In preparing for his latest role, Antonio Banderas had to find Pablo Picasso. Sure, he grew up in Málaga, walking the same cobblestone streets as the painter in the Spanish southeastern city flush against the Mediterranean Sea. Yet to truly inhabit the man, Banderas had to do a tremendous amount of research, he recently told MediaVillage, reading everything he could, listening to rare recordings of Picasso, even learning how to paint. Banderas, 57, had been approached before to play Picasso, yet the timing was never right. But last year the stars aligned for him to finally play the artist in National Geographic’s Genius: Picasso, starting April 24. “I saw Einstein [the first season of the Genius series] and it is quality television,” Banderas said. “I had to take the step.”
Antonio Banderas on Perfecting Picasso in Nat Geo's "Genius"
![Antonio Banderas on Perfecting Picasso in Nat Geo's "Genius"](/media/articles/Antonio_Genius.jpg.550x380_q85_box-0%2C53%2C640%2C498_crop.jpg.webp)