Happy Sad Confused - Diego Luna

Episode Date: November 28, 2018

Sit back and enjoy the infectious positive spirit that is Diego Luna's. He's got a lot to be excited about on this visit to "Happy Sad Confused", with "Narcos: Mexico" earning rave reviews since dropping on Netflix. Plus he's slated to return to the Star Wars universe soon to reprise his "Rogue One" character! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the Volvo Fall Experience event, discover exceptional offers and thoughtful design that leaves plenty of room for autumn adventures. And see for yourself how Volvo's legendary safety brings peace of mind to every crisp morning commute. This September, lease a 2026 XC90 plug-in hybrid from $599 bi-weekly at 3.99% during the Volvo Fall Experience event. Conditions apply, visit your local Volvo retailer or go to explorevolvo.com.

D.C. high volume, Batman. The Dark Knight's definitive DC comic stories adapted directly for audio for the very first time. Fear, I have to make them afraid. He's got a motorcycle. Get after him or have you shot. What do you mean blow up the building? From this moment on,

none of you are safe. New episodes every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. Today on Happy, Sad Confused, Diego Luna on Narcos and returning to Star Wars. Hey guys, I'm Josh Harrow. It's welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad Confused. I'm back after the Thanksgiving break. Yes, I took a week off from the podcast.

Please forgive me. But the good news is more content is coming your way than you will know what to do with because we are in that time of year when every good movie comes out and there's a ton of great TV and the guests are just going to keep on coming until I can't even speak anymore. So I hope you guys enjoyed your own Thanksgiving break,

enjoyed your time with your family and friends and maybe even caught up with a movie or two. I know I'm still catching up with the best movies of the year. I watched the new Cohen Brothers movie last night. I'm getting all the screeners so I get to kind of pick and choose on the films that I haven't seen yet, but I'm getting closer to figuring out what my top ten list, and I have some tough choices to make.

It's been another great year in film. Films with every type. I mean, there's blockbusters that are going to be on my list, and there's going to be weird little indie movies and stuff you've never heard of and stuff that you can't get away from. But that's the beauty of a top ten list. You got to shine a light on different kind of movies that resonated with you. Anyway, we're not talking about film right now.

we're talking about TV because my guest today on the podcast is Mr. Diego Luna, who is currently starring in the new season of Narcos, Narcos Mexico, which is kind of a continuation. There's some commonality with past seasons of Narcos, but really is its own thing. It's kind of a reboot, a different kind of story for the Narcos series and stars Diego alongside Michael Pena also has a very significant role in it, and it is available for you right now on Netflix. I recommend it. And Diego is wonderful in it.

He's a fascinating, interesting character at the center of the drug trade in the 80s in Mexico. In Mexico City is in fact where Diego was born and raised. I think it's where he makes his home now. He is a proud member of the community, a proud member of the theatrical community. He talks at length in this podcast about doing a lot of theater still. in Mexico and wanting to make his home and contribute his art there. He's just one of those guys that's just a fantastic, significant, great life force in the universe. Diego, his enthusiasm is contagious. I think you'll really enjoy spending the next 45 minutes with him as I did.

We talk about a great number of things, including, of course, Narcos, but also his childhood, growing up as the son of artists becoming a teenage sensation on telenovelas and being something of an asshole at the age of 15. His words, not mine. And then, of course, collaborating with his great buddy of his entire life, Gail Garcia Bernal in Alfonso Coron's I too Mama Tambien, which changed the course of his career and kind of put Alfonso in some ways on the map and has set him on an amazing course.

So we talk a lot about that. And then, of course, bring it up to the present. We talk about being a part of Rogue One. Was that just a year ago? A year and a half ago? I don't know. Time flies. But that's when I first kind of got to know Diego.

And he was such an enthusiastic part of that process. He loved every minute of being in a Star Wars movie and being part of the press tour and just being a part of a pop culture phenomenon that was important to him growing up. And I'm so thrilled. for him and for us that we're going to get to see him star in his own spin-off Star Wars TV series for the new Disney streaming service all about his character, Cassian Andor. We don't really know anything about it, but we do talk a bit about sort of how it came to be and his hopes and his excitement for being a part of, I think they're going to do 10 more episodes,

10 episodes telling Cassian's story. Obviously, if you've seen Rogue One, you know it'll be a prequel. enough said. Anyway, so this was a fantastic conversation. Any conversation with a guy as smart and talented and enthusiastic as Diego is a treat, I hope you guys enjoyed as much as I did. Remember to check out Narcos Mexico on Netflix right now. He's also, by the way, has a small part in If Beale Street Could Talk, the great new film by Barry Jenkins. We don't talk about it in this podcast, but it just occurred to me that he has a fun little role in that movie, and that's a fantastic movie as well. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this conversation. Remember to review, rate and subscribe to Happy Say I Confused, spread the good word. And one last reminder, my

after-hour sketches, keep on churning on Comedy Central. We've got some really good ones coming up for you. As I sit here today, I can tell you that the next one available to you will star none other than Ezra Miller. And it is fantastic. So check that out. Look out for it. It drops this Thursday, November 29th. Yes, November 29th. Check it out. I'll tweet it on all my social media as you won't be able to miss it.

