first chows her way through Rome — “I gained 7 lbs. in Italy,” Roberts moans — before finding some inner calm at an India ashram, and eventually on to Bali where she meets an older gentleman who reintroduces her to the possibility of love. There, Roberts says she was instantly charmed by the Spanish actor. “Everyone knows he can do all the really intense stuff,” she says. “But he brings a lightness and compassion and kindness to this part.” Director Ryan Murphy (Glee) agrees. “He’s so sweet and loves a good joke,” says Murphy. “We did one scene where he wanted to play the whole scene as an ape.”
Gilbert has yet to sell the movie rights to her recent book Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage, which describes how her Balinese love affair stunned her by evolving into marriage, but already there is talk of a possible movie sequel that would reteam Roberts and Bardem. “Javier kept saying ‘What’s going on with the sequel? What’s going on with the sequel?’” says Murphy. “We’ve only really discussed it because Julia and Javier just got along like a house on fire.”
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Sorry if I’m confused but is the “older gentleman who reintroduces her to the possibility of love” supposed to be Javier Bardem? Isn’t he a couple of years younger than Julia Roberts?
Roberts is 42 (43 this year) and Bardem just turned 41. I guess women are always supposed to be younger in a perfect Hollywood tradition.
I wouldn’t chalk it up to Hollywood tradition, since it’s based on a memoir. But good for them not being bound by actual age- Bardem seems a great fit for the part.
yeah, i find this odd, too – because in the book, if i recall correctly (or memoir, whatever you want to call it), i believe he is significantly older than her. not just a couple years (in which case bardeem could get away with just looking a little older than roberts). ah hollywood. screwing up books one movie at a time.
sorry, bardem. me and my typing…
I’m with Julia–”No Country for Old Men” Javier is so not romantic leading man material, but what a difference a haircut makes.
Did anyone see Vicky Cristina Barcelona? He was smokin’.
Yeah, I saw Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and afterwards my sister and I just looked at each other like “What?”. What a waste of time and film.
I concur!
Javier is SO leading man material. He actually reminds me of a Spanish version of Sean Connery (from back in the Bond era), but better. Mrs. Penélope Cruz Bardem is one very lucky lady.
p.s. What was she thinking when she was dating Tom Cruise?
I still get Javier confused with Jeffery Dean Morgan.
Ditto.
Javier Bardem is an extraordinary actor (much better than Julia)…try seeing Before Night Falls, The Sea Inside, The Dancer Upstairs…he is magnificant!!!
I would happily let this man do things to me that would require counseling afterwards.
Huge LOL!!!!
Yeah Javier is smokin’! Check out photos of him in a tux at the Oscars and you need a cold shower immediately.
That said, there is not enough money in the world that would get me to see this horrible chick flick.
LOL! Nicely put. I saw this film, and he’s wonderful in it. Even his hair deserves an award!
Julia seems to get along really well with all of her male co-stars, they all seem to like her. There was a quote about James Franco in People Magazine that said all he kept asking when they were filming the movie was “When do I get to kiss Julia?”
I can’t believe they are already talking about a sequel, but it’s great that they got along so well.
Can’t wait to see hot Javier in this film!
Javier Bardem is a very sexy man and the best actor out there! No Country for Old Men is not the only movie he’s made! Google his images and you will find that No Country for old Men was only a movie and that’s not how he really looks! There are scores of actors who alter their appearance for a movie role.Javier has done it many times before that’s what makes him so interesting! Julia Roberts should know this.
The year she won her Oscar,Javier was nominated for Best Actor for Before Night Falls.
He was there at the Oscars at the same time and he was drop dead gorgeous in his Armani suit…stunning! Apparently her memory isn’t that sharp.
I love how in the book she gains 20-30 lbs and Julia is complaining about gaining 7
Javier Bardem looks like a neanderthal or cro magnon man. Seriously, he looks like he has a craniofacial deformity, with the big brow, oversized eyes and jaw, wierd wide nostrils and nose. It’s creepy.
It doesn’t matter what hair cut Bardem has, he looks like a reconstruction of a prehistoric caveman. How the hell is he cast as a romantic leading man? Sometimes, I think people are like sheep. They think that any body in a movie or TV is handsome. He’s really ugly.
i have to disagree, I really find him attractive, and I find a lot of men in hollywood unattractive. But to each his (in this case, her) own.
Yes