Gael Garcia Bernal, The King

Call Gael Garcia Bernal Mexico's reigning international superstar and (as he sits for an interview for James Marsh's disturbing new drama, The King) you can see him shrink behind his rectangular black-framed glasses and sink into the chair. It's not necessarily shyness that makes the magnetic actor retreat from what might prompt chest-swelling smiles in others with his status, but rather a refusal to look at his career beyond the most personal terms. Ever since he was launched with global hits like Amores Perros, Y Tu Mama Tambien, The Motorcycle Diaries, and Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education, Bernal has attempted to ignore the clamor and concentrate with an almost childlike simplicity - and an artist's ferocious self-protection - on the complex, often troubled characters he plays.

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