Antonio Banderas responds to Meryl Streep: 'A lot of people in a small theatre in Malaga are proud'

Malaga local Antonio Banderas has responded after star actress Meryl Streep made a special mention of Malaga in her speech at the Princess of Asturias Awards last week.

On his official X account, the actor and director said: "those who work in a small theatre in Malaga feel proud just to hear the name of their city from your mouth and in the special circumstances in which you have mentioned it". "Thank you, my friend".

Some days before the ceremony in Oviedo in Asturias, Streep enjoyed a friendly chat with Banderas at the Oviedo exhibition centre. Some 2,000 people packed the venue to attend the unscripted one-on-one between the two legendary actors. Banderas spoke of his parents, acknowledging them for taking him and his brother to Malaga to the theatre, and it seems his words struck a chord with the American actress who, in her speech at the Princess of Asturias Awards on Friday 20 October, paid homage to the city.

"The most important part of our work is to make every day accessible and felt by the audience sitting in a small theatre in Malaga," Streep said, after accepting the Princess of Asturias Award by Queen Letizia and King Felipe VI and their two daughters.

Earlier, she has also referenced another Malaga local, artist Pablo Picasso. Asking herself "who am I, a nice middle-class girl from New Jersey, to dare to step into the shoes of the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom? Or a Polish Holocaust survivor? Or the arbiter of good taste in the world of fashion?", she then responded with a quote from the famous painter: "Imitating others is necessary. To imitate oneself is pathetic".