Review of Bad Education from bbc.co.uk/movies

You have denied that the film is autobiographical.

Paco Umbral says that everything that isn't autobiographical is plagiarism. The film is autobiographical but in a deeper sense. I am behind those characters but I'm not telling my life story.

I believe you were the soloist in your school choir…

Yes. I sang at all the religious ceremonies and celebrations. And I guess I didn't do it badly. The priests recorded some of the songs I sang and played them at the door of the church to attract the faithful. And I remember that we filled the church. I'd give anything to recover those tapes, but I don't think they exist.

Does Father Manolo exist?

He exists as a made-up character, although for the harassment scenes by the river and in the sacristy I was inspired by two priests at school.

Are they real scenes?

Two schoolmates told me about them. If you're a boarder at a school you eventually find out about everything.

If the two people who were the inspiration for Fr Manolo are alive, aren't you afraid they may react?

Admitting that they were alluded to would be like accusing themselves. Fr Manolo is a character, one with whom I'm very satisfied. I didn't create him in order to attack the Church. The passion Fr Manolo feels for the boy, and his abuse of power, make him an executioner. When he calls himself Mr Berenguer and has cast off his habit and falls in love with Juan, the same terrible character plays the opposite role in the roulette of passion. Now he is a victim. The film is inconceivable without those two characters.

Fele Martínez doesn't seem like himself, physically.

I made him slim down and train for four or five months. He was delighted, because everyone found him much sexier. As well as the physical aspect, we also worked on his tone of voice. He gave the character his heart, all of it, and his skin. I believe that from now on Fele will do other kinds of roles, less teen, more adult. He's an all-round actor. He can span the two extremes, torrid drama and crazy comedy.

After crossdressing every Spanish actor in the prime of young manhood for the auditions, what did Gael García Bernal have that the other actors didn't?

He was very attractive as a boy and as a girl. And that was essential for understanding his character's relationship with the others, the intensity with which everyone became obsessed with him.

Is Gael the villain of the story?

Bad Education is the opposite of a film with good guys and villains. In any case, I never judge characters, even if they do atrocious things. My job is to represent them, explain them in all their complexity and come up with an entertaining spectacle.

Gael's character, Juan, is a guy who stops at nothing to get what he wants. He is capable of killing, if the situation comes up, of seducing men and women for his convenience. But if you don't stand in the way of his ambitions, Juan is a normal guy who can live perfectly integrated in society. It's like Patricia Highsmith's amoral character Ripley, for whom crime has no moral effect - it ends up making them more charming.

Considering the movie as a 'thriller', the character of Juan represents the typical femme fatale (in his case enfant terrible), because he leads all the characters who encounter him to their downfall. And 'Downfall' is the Spanish title for Double Indemnity (by the genius Billy Wilder), among the noir-est of film noir, to which I'm paying homage.

What was it like working with Gael?

A challenge, for him and for me. It isn't easy to play a character that is actually three, especially when two of them are very different physically. I guess it's the hardest work that Gael has done to date. On top of the difficulty of changing sex and not looking grotesque, there was the accent. I wanted him to speak Spanish, not Mexican which is very different…

Are you satisfied with the result?

Yes. I hope that the audience won't let themselves be influenced by the fact that one of his characters is so hateful.

How about the kids, what was working with them like?