Background

"The Talent survives and remains while the beauty is diluted." Gael Garcia Bernal.

Mexican heartthrob Gael Garcia Bernal made his international breakthrough with a starring role as a young man who falls in love and wants to run with his pregnant sister-in-law in the Oscar’s Best Foreign Language Film nominee Amores Perros (2000; a.k.a. Love's a Bitch), by first-time director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. He followed it up with such memorable as the hormonally charged teenager Julio Zapata in Alfonso Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001; a.k.a. And Your Mother Too) and as the young Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara in Diarios de motocicleta (2004; a.k.a. The Motorcycle Diaries).

The international star who opts to continue career in Mexican films was also credited in El crimen del Padre Amaro (2002; a.k.a. The Crime of Father Amaro), La Mala Educación (2004; a.k.a. Bad Education), The Science of Sleep (2006; a.k.a. Science des rêves, La) and the soon-to-be released three-story film Babel, opposite Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. His upcoming film projects include Déficit (he will direct and star), Toto, Pasado, El, and México '68. He has also reportedly been offered to play the bad guy role of Matt Damon's nemesis in the upcoming The Bourne Ultimatum, the third installment in the amnesiac hitman franchise based on the novel by Robert Ludlum.

The darling of foreign film fans, 5' 6½'' tall, endearingly handsome Bernal was named one of People en Espanol's 25 Most Beautiful (June 2002 Issue). The brown-haired, eyed, a close friend of actor Diego Luna, dated actress Natalie Portman (born June 9, 1981) from March 2003 to May 2004. He also romanced Argentine actress Dolores Fonzi (met while filming the 2006 romantic miniseries "Soy tu fan"), Mexican actress Cecilia Suarez (Spanglish; 2004), and his Amores Perros costar actress Vanessa Bauche.

"I'm an actor. I don't need to abide by any ethnicity." Gael Garcia Bernal.

Childhood and Family

"A person isn't born with the intelligence to be with someone especial, you learn it, and you fail in the path of life, but you don't have to give up the chance to love." Gael Garcia Bernal.

In Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, Gael Garcia Bernal was born on November 30, 1978, to actor parents Jose Angel Garcia (also a director; born in 1959) and Patricia Bernal (also a former model; born in 1944). His stepfather is Sergio Yasbek, whom his mother married when he was young. About him, Bernal once said: “The paternal figure I've had is my stepfather, but I don't like that word. He's always been my father."

At age 17, Bernal, who can speak English, Italian, Spanish and French, left Mexico for London, where he later studied acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama for three years, beginning in 1999. He was the first Mexican to be accepted at this prestigious school.

Career

"I believe fervently in the nature, in truth and imagination, I believe in the blood, in life, words, and motivations." Gael Garcia Bernal.

A son of actor parents, Gael Garcia Bernal was often included in theatrical productions, having his first acting role as Jesus as a baby. He later spent most of his formative years in Mexican soap operas, starring in “Teresa” at 11 and in "El Abuelo y Yo" at 14. In 1996, he played the lead role of the young milk-boy in writer-director Antonio Urrutia's acclaimed coming-of-age 16-minute film, De Tripas Corazon, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film. Afterward, the young actor was involved in numerous short films and theater productions until he left home for England at 17.

In the new destination, Bernal studied acting at the prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama in London. During his study, he returned to his homeland for a while when he was offered to star in the 2000 Mexican film Amores Perros (a.k.a. Love's a Bitch), in which he shares the title character with Vanessa Bauche, playing a young who falls in love and wants to run away with his pregnant sister-in-law. The drama-thriller by first-time director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu received good reviews and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2001, instantly catapulting Bernal’s name into international spotlight.

Despite his international star status, Bernal opted to continue career in his native land. He appeared with Penelope Cruz in a Mexico/Spain co-production, Sin noticias de Dios (2001; a.k.a. Don't Tempt Me; also with Victoria Abril), by the award-winning Spanish writer and director Agustín Díaz Yanes. His turn as the Hell’s leader in the comedy film brought him a Best Supporting Actor at the Goya Awards.

That same year, he costarred with real-life pal Diego Luna as his lower-middle-class best friend, the hormonally charged teenager Julio Zapata, in the international hit Y Tu Mama (a.k.a. And Your Mother Too), an Alfonso Cuarón's coming-of-age story about the road trip of two teenage boys with a woman in her twenties. The erotic film was a critical success, garnering awards such as the Venice Film Festival best screenplay award. It was also a runner-up for the National Society of Film Critics Awards for Best Picture and Best Director and was nominated for the 2002 Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay.

Bernal portrayed Argentine-born Marxist, politician, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas Che Guevarra, who later joined Fidel Castro's (played by Víctor Huggo Martin) paramilitary 26th of July Movement, in the English language "Fidel" miniseries for Showtime. He later reprised his role in the 2004 biopic, The Motorcyle Diaries (a.k.a. Diarios de motocicleta), based on the autobiographical book by Che Guevara. The biopic, which follows young Ernesto "Che" Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado (played by Rodrigo De la Serna) and their travels across South America in the 1950s, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, 2004, and was nominated for four awards at that year’s Cannes Film Festival. It was also nominated for two Academy Awards in 2005, for Best Original Song and Best Adapted Script, being the first time ever that a Spanish song received an honor in the Oscars.

Meanwhile, Bernal was handed a more challenging role, as a young, newly-ordained priest in a small Mexican town who is tempted by politics and sexual passions (to a 16-year-old local girl), in the very controversial Mexican film, El crimen del Padre Amaro (2002; a.k.a. The Crime of Father Amaro), director Carlos Carrera's take on the novel “O Crime do Padre Amaro” (1875) by 19th-century Portuguese writer José Maria Eça de Queiroz. Despite receiving mixed-reviews, the film earned Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars and the Golden Globes.

Famed Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar then offered Bernal to star in his 2004 project, Bad Education (a.k.a. La mala educación). In the BAFTA-nominating drama/thriller, which centers on the effect of Franco-era religious schooling and sexual abuse on the lives of two longtime friends/lovers, Bernal played several roles, including an opportunistic actor and a drag queen.

2006 saw Bernal starring in a fantasy film written and directed by Michel Gondry, The Science of Sleep, as Stéphane, a shy, insecure young man who learns to control his vivid dreams because his life is slipping away. He also got his first major English language role in a family drama film helmed by the British documentary-maker James Marsh, The King, as a troubled twenty-one year old who after being honorably discharged from the US Navy, goes to Corpus Christi, Texas, to find the father he has never met.

Soon, Bernal will be seen reuniting with director Alejandro González Iñárritu in his latest film, Babel, in which he will star opposite Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. The three-story film was first screened at Cannes and won two awards, for Best Director and François Chalais Award. It is scheduled to be released on October 27, 2006 in the United States. He is currently making his directorial debut with a drama film based on the TV project "Ruta 32," Déficit (he will also star), and is set to star in writer-director Carlos Cuarón's drama-comedy set in the world of professional soccer, Toto, Hector Babenco's adaptation of Alan Pauls' novel, Pasado, El, and Alfonso Cuarón's history drama based on Mexico's violent student revolt of 1968, México '68. Additionally, Bernal has reportedly been offered to play the bad guy role of Matt Damon's nemesis in the upcoming The Bourne Ultimatum (also with Joan Allen, Julia Stiles and David Strathairn), the third installment in the amnesiac hitman franchise based on the novel by Robert Ludlum. The film is currently being shot in Tangier by director Paul Greengrass and is due for release in August 2007.

"The histories are to educate, so that we understand better for ourselves and for motivation." Gael Garcia Bernal.