Antonio Banderas' existentialism in Puss In Boots: The Last Wish was fueled by his heart attack and COVID-19
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In Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, the newest installment in the Shrek universe, the feline hero faces death head-on. The adventurer—who we’ve seen across five films—risks running out of his nine lives. Puss (Antonio Banderas) then has to choose between retiring to the life of a house cat, or chasing down the Wishing Star to renew his lives.
It’s an existential animated children’s film that grapples with death and what it means to create a life worth living. Banderas says he was initially surprised by the storytelling direction, but found it one that was suited to his personal experience, as well as the greater audience, who has just spent years dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“Without being explicit, there certainly is a halo of current world situations, with the whole COVID topic, for example, and things that happened in my personal life like my heart attack, that sort of snuck into the character in a way,” Banderas tells /Film. “I don’t know whether it was intentional or just by chance. So then I was surprised when I read the script and saw the story growing in the direction it went.”
As time went on, The Last Wish only dug deeper and deeper into themes surrounding death and the precious value of life.
“This film grew a lot in the whole existentialism aspect of the character, in that we see him as a hero who is depressed, defeated, and thinking that life is pointless,” Banderas says. “We see Puss doing things we’ve never seen him do before, and then in a state of panic where he is vulnerable, he is hyperventilating, because he is literally being chased by death.”
Banderas shares that Puss’ newfound appreciation for life brought him closer to the character he’s played for nearly twenty years.
“It makes me love him more. I feel more attached to him,” Banderas tells Forbes. “Puss’ new vision of the world is something that I experienced in my own life, so when I saw it in the character, I got emotional. There is a scene in the forest where Puss is panicking and Perrito, this dog who has been annoying him with his pathological optimism, helps calm him down, and he sees a new side to him. Together they take that scene to an intense, profound, complex level, and we see a part of Puss that we never saw before.”
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish arrives in theaters nationwide on December 21.
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