Antonio Banderas Opens Up About Why He Has No Regrets After Stepping Away From Hollywood

Antonio Banderas stepped away from Hollywood close to a decade ago, and he is now looking back on that decision with a clear sense of perspective.

The 65-year-old actor made the move back to his hometown of Málaga, Spain, in 2017 after going through a serious health scare that forced him to rethink his priorities.

Before returning to Spain, Banderas had been splitting his time between the United States and the United Kingdom. At one point, he even owned a large mansion in Cobham, Surrey, which reflected his life during his Hollywood years.

However, things changed for the Evita actor after he survived a heart attack in 2017, an event that had a strong impact on how he viewed his life and career moving forward.

"Mine was a really serious warning," he said in a new interview published in The Times. "It changed the way I look at life."

After that moment, he made several big lifestyle changes. He stopped smoking, sold his private jet, and chose to return to Málaga to live a quieter and more grounded life. He now shares a home with his longtime partner, Nicole Kimpel, and has invested his time in building restaurants and running his not-for-profit theater, Teatro del Soho, which has become a major focus for him.

Antonio Banderas at the 43rd Torino Film Festival 2025 Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images

"Faced with death, it made me look back and realize that I am, in fact, a theater actor," he reflected.

"I have never been so happy."

The Puss in Boots actor also spoke about his earlier years in Hollywood, where he built his career through major blockbuster films. Early on, he was told that as a Spanish actor, he would likely be limited to playing villains. Despite that, he proved those assumptions wrong when he took on the role of a hero in the 1998 film The Mask of Zorro.

"The problem was a few years later I had a mask, a hat, sword and cape and the bad guy was Captain Love, who was blond and had blue eyes," he recalled.

"Even more important is Puss in Boots because it's for young kids. They see a cat that has a Spanish, even an Andalusian accent and he's a good guy."

Banderas has appeared in a wide range of well-known films over the years, including Evita alongside Madonna, the Spy Kids series, and the Shrek movies, all of which helped shape his long career.

Although he stepped back from the traditional Hollywood lifestyle, he has not completely left acting behind. He still takes on select projects and remains active in the industry. He currently has two films in post-production, Rose's Baby and Tony, and he also appeared in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in 2023.

Antonio Banderas in The Mask of Zorro TriStar Pictures

Banderas has previously shared that his heart attack, while frightening, ended up being one of the most important moments of his life.

"It probably was one of the best things that happened in my life. It was like putting glasses on and seeing what was important," the Spanish-born actor told Radio Times.

"Since my heart attack, I'm looking only for the pleasure of acting. That's it. I don't care about anything else."

"For me, life starts when somebody says, 'Action!' – or when the curtain comes up."

Antonio has also credited his survival to his girlfriend, Nicole Kimpel, who was there at the time and acted quickly by giving him aspirin when he needed it most.

According to the NHS, chewing and swallowing an aspirin tablet, usually around 300mg, can help during a heart attack while waiting for emergency services. It works by thinning the blood and helping improve blood flow to the heart.