Oscar-nominated 'Pain and Glory' star Antonio Banderas calls playing real-life director a 'reflecting mirror' experience

Antonio Banderas took on a once-in-a-lifetime role in "Pain and Glory," earning him his first Oscar nomination. The actor said the unique opportunity to be directed by the character he plays was unlike any other experience in his acting career.

On "Good Morning America," the Spanish actor talked about how meaningful it was to get the recognition from the Academy for his role and about the film.

"The Oscars are very important for everybody, but you have no idea how important they are all around the world," Banderas said. "And for somebody like me to get a nomination in a little movie, speaking my own language, it's a big deal."

"Pain and Glory," which was nominated for best foreign film, tells the story of a film director who reflects on life choices as his past and present crash around him.

Banderas stars as Salvador Mallo, a character based on the film's director Pedro Almodóvar, who he has worked with on eight films over the last four decades.

"It's a very odd experience that probably will never happen again, you know to be directed by the character that you're playing," Banderas said. "What happens is you receive emotional information that would be very difficult to just obtain from a script, because I could see the effect that my performance was producing in him every single day and it was kind of a reflecting mirror situtation."

"It was almost like playing this emotional ping pong with him," he continued.

Banderas also explained Almodóvar's storyline as something "beautiful" and "biographical in a way," that transcends language and tells a universal story.

"It's not so much about the things that he did or the things that he said, but pretty much more about the the things that he wanted to say and never said, the things that he wanted to do and never did. You start asking yourself what really is the story of our life.

"Our dreams are part of our biography too, if we have to tell the story of our lives. I will include those dreams that never were fulfilled. That is this movie. This movie is about filling the pieces of a puzzle to a life and that is common to everybody."