Paddington is back and in this third installment of the beloved franchise, the Brown family is traveling from England to Peru. They meet some decorated actors along the way from Olivia Coleman to Antonio Banderas and while the laughs are high, the story has quite depth too.
We love Paddington in Peru so much that it was so much fun to explore the themes of treasure hunting, travel adventures and ancestor influence with Antonio Banderas.
Interviewed for Family Entourage
Family Entourage: We are huge Paddington fans here in our household and it was such a highlight to get to see you in this third film, especially how you’re having these constant conversations with your ancestors, which actually led you to play several roles… so maybe talk to me about working through all these characters.
Antonio Banderas: Captain Hunter, which is the name of my character, is a man that has a very interesting and a special relationship with his past and with his ancestors because they are very pushy actually on the search of El Dorado and gold. They’re greedy and it’s kind of a sickness actually that is inside of him and taking him to be actually a person that he’s not. And we can see this other side of him, this kind of good and evil. The good side we see it in the relationship that he has with his daughter that at the end of the movie it is going to have crucial participation in the story. But it has been beautiful to be part of a franchise that actually connected beautifully with families all around the world, with kids especially, and which does two things… one of those things is to entertain, and the other one is to educate in a way. I think when we do movies for kids, we have in a way a certain responsibility. And I think the movie covers those spaces.
FE: I couldn’t agree with you more. The treasure hunting aspect that provided so many laughs, but it also provided a lot of depth… definitely started conversations in our household… speak to that aspect of like, we’re all treasure hunting in some capacity, it’s just is what do we find the most valuable in a way?
AB: The world is now very much turned to the side, to materialism and to the things that we think they’re going to make us happy just to the collect of things, collecting money. And so we all have in a way that kind of impulse to go after El Dorado. But at the same time, we do all have kids, people that we love, and at the end, that’s actually what matters. It seems sometimes we live as we will never die. We are collecting things and things and things as we are going to just take those things with us and not enjoying the present time, the moment. And I think all of those little things, all of those details are in the moment when you see the struggle that these guy is having with himself and with his own ancestor and all that things, you kind of understand how relieving is a character like Paddington who is not into the search.
He’s on the search of something much more simpler and much more beautiful, which is the love of the people that he believe it’s a loyalty is kindness, is a calm character. He breathes completely different to the rest of the people around him. And that is a very beautiful message too, that is just brought by the character himself in the way that he behaved in life.
FE: Traveling is always so interesting, especially traveling as a family. I know you do it often, you’re in Madrid right now, so for better or for worse, do you have a memorable travel experience you can share?
AB: Oh yeah! It is part of my life and I took a lot of adventures through my life. One of the biggest adventures that I participated was just to go to Hollywood and I enjoyed that very much as I enjoyed when I came to Madrid from Malaga. I have done movies all around the planet and I have met many different people with many different ways to look at life and I think it’s important that you can see all of those things firsthand, that you have this kind of close encounter with different realities and different people.
And that’s what Paddington does in this particular time. He just travels back to where he belongs and through him we can see another reality. And I think that’s important for people to not be completely all the time in London, and the reality of London, and the cars and the life and the order of the British. No, it’s now in a jungle with different possibilities and that’s nice.
Paddington in Peru comes to theatres on February 14th
