Q: So, even when your directors say, ‘Great job.’ You don’t believe them?

Javier: No, I don’t believe them. (Laughs.) I mean, you know when you’ve done something good because your instinct tells you that was right, but a lot of time you see that take and you go, ‘Wow, that was bad.’ And the other one you thought was horrible, it works. I don’t understand anything.

Q: Can you watch yourself on screen?

Javier: I can watch myself on screen as long as it’s been a long time after I did the movie. Like, now I can see ‘The Sea Inside,’ four years after. Now I cannot see this. Because it’s too recent for me to know quite what I tried to achieve and most of the time I didn’t. It’s not being humble, it’s true.

Q: Even though all the critics have loved your performance, you still think it’s wrong?

Javier: Of course, yes.

Q: But you can appreciate the film itself right?

Javier: Yes, because I’m not in it all the time.  (Laughs.) But I can now watch the “The Sea Inside.” Because you are there all the time, you go, ‘Omigod, omigod, here comes my nose and my funny, stupid eyes. Look at that big face, come on.’ I mean I have my ego, but it’s weird to see yourself on screen man. I mean your eyes are like this big….but you want to be on screen at the same time, because you want to perform. 

Q: Did you have any preconceived notions about the Coen bros. and did you speak to anyone else who had worked with them?

Javier: No, but this is a dream come true for me. This is a promotion time, I know, and we usually speak good about each other, but this is different. The first moment I saw ‘Blood Simple’ I was hit by it in a way I wasn’t hit by any other directors. They are great masters in filmmaking history, but the Coens are truly particular and truly unique. And I am a huge fan and Spain, is one of the countries where most people go to see Coen brothers movies. Like you go to a bar and you say, ‘I’m going to do a movie with the Coen bros’ And a good 60 or 70% of the bars will turn around and say, ‘Really?’ Which is – and so, when it happened, I went like, ‘I can’t believe this. I can’t. Believe. This.”  So, for me it’s like an honor. I have to pinch myself sometimes. I mean, really, physically. And no, even more because I knew the people and met them and they are amazing. They are so nice and respectful and funny and careful and creative, no, they really are great. Because they are not disappointing at all, they are the opposite.

Q: How did you transform physically? What do you pay attention to most?

JV: I’m obsessed with the body language. Not obsessed, but I pay attention to that because I think one of the things I like most is because you’re recognized more on the street is to watch. The only thing I can bring with me is the fact that I think that I know how to watch and bring what a watch to a performance. We all speak by our body language, probably more than we’d like to. One guy comes into a room and you know where’s he’s coming from and his background by the way he talks, sits and moves his hands. One of the funniest and most enjoyable things for me to perform is that: to bring behaviors. That’s what I always pay attention to. My dream is when I retire to put all the characters in a room that no one can really have a conversation with each other because they don’t understand each other. They’re so different that they don’t really get it. That’s a dream, almost impossible, but I don’t want to stop trying it.

Q: Both your characters in “Love in the Time of Cholera” and this are single-minded of purpose. Did that occur to you while doing these roles? One is focused on love and the other death.

Javier: Yes, both of them are insane, actually. One of the things I like about characters is that I like to perform characters that are close to me, otherwise I get bored. One of the challenged of my character, not in “Love” but in (“No Country…”) is that there is no struggle in it. And I like people who have to struggle because I myself have struggled like everybody, and I like to see that on the screen. People who have doubts and performing a character that is so driven and straight, I have a problem with. So I tried in this case to bring something that I could relate to which is his clumsy way of dealing with day-by-day life. Let’s say, opening a bottle or answering the phone or opening an envelope, he will have problem with that. He’s out of sync with that. He’s not good at that—having a normal life, but once he gets a gun, he’s like a shark. With “Love,” I just wanted to add what he feels which is pain, pain of not being loved by the person he loves.

Q: Is the Woody Allen film a comedy?

Javier: I don't know. It really depends on how he put it together. I think it's a very Woody Allen movie though. It's about relationships but I think it will depend on how he put it together. It's not a huge comedy though.

Q: Because you said it was hard to do comedy in a foreign language?

Javier: There are funny moments, moments where I was laughing myself. Like fuck, that's good.

Q: What are you working on next?

Javier: I may do a musical. Is that weird, or what? Good, always an uncomfortable soul.

Q: In English or Spanish?

Javier: English. I'm taking care of myself.