Javier Bardem Apologized Before Pulling Lily Collias' Hair in the "Cape Fear" Finale: "I'm So Sorry, My Love"
In the finale of Apple TV+'s summer sensation "Cape Fear," Javier Bardem, who plays Max Cady, gently warned and pre-apologized to his co-star Lily Collias ahead of a violent scene.
In 2007, Javier Bardem delivered one of the most chilling performances of the century as Anton Chigurh in 'No Country for Old Men.' Nearly twenty years later, he's proving once again that he can convincingly play a sociopath: in Apple TV+'s buzziest show of the summer, 'Cape Fear,' he reinterprets revenge-seeking killer Max Cady.
Cady was previously played by Robert Mitchum in 1962 and Robert De Niro in 1991. The real power of Bardem's interpretation lies in long stretches of stillness; that silence heightens the tension of his cat-and-mouse game with the Bowden family.
The show's young star, Lily Collias, describes the experience as "a lot of fun" but "sometimes overwhelmingly intense." Speaking to Variety at the New York finale screening, Collias said, "We play cat and mouse, then the cameras stop and I still feel like the mouse. And he's still Tom from 'Tom and Jerry.'"
According to Collias, the finale's attack scene required her hair to be pulled, and Bardem gently warned and pre-apologized before shooting began: "I'm so sorry, my love." The actor says that despite the scene's violence, the trust built on set made the work easier.