Antonio Banderas has reflected on his huge life shift, nine years after his near-fatal heart attack.
Back in 2017 the then 58-year-old actor was rushed to hospital after suffering chest pains while exercising, which was later discovered to be a heart attack.
Now, aged 65, the Hollywood heartthrob’s life has completely changed after ‘the really serious warning.’
As well as overhauling his health which included quitting smoking, Antonio sold his Surrey, UK mansion and his home in the US along with his private jet to return to Malaga, where he was born.
The relocation was motivated by a career epiphany, as he explained: ‘Faced with death, it made me look back and realise that I am, in fact, a theatre actor.’
His Hollywood movie career, which has generated $77billion at the box office, has slowed down, as the star focuses on his theatre company and his home life in a Malaga city centre flat he shares with his Nicole Kimpel, 43.
Antonio Banderas has reflected on his huge life shift nine years after his near-fatal heart attack
As well as overhauling his health which included quitting smoking, Antonio sold his mansion and his home in the US to return to Malaga which he shares with his Nicole Kimpel , 43
Teatro del Soho, the not-for-profit theatre is funded by corporate sponsors and €200,000 annually from Antonio’s own pocket, whilst his odd Hollywood role helps to pay the bills of his simplified new life.
Revealing that the locals ‘call me José Hollywood’, he has told The Times this week: ‘I have never been so happy,’ despite losing money to a ‘vice to which I am addicted’.
‘I did theatre on Broadway in 2003 with quite a bit of success – we won a Tony that year for Nine – but there were lots of musicals I wanted to put on at a time when there were no musicals in Spain,’ he explained.
‘Then the opportunity arose to buy this venue, a former cinema, which was in a state of disrepair and full of asbestos. It was awful. So I cleared it out and built it inside its shell.’
Last year the actor revealed the special reason his daughter chose to marry in Spain and sweetly gushed that seeing her as a bride was one of the ‘most beautiful moments’ of his life.
Antonio was every inch the proud father as his daughter Stella, 29, married her longtime partner Alex Gruszynski in October.
They wed at the enchanting Retuerta Le Domaine Abbey, an old monastery that sits on a sprawling wine estate in Valladolid, Spain.
And Hollywood actor Antonio felt emotional at being the father of the bride.
His Hollywood movie career, which has generated $77billion at the box office, has slowed down, as the star focuses on his theatre company
Shortly before the nuptials, he told Hola magazine: ‘Seeing my daughter dressed as a bride will be one of the most beautiful moments of my life.
‘I get to be the father of the bride, and it’s a role I take on with all the emotion in the world.’
Stella was born in Spain, but raised in Los Angeles, and Antonio was delighted she picked her birth country as the destination for her nuptials, saying the decision filled him ‘with pride’.
He explained: ‘She’s very Andalusian, very much from Málaga, even if she grew up in the US. This is her way of reconnecting with her roots and sharing her homeland with her future husband and his family.’
Stella also felt fortunate to be able to marry her significant other in Spain saying she ‘felt so lucky’.
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