Bardem Pulls Out Of Coppola's Tetro, Replaced By Maura....
Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem has pulled out of Francis Ford Coppola's new movie Tetro - only to be replaced by Spanish actress Carmen Maura.The legendary director originally wrote the part for a male lead, but decided to re-write the character as female when Bardem was forced to withdraw from the project.And Coppola insists he was glad he had the opportunity to give the character a sex-change.He tells The Hollywood Reporter, "One of the important roles in the script is a mentor and teacher to Tetro (leading character played by Vincent Gallo), and I originally wrote it for a man."As I read and re-read (the script), I felt that the interaction between the two characters would be far more intriguing if they were of the opposite sex".Maura has now joined the rest of the cast for the film's 11-week shoot, which began on 31 March (08) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.Meanwhile in seperate news John Leguizamo has exploded Oscar winner Javier Bardem's reputation for being super serious by revealing the Spaniard is a fun-loving party animal.The Moulin Rouge! star worked with Bardem on the movie adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love In The Time Of Cholera and insists the Spanish star is nothing like the dark character he portrayed in No Country For Old Men, which earned him an Academy Award.
Leguizamo also dismisses reports that Bardem is too serious on film sets to have fun with his co-stars and crew.
He says, "He throws the best parties ever, crazy theme parties.
"The first party (he threw on the set of Love In The Time Of Cholera) was a Jamaican themed party and you had to come dressed as a Rasta.
"He had a Rasta doing stuff for everybody, hooking everybody up (with marijuana).
"He shipped in sand... (it was) all over his house".
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