ALEJANDRO ABELLAN
(ANTONIO BANDERAS STAND-IN & PHOTO DOUBLE)

Source : Chat Session with Antonio Banderas fans (ANTONIO ADMIRERS - September 13, 1999 vol.5, no.19, part 1)
http://www.banderas-mall.com/newstand/newsletters99/5_19.txt

[Note: These comments are not in context, and some of them were in response to direct questions. Others just came up in general conversation.]

"I did not do the underwater scenes. Antonio did almost all of the underwater scenes himself as well as Dennis [Storhøi], Tony [Curran] and Vladimir [Kulich]. I was on the horse when the scene was shot from the watch tower. There were lots of others, but Crichton cut the movie to shreds."

"Sometimes things happen. There is a scene in THE 13TH WARRIOR, where I was doubling for him. It was a scene where his head is resting against a piece of wood and a spear goes through the wood next to my face. Well, anyway, the set decorator covered up the hole it would go through and did such a good job that we couldn't tell where it was. So before the shot, McTiernan said for me to move away. And sure enough it would have struck Antonio, or me, right in the head!"

"Actually, the way Antonio told me about his back was that a long time ago he
made this movie in Spain, and he jumped over 15 meters into the water, off
of a cliff, and landed flat on his back, and he heard crunching noises. Since then, he has had back problems."

"The dog in the movie was not red, he was coloured that way by the animal trainers. The dog belonged to an S.P.C.A. lady who is a friend of Steven Woodley, the dog trainer."

"There was a lot of this movie that was left on the cutting room floor! For example, there was a scene when Antonio was in the tent, the warriors were singing a song and then Herger asked Ibn to sing a song and then he hesitated then all the Vikings put him on the spot and they all began to say out loud "Sing, Arab, sing!" And so he went on to say a poem instead, and it went like this. First, Buliwyf wishes a song of glory, so when Omar Sharif asks Antonio to sing, he then says "Sing, me? I'm no minstrel." So then Antonio starts and here is the whole poem of which in the movie you do not get to hear: "In the beginning, there was darkness, and confusion, and the spirit of God passed above the water.. And so... God said... 'Let there be light.'" This is how it went when we filmed it."

"Did you notice the hair thing in the cave when Antonio did his re-shoots? His hair was shorter."

"You wanted to know if Anne Bancroft played the old lady they went to for help in destroying the Mother? On my final cast list, which is in front of me, it reads as follows: "Hulda", which is who I think you're talking about, and her name is "Suzanne Bertish", from New York. If you remember, in the beginning, they mentioned Arnold Schwarzenegger was to play a Viking and, of course, he wasn't. As far as I know, she was always casted for that part. Now, the Wendol Mother, on the other hand, was just an extra who got bumped up. Her name is Luise Grav and, as far as I know, she didn't even have an agent. Some luck, eh? And did you know that the sacrificial woman, Mona Kealhau, is none other than Dennis Storhøi's wife?"

"One day, the production sent Antonio the scene of the movie of the last battle and Antonio had it in his trailer. Dennis told me he saw it and so I went to Antonio and said, "Antonio, I am very unhappy with you," and he says "Why?" Then I told him I was upset because I did not see this video he had, and of course Antonio said, "Oh, OK, we'll go to the trailer and I'll show it to you." Well, first of all, stand-ins normally don't get this close with actors, but we became good friends from the start, and I was the only person he would speak Spanish with. So anyway, just to tell you about his personality, I will tell you my experience from the moment we went in the trailer. OK, here it goes. First of all, Antonio started telling me, "Now you will see the magic we are creating." He's building up the scene for me. "Sit down on the couch." I sit on the edge of the couch. The TV is dead center of the couch, about 3 feet in front. "No, Alejo, you must sit in the middle of the couch to really experience this video." So I move over to the center of the couch with the TV directly in front of me. Antonio begins to put the tape in the VCR and puts the volume way up. I'll never forget the look on his face. It was not unlike that of a child showing his little friend a toy he just got for his birthday. "OK, Alejo, are you ready?" "Yes, Antonio, I'm ready, let it play." Antonio presses play, and let me tell you, the ending that I saw was even better than what we saw on the big screen at the movie. So sad, it breaks my heart. "Alejo, what do you think?" What was I to say to this little boy's face but to say what I thought? FANTASTIC! I had goose bumps all over my body. It was like Antonio said, "magic". It was the first time I saw what we where filming and I loved it."

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