Antonio Banderas Says He's Tested Positive For COVID-19 But Feels 'Relatively Well'
Antonio Banderas is marking his 60th birthday in quarantine, telling fans he’s tested positive for COVID-19.
The Spanish actor, who has starred in “The Mask of Zorro” and “Evita,” opened up about his diagnosis on both Twitter and Instagram Monday alongside a throwback photo of himself as a child.
“Hello everyone, I want to make public that today, August 10, I’m forced to celebrate my 60th birthday following quarantine, having tested positive for COVID-19,” Banderas wrote in Spanish. “I would like to add that I feel relatively well, just a little more tired than usual and confident that I will recover as soon as possible following the medical indications that I hope will allow me to overcome the infection I’m suffering that is affecting so many people around the planet.”
He added, “I will take advantage of this isolation to read, write, rest and continue making plans to begin to give meaning to my recently debuted 60 years, to which I arrive full of desire and enthusiasm. A big hug to everyone.”
Banderas, who scored an Oscar nomination for “Pain and Glory” earlier this year, joins a growing list of A-list stars ― including Tom Hanks and Idris Elba ― to test positive for COVID-19 since it was declared a global pandemic.
In 2017, the actor revealed he’d suffered a heart attack.
He later said the experience had influenced his performance as a film director grappling with physical and mental ailments in “Pain and Glory,” which also starred actor Penélope Cruz.
“I had a heart attack two and a half years ago and it changed me in certain ways, yeah, and [director Pedro Almodóvar] detected that, and he saw it, and he says, ‘You know, don’t hide this thing,’” he told The Associated Press last year.
“I knew exactly what he was talking about, because after you have a heart attack you receive a lot of information on what life is all about that is very difficult to describe in words, but it just set up a new way of understanding life itself,” he added. “You become more raw. You eliminate things you thought were important in your life, you erase them out of your life.”
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
