Actor / Director Profile

Arau has had a long and fruitful career both in front and behind the camera and is one of the most prominent filmmakers of the Latino community in Hollywood. Arau was a drama disciple of Seki Sano - a Japanese teacher, classmate of Lee Strassberg with Stanislavski in Russia - and traveled the world from 1964 to 1968 with his one-man show of Pantomime Happy Madness after studying with Etienne Dacroux and Jacques Lecoq in Paris.A renowned writer-producer-director-actor in theater and films for the past twenty years, Arau directed in 1969 his first feature film _Barefoot Eagle (1969)_, which he also starred. He has directed many films in Mexico among them _Calzonzin Inspector (1973)_ and Mojado Power (1981). He has received 6 Arieles, the Mexican equivalent to the Oscar, and numerous international film awards.Arau has acted in a number of Mexican and Hollywood films, including _The Wild Bunch (1969)_, El Topo (1970) Mojado Power (1981), Used Cars (1980), Romancing the Stone (1984), ¡Three Amigos! (1986) and Committed (2000). In addition to _Like Water for Chocolate (1992)_, his directing credits include A Walk in the Clouds (1995) with 'Keanu Reeves' and 'Picking Up The Pieces' (2000)_ with 'Woody Allen'. His most recent work is _"Magnificent Amberson, The" (2002) (mini)_, based on the script of Orson Welles and the novel by Booth Tarkington.