Art Genius loves company: Antonio Banderas as Pablo Picasso

Antonio Banderas as Pablo Picasso and Samantha Colley as Dora Maar. Photo / National Geographic / Dusan Martincek

Antonio Banderas has created a portrait of the artist, writes Michele Manelis.

Antonio Banderas disguises his celebrated good looks to take on the role of Pablo Picasso in Genius. "When they told me I had to shave my eyebrows I got a bit crazy," he says. "But I love that I had to change myself because, of course, if I did this in my own life people would say I was a little bit cuckoo." He smiles. "But as you can see, that is not the case."

In Los Angeles to talk about his latest, and in many ways most personal role, Banderas, 58, says of the fellow Spanish-born star he is portraying, "I have been studying Picasso for a long time. There was no other icon from the place I was born, Malaga, and he lived two blocks from me. So I was very curious.

"We both went out into the world, and we both left behind our land.

"Picasso was very controversial as an artist and very controversial in his personal life, because of the relationships he had with women."

Although Banderas never earned the reputation of a womaniser, like Picasso his love life has been well documented. To recap, he was married to Melanie Griffith, who he met in 1995 when they filmed the ill-fated comedy, Two Much. They became tabloid fodder when Banderas promptly left his wife of nine years, Spanish actress Ana Leza, and Griffith left Miami Vice actor Don Johnson. "People thought our marriage would last six months," he says.

But their union was to last 19 years, and produced a daughter, Stella Del Carmen Banderas, now 21.

Banderas met his current girlfriend, Dutch-German Nicole Kimpel, 38, in 2014. They now reside in a quiet suburban town in Surrey, England. He had no problem ditching the Hollywood traffic for cows and ducks in the idyllic English countryside. "I love it. I love being away from Hollywood." He pauses. "You know, I married two actresses, but my girlfriend doesn't have anything to do with my profession," he says with some relief. Smiling proudly, he offers, "She's a financial adviser."

"We both went out into the world, and we both left behind our land."

He speaks rapid-fire, with a heavy accent, and although he's endowed with an obvious intelligence, his less-than-perfect command of the English language adds a humorous twist. (When he made his first American movie, 1992's Mambo Kings, he didn't understand a word of English and memorised the script phonetically). "When I first came to America they called me 'the Latin lover' all the time, and at that point I hadn't played love stories in America, except for maybe Desperado and Zorro, and then Once Upon A Time In Mexico," he says.

"The people were a bit annoyed in Spain that I didn't go back there with my tail between my legs within the first three years, like they'd predicted. They'd say to me, 'Don't go to America. It's too competitive." But, of course, that was not the trajectory Banderas would follow. He went on to star in such successful franchises as Spy Kids and Shrek, in the latter voicing the beloved character of Puss in Boots, a role so popular it spawned its own film. Ironically, Banderas was able to capitalise on the very accent many predicted would be the biggest impediment to his career.

These days, he may be an A-list star, but more than two decades ago, when he left Spain, no one imagined he would one day portray the most famous man from Malaga, let alone be able to afford to buy his own Picasso painting.

"I used to own two, but in my divorce I lost one," he laughs. "I have to talk to Melanie and trade for a Diego Rivera she likes very much."

Lowdown: Pablo Picasso. Season Two of Genius , 7.30pm on National Geographic (Sky Channel 72).

Art imitates artists

There is no shortage of portrayals of the world's greatest artists. Here are some of the more memorable films:

1 SURVIVING PICASSO (1996)
Stars Sir Anthony Hopkins and is directed by James Ivory. This version of Picasso's life focused on him as a womaniser and his relationship with Francoise Gilot (Natascha McElhone), the only lover to withstand his cruelty and walk away in one piece. At the time there was some criticism of Hopkins' accent. He says, "I didn't want to use a Spanish accent and I didn't want to use a British accent, so I just made one up." He says of the man behind the great artist, "There is one thing that I respect about Picasso and that is that he seemed to have no guilt. He lived in total freedom which was a great cost at the end of his life because he ended up alone."

Ed Harris, seen in this undated file photo from the film Pollock.

2 POLLOCK (2000)
About the life of Jackson Pollock, played and directed by Ed Harris. Despite the unorthodox manner in which this great American painter worked, Harris says, "The intention behind every gesture was very important and there was nothing haphazard about his work. He didn't know where every drop of paint would fall but he always knew the outcome and the end result of what he was doing. But I think as a person, he was desperate for approval and had very low self-esteem. He was not a rational, thinking person."

3 FRIDA (2002)
Stars Salma Hayek in the titular role of the surrealist Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, which earned her a Best Actress Academy Award nomination. "Coming from Mexico, when I was 14 and learned about Frida, I realised there wasn't anyone else in the world like her. I didn't understand her fully at that age but I knew I was intrigued. She was exactly who she was and didn't appologise for it and didn't ask for acceptance." She had one eyebrow that she exaggerated in her paintings, as well as her moustache. She was also bisexual and never apologised for that either. The fact that she was not afraid to be who she was, was very powerful for me, and still is.

4 GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING (2003)
About the oil painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer and stars Colin Firth in the lead role and Scarlett Johansson as his muse. Firth says, "I was the best at drawing in my class at school until a seriously good artist came along," he laughs. "Vermeer was one of the first artists, other than Jackson Pollock, who penetrated the fog that existed in me regarding painting and fine arts. There isn't a lot you can find on Vermeer but what I do know is that he was a man of his time and took his civic responsibilities seriously. He was an art dealer and a practical man, but then again, his passion as an artist, just by playing him, I felt I was pushed forward by a lot of stimuli."

5 GEORGIA O'KEEFE (2009)
This biopic of the renowned American artist played by Joan Allen and starring opposite Jeremy Irons as her husband and photographer Alfred Stieglitz, illustrates her battle with depression and her sorrow in her husband's infidelity. Says Allen, "People know her as a strong, solitary woman in the New Mexico desert; although she was very determined, she had some very deep hurts. She vacillated between being very strong and then falling apart. When her mother died she took to her bed for two months and when her marriage started disintegrating, she would go away. She felt those connections on a very deep level and you can feel that in her art."