Antonio Banderas has opened up about his decision to move back to his home country after spending roughly 26 years in Southern California.

The 65-year-old Spanish actor, who stole hearts in the Nineties with roles in a string of modern classics, including Interview with the Vampire (1994), Desperado (1995) and The Mask of Zorro (1998), returned to his hometown of Málaga, Spain, in 2017 following a heart attack.

Fondly reflecting on his “beautiful, exciting years” in America, Banderas told People, “I always had this sense of provisionality that it was not going to last my whole life.

“I knew that Málaga was there,” he added. “I was not supposed to be in Malibu, but in Málaga.”

The Puss and Boots star explained that he initially settled down on the West Coast after falling in love with his now ex-wife, Melanie Griffith, 69.

The former couple was married from 1996 to 2015. Together, they share daughter Stella, while Banderas helped raise Griffith’s other two children, Materialists star Dakota Johnson and Alexander Bauer, from previous marriages.

“When we separated, we were always very sincere,” Banderas said of his relationship with the Lolita actor. “And now she is, if not my best friend, one of my best friends.”

The Oscar-nominated Pain and Glory star has been vocal about how his near-fatal heart attack gave him a fresh perspective on life.

“It’s one of the best things to ever happen to me,” Banderas admitted to The Independent in 2019. “I thought I was going to die, and it made me understand life in a deeper, more complex way. I detached from things that are not important anymore — the car, and this and that — and then I just put my attention in family, friends and in recovering... well, the essence of why I became an actor.”

He later told the Radio Times that the health scare “was like putting glasses on and seeing what was important.”

“I came back to Spain,” he said, “and started looking at my professional life from a different point of view.”

Banderas currently stars in director Matthew Johnson’s new movie, Tony, as Ciro, a character inspired by the famed Provincetown restaurateur Ciriaco “Ciro” Cozzi, who hired and mentored the late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain.

The biographical drama, out in theaters now, follows the early years of Bourdain (played by Dominic Sessa) after he stumbles into the chaotic world of a restaurant kitchen, setting off a summer that will shape the course of his life.