Javier Bardem on Becoming Max Cady in New ‘Cape Fear’ Adaptation — While Also Shooting ‘Dune: Part Three’

Javier Bardem attends the Los Angeles premiere of Apple TV's "Cape Fear" on June 2. Kevin Winter/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images

There’s a new Max Cady in town.

The iconic villain, portrayed by Robert Mitchum in 1962’s Cape Fear and by Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s 1991 version, is back on screen in the new Apple TV adaptation. The 10-episode series sees Javier Bardem stepping into the role of convict Max Cady, who is released from prison after 17 years and out for revenge on the happily married attorneys (Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson) who put him behind bars.

At the show’s Los Angeles premiere on Tuesday, Bardem admitted that he “would not have dared to touch” the role — which landed De Niro an Oscar nomination — if it was another straight remake, but was drawn in by the appeal of a new interpretation explored over 10 hours instead of two.

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The star said he didn’t speak to De Niro while working on the project (teasing, “I talked to him in my mind like, ‘Please forgive me!'”) and is not one to stay in the killer’s mindset off camera, musing “What’s the point? I don’t find it even interesting to do it otherwise. I’m not that guy.”

That ease in shaking off a character was particularly useful for this project, as Bardem had to leave to shoot his scenes for Dune: Part Three in the middle of working on Cape Fear.

“You have a plane trip to just put it out and put it in,” the actor said of switching between Max Cady and his Dune role of Fremen leader Stilgar. “It’s what you do for a living. We are in the pretending department.”

Showrunner Nick Antosca said in casting his Max Cady, he had to reckon with, “You have Robert Mitchum, you have Robert De Niro, two of the most iconic villain roles ever — how do you match that? It’s got to be somebody who is worthy of that legacy, and who out there can bring the magnetism and the menace and the intensity and all of that?”

“I couldn’t imagine anyone but Javier playing this role. It’s got to be one-of-a-kind and it’s got to be something different too,” Antosca continued. “What De Niro did was so different than what Mitchum did; I knew Javier wasn’t going to do an imitation, he was going to bring something new to it.”

Javier Bardem, Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson arrive at the premiere of their #CapeFear series pic.twitter.com/8P94hU0XTW
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) June 3, 2026

Bardem transformed his look with tattoos, contacts and bleached hair and Adams confirmed when he came to set she could “feel that energy sort of step into the room, it was palpable.” Wilson added, “He really locked into the charm and the humor of it, and him being able to switch on a dime into that dangerous mode is something he’s very, very, very good at.”

Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, who produced the 1991 version, also gave their blessing on the series and are on board as executive producers, as Antosca said Scorsese in particular “gave amazing suggestions and encouraged Javier and everyone else to make it their own.”

That resulted in the biggest change, which is Max Cady facing off against a couple — who met while working on his case — instead of his solo male lawyer, as had been the case in the films. Antosca said of that update, “Their happiness and their perfect life is built on his suffering. They wouldn’t have everything that they have if he hadn’t been seemingly wrongly convicted. So that’s an interesting change to me because it brings up all these questions about the justice system, fairness and privilege and do we deserve this?”

Cape Fear starts streaming Friday on Apple TV.