documentary, Truth or Dare.

It was a typically brazen Madonna moment.

She gushed that he was the sexiest man she'd ever met and vowed to seduce him.

"Madonna's crush was always meant as a joke," insists Banderas.

"When I met her that time in Spain, I didn't speak any English so I didn't know she was coming on to me. I didn't know she was making a film, either."

Almost a year later, Madonna sent Banderas a rough cut of her movie.

"She said if I wanted, she would take me out of the final cut. My wife and I found it all very funny and I knew it would be good publicity for me.

"I had already been signed to star in The Mambo Kings or else people would have concluded Madonna discovered me. Now we're starring together in a movie.

"That's Hollywood."

Evita is not just any movie for Banderas.

"The music of Evita played a big part in my desire to become an actor.

"When the stage play came out in England, we were living under a fascist dictator (General Francisco Franco). The music spoke of many things I understood and in a really spectacular way.

"I saved up for weeks to be able to by the album. I listened to it and learned all the songs by heart. Shortly after I started acting in underground theatre."

It was at this time that maverick director Pedro Almodovar discovered Banderas and immediately cast him in five films in nine years.

His smoldering performances in Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down, Matador and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown made Banderas a European superstar.

"In my career, I have always had to start at the bottom and work up very slowly. I was not an overnight star in Spain so it did not hurt that I didn't start big time in America, either.

"I was grateful to take small roles in Philadelphia, The House of the Spirits and Interview with the Vampire because that's the way you get noticed by directors.

"I am the little hard-working ant, not the grasshopper, but hopefully that means I'll be around for a long time."

In the 15 years he's been making movies in Spain and now America, Banderas has starred in more than 50 films.

The statistics amuse him.

"I may never win an Oscar but I'll probably end up in the Guinness Book Of Records."

Though Banderas does all his own singing in Evita, he has never thought of himself as a singer.

"I learned to play the piano and the guitar as a personal escape. I only ever sang for myself. Robert Rodriguez asked me to sing in Desperado.

"I had no idea that would lead to an audition for Evita."


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