'The Mask of Zorro' at 25: Antonio Banderas recalls Steven Spielberg's prescient words on set of 1998 blockbuster

To paraphrase the villainous Don Rafael Montero, it wasn’t just one role, dammit. It was Zorro.

Playing the legendary sword-fighting vigilante in 1998’s The Mask of Zorro was deeply impactful for star Antonio Banderas, the now 62-year-old Spanish actor told us in a recent interview.

“It was very significant because my career up to that point was [mostly] European movies, especially all the work that I did with Pedro Almódovar,” Banderas explained, referencing the five movies he had made to that point with the fellow Spaniard and famed arthouse auteur, from 1982’s Labyrinth of Passion to 1989’s Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! Banderas also gained notice for the American films Philadelphia (1993), Interview With the Vampire (1994) and Desperado (1995), but Zorro made him a leading man in movie theaters all over the world.

The Almódovar movies “were defining my career very much,” he said. “And suddenly I got into a completely different universe, a universe of action, a universe of international movies that went all around the world. It was unbelievable… it was such a huge success.”

Banderas played Alejandro Murrieta, a bandit who becomes the protégé and successor of the original Zorro, Don Diego de la Vega (Anthony Hopkins in a role that's been criticized as whitewashing over the years), as both seek revenge upon Las Californias' corrupt governor Montero (Stuart Wilson, same) — and Murrieta falls for de la Vega’s daughter Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones).

Directed by Martin Campbell and produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and released 25 years ago, on July 17, 1998, the swashbuckling adventure grossed $94 million in the U.S. and $250 million worldwide.

Today, Banderas remembers one specific on-set conversation with Spielberg that proved prescient.

“Steven Spielberg said to me once when we were shooting, ‘This is probably going to be one of the last Westerns shot in the way the Westerns were shot in the old days, with real scenes with real horses, where everything is real, [real] sword fighting, no CGI.’ Everything was [practical].

“And he said, ‘But things are going to change. they’re going to change and they’re gonna change fast. And so you should be proud of this movie.’ And I am, probably even more now than at the time that I was doing it. I don’t know if I was absolutely conscious when I was doing Zorro that it was going to have an impact. The impact that it’s had, and especially after 25 years. … It was a very beautiful adventure movie with a lot of ingredients that made it shine in a very beautiful way. I have nothing but good memories.”

Banderas reprised the role in 2005’s The Legend of Zorro. And while the sequel wasn’t as successful as the first film, the actor, who suffered a heart attack in 2017, says there have been discussions about doing a third entry.

“I’ve had people approaching with different ideas. Obviously if I do another movie now, I would play the [mentor] character that Anthony Hopkins did in the first version, I [would] be the character that passes the torch to the new Zorro, which would be great, just to do so,” said Banderas, who drew some criticism late last year for suggesting British Spider-Man actor Tom Holland as someone he’d like to pass the mask onto.

“But you know, if it comes, great. If it doesn’t, you know, the other two are there forever.”