Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem has emerged as one of Hollywood’s most outspoken voices on the Israel-Gaza conflict, pressing his case on awards stages and red carpets while acknowledging the career risks of doing so — and insisting he would do it again regardless.
In a wide-ranging interview published Tuesday by Variety, Mr. Bardem said he had braced for boos when he stepped to the podium at the Academy Awards in March to present the best international feature prize alongside Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Instead, his declaration — “No to war, and free Palestine” — was met with cheers from the Dolby Theatre crowd. “The reaction in the theater was an ovation,” Mr. Bardem told Variety.
The moment capped months of escalating activism. In September, Mr. Bardem wore a keffiyeh on the Emmy Awards red carpet while nominated for his supporting role in “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” telling Variety that he “cannot work with someone who justifies or supports the genocide” in Gaza. He has also signed a pledge, alongside more than 1,300 film industry figures, to boycott Israeli film institutions they say are complicit in what they characterize as genocide and apartheid.
Mr. Bardem is careful, however, to distinguish his criticism of Israel from the events of Oct. 7. In the Variety interview, he describes the Hamas attacks as “a horrible crime committed by Hamas — there’s not enough papers and TVs to say it” — before arguing that Israel’s yearslong military response constitutes a separate injustice requiring accountability.
The Spanish actor acknowledged that his positions have cost him work.
“Yes, I’ve heard things: They were going to call you about that project, but that’s gone. Or this brand was going to ask you to do the campaign, but they cannot,” he told Variety, adding that his base in Spain — outside the orbit of American studios — softens the blow. He drew a contrast with fellow Oscar winner Susan Sarandon, who has said she was dropped by her agent after speaking out about Israel’s actions in Gaza.
“She was one of the first ones to go there,” Mr. Bardem said. “And then she got that professional punishment.”
He cast his activism as an extension of a broader political worldview that touches on gender, parenting and the current political climate in the United States. Connecting the rise of online misogyny to the presidency of Donald Trump, Mr. Bardem said: “Trump, prosecuted for abuse of women, and he’s still in the White House and nothing has happened — that gives you a blank check to do whatever you want.”
He said he fears the culture of toxic masculinity he grew up with in Francoist Spain is resurfacing, noting that he has a 15-year-old son and a 12-year-old daughter. “One of the things I’m very afraid of is that we’re going backwards.”
Mr. Bardem made those remarks while promoting “The Beloved” (“El Ser Querido”), a Spanish-language family drama directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen in which he plays a celebrated but deeply flawed film director who casts his estranged daughter, played by Victoria Luengo, in his latest production. The film is among three Spanish entries competing for the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which opens May 13. Mr. Bardem said the character’s domineering behavior was rooted in a recognizable cultural pathology: “That takes us directly to the toxic masculinity of his generation and his age — which is my age, which is my culture, which is Spain.”
His remarks about his own father reinforced the point. Mr. Bardem said he was separated from his father at age 3, that his father abused his mother, and that the man ultimately ended up isolated and alone — a cautionary portrait of unchecked machismo. His mother, actress Pilar Bardem, who died in 2021, became the figure he looked to as a model of dignity and strength.
The interview — conducted in Madrid, where Mr. Bardem lives with his wife, actress Penelope Cruz, and their two children — ranges across his career, his upcoming roles in an Apple TV+ reimagining of “Cape Fear” and “Dune: Part Three,” and his warm recollections of working alongside Timothee Chalamet since the franchise began in 2019. But it is his political voice that Mr. Bardem says he has no intention of quieting.
Asked why he continues to speak out, he reframed the question entirely. “It’s funny,” he said, “because the question would be, how come I wouldn’t?”
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