Banderas, Hayek attend Puss premiere
Seven years after Shrek 2, the beloved Puss in Boots character has brought Spanish actor Antonio Banderas to Australia once again.
Banderas and co-star Salma Hayek walked a yellow carpet in Sydney on Sunday for the Australian premiere of Puss in Boots, a 3D animated feature spin-off from the Shrek franchise for which they provide the voices.
Banderas said the last time be was in Australia was for a whirlwind promotional tour for Shrek 2 – a 12-hour trip that he loved.
'When I came this morning, we arrived here after 22 hours in a plane from Rome and I started recognising everything,' he told AAP.
'My wife (actress Melanie Griffith) loves Australia. She has done a couple of movies here.'
Hayek said she was in Australia about seven years ago and went scuba diving off the Great Barrier Reef.
This is the last stop on their world tour to promote the film, and Hayek says the only thing preventing her from staying here longer is the need to get back to her husband, French businessman and company CEO Francois-Henri Pinault, and four-year-old daughter Valentina.
'After this long promotional tour, I cannot think of a better place to take some time off,' she said.
'But my husband, I miss him, so I have to go back.'
While Banderas has been playing Puss in Boots for almost 10 years, Hayek is providing the voice of a new character, thief extraordinaire Kitty Softpaws.
She said she was 'absolutely' a fan of Shrek.
'Then I rediscovered all of them when I had my daughter because they see them a thousand times and I have to say that my favourite character was the cat,' she said.
'Maybe I was biased because he's (Antonio's) my friend but I just thought he was fantastic, funny, unexpected so I could not believe my luck when they invited me to be a part of this movie.'
DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said Hayek was the perfect choice to play opposite Banderas.
'They've worked together 20-odd years, they've already done movies together so this was just a great reunion for them, they couldn't have been happier,' he said.
'(There's) great chemistry with them and travelling with them around the world has been just nothing but a lot of laughs.'
Puss in Boots opens in Australian cinemas on December 8.
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Banderas, Hayek attend Puss premiere
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