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NEW YORK — Gael Garcia Bernal clearly enjoys a bit of controversy. Tell him that his latest film, "The King," out next week, received an early lashing in Variety for its unflinching violence and unpalatable incest and his hazel eyes light up.
"Really? Oh, that's great publicity!" the Mexican actor exclaims with a toothy smile.
Bernal has already made plenty of provocative waves in the film world, from his breakout part in 2000's "Amores Perros" to roles in "Y Tu Mamá También" and Pedro Almodovar's "Bad Education." In "The King," his first English-language film, he stars as Elvis, a young man discharged from the American Navy who comes to Corpus Christi, Tex., looking for his estranged father (William Hurt). He arrives to find his dad is a pastor, married with two kids and has little interest in the bastard child from his past. Elvis responds by seducing his half-sister, played by Pell James, an act that brings about a dark torrent of violence and retribution of Greek tragedy proportions.
"It's a film that has a lot of issues I'm very interested in ... incest, father and son, lost empire, the oracle, the kid that comes from the sea to regain his lost empire, territory, all of those things," explains Bernal, 27, his disheveled shoulder-length hair pulled back in a ponytail. "This kid is from the United States, but his father does not recognize him and his mother was a Mexican with no papers in the United States and a prostitute, so that leaves him behind in every single aspect of life, in terms of identity."
When it comes to Elvis' reprehensible actions, the actor is unwilling to pass judgment.
"I consider it wrong what he does, definitely," he says, furrowing his brow in thought. "But at the same time, it is congruent with the type of life he's had. He became a kind of killing machine ... therefore, for him it's pretty natural to solve his problems this way. That's what's scary about war and the Army and the Navy."
Perhaps the most frightening part, though, is the serenity and cool with which Elvis carries out his revenge. It is a calm that is apparent in Bernal, too, as well as a playful self-assurance. Ask him his take on the less-desirable aspects of fame and he is wittily diplomatic.
"Really? Oh, that's great publicity!" the Mexican actor exclaims with a toothy smile.
Bernal has already made plenty of provocative waves in the film world, from his breakout part in 2000's "Amores Perros" to roles in "Y Tu Mamá También" and Pedro Almodovar's "Bad Education." In "The King," his first English-language film, he stars as Elvis, a young man discharged from the American Navy who comes to Corpus Christi, Tex., looking for his estranged father (William Hurt). He arrives to find his dad is a pastor, married with two kids and has little interest in the bastard child from his past. Elvis responds by seducing his half-sister, played by Pell James, an act that brings about a dark torrent of violence and retribution of Greek tragedy proportions.
"It's a film that has a lot of issues I'm very interested in ... incest, father and son, lost empire, the oracle, the kid that comes from the sea to regain his lost empire, territory, all of those things," explains Bernal, 27, his disheveled shoulder-length hair pulled back in a ponytail. "This kid is from the United States, but his father does not recognize him and his mother was a Mexican with no papers in the United States and a prostitute, so that leaves him behind in every single aspect of life, in terms of identity."
When it comes to Elvis' reprehensible actions, the actor is unwilling to pass judgment.
"I consider it wrong what he does, definitely," he says, furrowing his brow in thought. "But at the same time, it is congruent with the type of life he's had. He became a kind of killing machine ... therefore, for him it's pretty natural to solve his problems this way. That's what's scary about war and the Army and the Navy."
Perhaps the most frightening part, though, is the serenity and cool with which Elvis carries out his revenge. It is a calm that is apparent in Bernal, too, as well as a playful self-assurance. Ask him his take on the less-desirable aspects of fame and he is wittily diplomatic.
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