Javier Cámara

To international audiences, Javier Cámara may be best known for his work in two films by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar during the 2000s: the dramas "Talk to Her" and "Bad Education." However, before then he was already an established actor in Spain's movie and television industry. Throughout the '90s, his career gradually evolved from supporting parts and theatrical roles to costarring in various series, culminating in the sitcom "7 vidas," in which he played the sexually frustrated youth Paco Gimeno Huete. The show aired from 1999 to 2006, and during this time, he also appeared in a string of acclaimed movies that drew international attention. In the '01 drama "Sex and Lucia" (which also featured his "7 vidas" costar Paz Vega), he played Pepe, a publisher and the main protagonist's friend who provides crucial information. However, his towering achievement during this time may have been portraying Benigno Martin, the nurse obsessed with a comatose dance student, in "Talk to Her." Although the character does something monstrous, it is partially thanks to Cámara's portrayal and Almodóvar's direction that he is not completely unredeemable. He cemented his reputation as a character actor unafraid of edgy material in "Bad Education" and "Torremolinos 73," in which he played a transsexual cabaret performer and a husband who makes pornographic films with his wife, respectively. Toward the end of the decade, he costarred as a leftist teacher hiding to protect his life in the costume drama "The Blind Sunflowers," set in 1940s Spain.