Bardem's rising star

Surprise nominee: Javier Bardem in Before Night Falls

By BBC News Online Entertainment correspondent Tom Brook

Spanish actor Javier Bardem has found earning an Oscar nomination for his performance in Before Night Falls has suddenly boosted his international profile.

Until this month's Academy Awards nominations announcement, the talented 31-year-old was little known outside Spain. Now he's basking in the spotlight of intense pre-Oscar media attention and can't quite come to grips with the reality.

He says: "I feel amazed, I feel shocked, I feel like I am living in some kind of a dream, I am not used to this, all this amount of focus on my work makes me a little bit nervous, but happy."

Before Night Falls, which was released in America last December, is picking up business and being screened in additional cinemas as a result of Bardem's nomination for best actor.

It is a biographical picture that documents the life of Cuban poet and writer Reinaldo Arenas.

Exile

Bardem portrays Arenas with a convincing style chronicling his days as an idealistic early follower of the communism of Fidel Castro, his eventual disenchantment with the Cuban government and his life in exile in New York, where he died in 1990.

Bardem had no problems playing a gay role

At the time of his death Arenas had Aids, although the film shows he did not die from the disease, but took his own life.

Reinaldo Areanas was a man who had strong passions that drove many aspects of his life, including both his homosexuality and his writing. His reluctance to curb these passions is what prompted hostility from the Cuban government and eventually forced him into exile.

'Freedom'

Bardem sees him as "a man who was chasing his freedom".

"He put his anger, his pain, his happiness into the writing, so when you read his books you felt like something was alive," he says.

The actor adds that as a result he was, "easy to play, he was not an intellectual person, he was more an emotional person like me".

Bardem was born in the Canary Islands and comes from a well-known Spanish acting family.

He made his feature debut in 1990 and over the past decade he has made a handful of films including two with noted Spanish director Pedro Almodovar.

There's no doubt that taking on the role of Reinaldo Arenas presented Bardem with his biggest challenge to date.

The film's American director Julian Schnabel cast him after Benicio Del Toro turned down the role. Bardem had to learn to speak Cuban accented Spanish and English in just six weeks.

Arenas' lifestyle was frowned upon by Cuban authorities

The actor, well known in Spain for his masculine heterosexual screen roles, had no qualms in portraying a gay man.

"I would see a problem if I have to play a Nazi, or a baby-killer, but a gay person, a person who is in love with a man, what's the problem with it?," he says.

"I don't understand that, I will never understand that."

Awards

The film has brought Bardem a trove of awards including the best actor prize at the Venice Film Festival.

In addition to his recent Oscar nomination several prestigious US film groups have also honoured him.

He is trying to enjoy the accolades and is eager to work with other American directors if they will employ him. Bardem seems to think being Spanish will be a hindrance in getting him roles.

But other Spanish actors, most notably Antonio Banderas, have managed to enjoy mainstream US success.

Bardem isn't likely to win the Oscar, the trophy is more likely to go to Tom Hanks or Russell Crowe, but the nomination alone has given him some well-deserved currency in Hollywood.

His acting in Before Night Falls was extremely powerful, he captured the spirit of Arenas and exuded a charisma that made the film work. Without Bardem the picture would have lacked its strong emotional core.

This rising Spanish star will next be seen on screen as a lawyer in The Dancer Upstairs, directed by John Malkovich.