Banderas Would Like to Be A Woman...Just For A Day
SOFIA (Reuters) - Hollywood heartthrob Antonio Banderas would like to be a woman, for a day anyway, to better understand the "fairer" sex.
At a press conference in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, where he and Morgan Freeman are shooting heist movie "The Code," the Spaniard suggested he might swap places with his director.
"I would like to be a woman, just to give it a try and maybe understand them a little bit better," he said, when asked who else he would like to be for a day.
"But I don't know which one. May be Mimi, just to understand what she is going through," he joked, referring to The Code director Mimi Leder.
Freeman was less adventurous.
"Nobody," he replied in answer to the same question. "I have my own problems."
In The Code, Banderas and Freeman play thieves who join forces to steal two priceless Faberge eggs from a Russian collector, and in the process have to deal with the Russian mob and U.S. police.
The production, costing around $20 million, is expected in theatres next autumn and is one of the biggest films to be shot at Bulgaria's renowned Boyana Film Studios, which have been taken over by U.S. company Nu Image, a co-producer on The Code.
The company aims to boost film production in Bulgaria by attracting directors and producers with significant savings as well as highly skilled staff and good shooting locations.
The studio, where films "The Black Dahlia" and "The Contract" were partly shot, hopes to raise the number of projects to 17 in 2008 from nine this year, Nu Image producer Les Weldon told reporters.
"We expect to have many, many other actors and big films here," Weldon said.
Banderas praised the Boyana staff.
"We are working with a group of professionals that are throwing their heart into this movie," he said, adding that the hard work would "pay off in the future."
(Reporting by Tsvetelia Ilieva; editing by Mike Collett-White)