Antonio Banderas is an official Oscar nominee! The 59-year-old received a nomination in the Best Actor category for his role in Pain and Glory. As if his first nomination wasn’t exciting enough, the story about getting the news makes the experience even better. “I was in a restaurant in my hometown of Málaga, Spain and I was having lunch with the Mayor of my hometown about project related to the theatre,” he said during his appearance on Good Morning America. “I looked at my phone and I saw that the movie was nominated for Best Foreign Film and I thought ‘I’m very happy but my nomination already past. It’s okay it’s fine. I’m so happy for the movie.’”

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Antonio didn’t know it, but he was about to get more news. “Then my phone starts beeping and I look and it was 300 messages saying ‘you’ve been nominated.’” 15 minutes after that, there were like 100 paparazzi at the door of the restaurant. It was unbelievable.”

Pain and Glory is the story about the film’s director Pedro Almodóvar, and his life choices. For Antonio, being nominated for a Spanish-language role had a huge impact on him. “You have no idea how important they are around the world,” he shared. “And for someone like me to get a nomination in a little movie, speaking my own language, Spanish. It is a very big deal.”

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Antonio and Pedro, who have worked on eight films together, formed a special connection during the movie. According to Antonio, although it was “odd” playing the man who was directing him, he was more than happy to step into the role.

“To be directed by the character you are playing. You receive emotional information that would be difficult to obtain from the script,” he said. “I could see the affect that my performance was producing on him everyday. It was almost like a reflective mirror situation. it was very unique it was very special.”