Antonio Banderas: "Hollywood Is Not Probably The Best Place In The World To Raise Kids"

From balancing a lucrative acting career with his full-time job as father and husband, Puss In Boots star Antonio Banderas is no stranger to handling what ever challenges - good and bad - life throws his way. The handsome actor - who is father to 15-year-old Stella with wife Melanie Griffith and step-father to Melanie's other children Alexander, 26, and Dakota, 22 - recently sat down with modernmom.com and opened up about parenting children in Hollywood, balancing his work load with home life and his all-time favorite piece of parenting advice.

"Well, my babies live under different circumstances probably than other kids," the 51-year-old actor reveals. "Hollywood is not probably the best place in the world to raise kids. You have to be very careful for many different reasons. One of the reasons is the perception that they may have about what life is all about. Life is not Beverly Hills. There are other people around the world that live in completely different circumstances."

Balancing work and home is never an easy task, but Antonio seems to have a special ingredient to maintain and ensure a healthy balance between the two.

Love is the word. Love is everything we do in life. Love for the profession. Love for action. Love for whatever is in the middle. My wife and I, we are staying together now for 17 years. What is the secret? The secret is that we love each other. It is that simple and that complicated. I mean, remember that love has been trying, you know, to be defined by poets for centuries. That is the key of everything.

And what is his favorite piece of parenting advice?

"Building a world in which being famous is the result of something that you do. Whether it’s in the acting world, you can be a celebrity also because you’re a great doctor or you are a great architect or you are a great journalist. Because you are deserving. You’re professional at tasks."

Continue reading Antonio's interview at modernmom.com.