Mr. Banderas was in his last day here before heading to Malta for the final leg of shooting for NatGeo’s «Genius,» an anthology series that focuses on Picasso. It’s second season premiered on April 24.

The Picasso he was playing today was 67. When he was shooting, he assumed the posture of a 67-year-old. But when he wasn’t in character, he was Antonio Banderas, a human exclamation point, his face an orchestra of expressions.

Mr. Banderas was already a star in Spain, where he had served as a muse to Pedro Almodóvar for seven movies. He already received accolades for his performance in 1992’s «The Mambo Kings,» a performance so passionate that few noticed that his only English at the time was in the form of phonetic imitation.

He had already wooed American audiences with his intimate portrayal of Tom Hanks’s lover in «Philadelphia.» He had helped Robert Rodriguez, another director who loved him, achieve American acclaim via «Desperado» and the «Spy Kids» movies.

He had swashbuckled his way into children’s hearts as a sultry, shod cat in the «Shrek» spinoff, «Puss in Boots.» He had directed two films. He had serenaded in «Evita» and simulated French-kissing with Catherine Zeta-Jones through two iterations of «Zorro.»

He had seduced his way to a Tony nomination for «Nine.»

As he grew older, he was rewarded with the chance to play (or almost play) historical figures: Dalí, Mussolini and Pancho Villa.

And now he was going to play his boyhood hero and bring pride to Málaga, Spain — both his and Picasso’s hometown. When he was growing up, his mother would stop in front of the house the artist was born in every time they passed it and say, «Look, Antonio.» Now, in the home he owns in Málaga, he can see that house from his terrace.

Still, he said that playing Picasso is not the ultimate role. «Oh, no,» he said. «I still don’t think I have done the thing I will be remembered for.»

Mr. Banderasand Picasso started out so similar, but it’s easy to confuse details of birth with the way a man turns out. Take their treatment of women. His friend, the actress Salma Hayek, said that Mr. Banderas is such a good friend that when he read her essay in The New York Times about being harassed by Harvey Weinstein, the film producer, he was among the first to call her.

But Picasso said that «women are machines for suffering» and that to him, they were either «goddesses or doormats.»

«Genius: Picasso» addresses Picasso’s misogyny as much as his art. In the first episode, a woman is home with his offspring while he makes out with another lover on the beach, and both women get in a fistfight in front of him while he is painting «Guernica.»

Mr. Banderas said: «The problem with Picasso from my point of view, I don’t think he abused women, as we understand that now. The problem is that he wanted everything, everything, all the time.»

Mr. Banderas enters a project with maximum dedication, maximum research. He asks: Do you know that Picasso’s grandson Pablito apparently stood on a street near his home in France with a sandwich board when his grandfather wouldn’t allow him to visit him in the final days? Go ahead, ask him anything.

At 57, the roles have gotten better. «They have more weight, they are more complex, they are more profound and I enjoy more to play them,» he said. «It’s almost like a pot and you can’t stop putting things in. Before, it was a uniform almost. They wanted the heroic, the epic, the guy.»

Maybe it’s the Hispanic population coming of age, he wondered. Great numbers with advanced degrees and a real presence in cinema. «Now it’s normal to see at the Academy Awards Mexican directors taking Oscars, Spanish actors, actors from Puerto Rico.»

But it could also be him. It could also be that there’s something about transforming small caricatures into great, big, memorable characters. He took artistic risks. He became adept at infusing soul into one-note characters.

Mr. Banderas, who lives in England with his girlfriend, Nicole Kimpel, an investment adviser, has been through a lot — the move to England, the divorce (2015) from the actress Melanie Griffith and then a heart attack about a year ago.

He was in the hospital for just a day, but as he recuperated, he found that he couldn’t shake his sadness. «Suddenly, you discover at your root level that it can be like in a second you can say goodbye.»

But eventually the sadness made way for another feeling: inspiration. He was still here, and he had so much left to do.

Sons of Málaga,of different eras and sensibilities.