Javier Bardem is in Cannes for the debut of Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved, a psychological drama about an Oscar-winning director named Esteban Martinez trying to reconnect with his actress daughter whom he hasn’t seen in 13 years. Oh, and he’s also a recovering alcoholic given to fits of rage.
Asked about the theme running through the festival of absent fathers and the wreckage they create Bardem, who plays Martinez, cited the impacts of toxic masculinity and cultural miseducation.
“I’m 57 years old, coming from a very machista country called Spain, where there is an average of two women killed monthly by their ex-husbands or ex-boyfriends, which is horrible. Just that amount of women being murdered, it’s unbelievable,” he observed. “And we kind of normalized it. It’s like, ‘Well, yeah, it’s horrible.’ I mean, are we fucking nuts? We are killing women because some men think they own them, they possess them.”
The No Country For Old Men Oscar winner, who earlier spoke about genocide, repression and the political tide turning in Hollywood, then went more macro.
“And that problem also goes to Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin and Mr. Netanyahu, the big balls man saying, ‘My big, my c*ck is bigger than yours, and I’m gonna bomb the shit out of you.’ It’s a fucking male toxic behavior that is creating thousands of dead people, so yeah, we have to talk about it. And I think we are talking about it…We are more aware of it, thankfully, because maybe 20 years ago [this] was something that nobody will pay attention as a problem, and, and I think this movie speaks about that…in this movie there are three people that say “No” to Stephan: three women.”
‘The Beloved’s Javier Bardem calls out Trump, Putin and Netanyahu when speaking out against toxic masculinity and violence against women in #Cannes.
“That problem also goes to Mr. Trump, and Mr. Putin and Mr. Netanyahu. The “big balls men” saying, “my c**k is bigger than yours,… pic.twitter.com/sh6c6vQqbP
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) May 17, 2026
Bardem also fielded a rather wandering question that seemed to be in part about the state of democracy.
“I’m not sure I fully understood the question,” the film’s star responded, “but I believe that there is an increasing monopoly in the world of information, that’s one of the problems, we know. Given Paramount and Warner Brothers in their merger, for example, in terms of information, who’s actually going to control all this? What we’re listening [to], what we’re seeing.
“I think that is very clear and is growing in importance with technology and the social networks’ summed up messages which are very populist and they indeed have a huge impact on the young generation and that concerns me no end, because I think we have to ensure that the younger generation continues to think by reason. They need to understand, to compare, information, and if they don’t, it’s very dangerous indeed, because that could lead to major radicalization in Spain. We’re suffering from this very phenomenon, and the other European countries too, in addition to the United States.”
Speaking about genocide earlier, Bardem insisted that, despite the spin much news is given, facts are still facts.
“Genocide is a fact. You can fight against it, you can try to justify it, explain it. That is a fact,” he said. “If you, if you, you can be against it, or you can justify it. If you justify it with your silence, or with your support, you are brought genocide. Those are facts for me. Now you can face that in different terms of statements. My statement is this one is the power that you all gave me. I don’t have any other power or more power than you guys, but this, and I use it in the best way I know.”
The actor later came back to the media, and issued an indictment.
“At present, there is no democracy in the media. That’s my firm belief. I think this is a very dangerous situation. So, basically, what solution can there be? I don’t know personally. That’s just my viewpoint. I think we need to denounce this situation, talk about it and I certainly don’t support the movement underway. That’s about all I can say at this juncture.”
