Javier Bardem is "Mrs. Doubtfire" when Penelope Cruz is working.
The ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge’ actor is thankful his profession allows him to take long breaks and care for his children Leo, six, and Luna, three, while his spouse is busy filming, comparing the situation to the late Robin Williams’ famous nanny character.
He said: "Penelope is shooting here [in London] so I am more into the Mrs Doubtfire role – kids, chaos, you know.
"It’s one of the things this job allows for, long periods of intense work and long periods of intense time off.
"We just did ‘Escobar’, had three months in Colombia together. The dream."
The 48-year-old actor has always grown up with a strong sense of family because his own upbringing with a single mother in Madrid was so tight-knit.
He told GQ magazine: "I grew up in a very small family.
"My parents separated when I was small, but we were so close – my mother, my brother and my sister. We were like a gang of wolves.
"We would attack anyone we felt was a threat.
"My mother was a single parent. She was an actress. She had to make money where she could.
"In the morning she would do television then theatre in the evening and cabaret at night, coming home to sleep for two hours before going back to work.
"As a kid I was left to my own devices. My father was absent.
"I had no dominant male figure to look up to. This isn’t a complaint, just a fact. It meant I had to test myself.
"I had to figure out my own boundaries. It meant I made mistakes."
But the ‘No Country For Old Men’ star didn’t have a good time at school as he found it too strict.
He explained: "I didn’t enjoy it. The discipline was too much, they had the cane and they used it.
"When you are a kid, you need to want to learn, when you are forced to eat words and regurgitate numbers you don’t learn, you go the other way.
"I felt that. I felt I needed to express myself.
"I was frustrated. I was wild. I needed to fill my own space as I didn’t fit the space they gave me."
Javier Bardem is Mrs Doubtfire with kids