Or you can just follow the After Hours Comedy Central Facebook page. That might be easier. Anyway, here's my conversation with Diego Luna. I hope you guys enjoyed. My look, it's Mr. Diego Luna paying me a visit in my strange little

office it's good to see you man good to see you thank you for having me here thank you for being here thank you for seem to enjoy the silliness in my office i love it man you have like amazing thing here yeah yeah yeah i'm very comfortable i mean will farrell is looking at me weirdly but besides that uh it's all fine he's your old buddy he's my old buddy but he never looked at me like that i would have never worked with him i don't think there's a man that makes me laugh more than will feral will farrell's amazing see it just every bone in his body

is geared to like making me happy and there is like very few people that can actually do it without words and he can yeah and you know he's it's just about the way he looks at you like when you're acting yeah and also we were acting he he was he was speaking in Spanish a language he doesn't speak so clearly all his improvising was just the way he looked at you the way he reacted the way he would change that you know he's breeding it was just insane and and he could make us laugh like no one Yeah, he's the best. Well, congratulations. I know you've been busy running around the world for a good cause,

spreading the good word of Narcos, Mexico, which I've enjoyed. Perfect for the Thanksgiving holiday, to watch a few episodes of this one. How is this? The last time I saw you, of course, was on the Star Wars press tour, which was similarly big in a different way. It was. It's the only two times in my life where I've done something like this. In Itumama, we did a tour like that.

but without knowing it was going to be that long. It just kept going probably. We went to Venice Film Festival and I remember one day I was told, hey, you don't stay in festivals that long. You know, you start to look, it feels you're eager to get a job, you know. Go back home. Now is the time for another film, you know. Yours is over, you know.

You can't be in this party forever. So I went back home and as soon as I landed there, I got a phone call from Alfonso, say, Do you want to come back? You guys won best young actor or best, yeah, whatever. It was called the Mastrojani Award. And I was like, yeah, of course. And then we went to, you know, we went to Toronto.

And when we landed in Toronto, the day after, we landed on the, yeah, September 11th. Oh, that was that year, of course. So when I woke up, I landed at like 12th. 12 a.m. on September 11th, we arrived with the awards. Everyone was waiting for us. We had drinks. We were celebrated with the rest of the team that couldn't go to Venice. We went to sleep. And when we woke up, the world changed. You know, and we realized how little matter our award or the film or anything, you know. And it was all about how do we get back home? How do we, you know, fly over the states, you know, now that it's impossible. Because everything. It was grounded everywhere for a while. I had to stay like five or eight days in Toronto, I think, with no clothes. Also, my luggage never got there. And obviously, it's like, again, who cares about this luggage?

Let's go buy some shit, and that's it. So, but the thing kept going. We went back home, and then suddenly, you know, the film was going to open in the States, and we started doing a promotional tour here. And then the film started to be liked everywhere, and suddenly it was opening, in England and Japan and all of this was happening but I wasn't ready for it or I

wasn't expecting it or I didn't have that on an email, you know? Right, it wasn't like I got the next six months of your life and all of a sudden you're like it's in February and the Oscars are coming around you're like we're still doing this? Exactly but I was 19 years old reacting to these and really wanting

this to happen and learning from the experience but these two last two tours for Rogwan and for narcos have been crazy you know because it's like the narcos one it was the seven cities in 14 days you know we went from Mexico to Europe from Europe to Singapore Singapore Mumbai Mumbai L.A L.A. Mexico Mexico New York so it's an endurance challenge just to see what can you and your 40-year-old body can take exactly exactly I'm a little dizzy at the moment and I wake up every day at

like 3 a.m. asking myself, where am I? Where am I? Does it make you, because, you know, in the interim years between Itu, Mama and Star Wars and Narcos, obviously you have films of different size and different import that resonate or don't resonate, it doesn't make you kind of appreciate it more when like these two come back to back and you're like, I have, you know, these are global phenomenon. But also, you know, in both cases I've had this feeling, like, obviously not in Mexico, not in Latin America, not in the States, either. but around the world in places I've never been. Like, many times it's the project promoting me, you know?

Like, I arrive with Narcos to Singapore, and people ask me, oh, you are the guy from Narcos. Okay, tell us about you. Who are you? Where were you? You know, and you go like, shit, I'm doing this that has already such a following. You know, and Star Wars, I mean, come on. There's nothing like that.

you would arrive everywhere and people wanted to love the thing you were part of but probably knew much more about this universe than myself even though I did my research and even though I grew up with this film the fans are like hardcore I mean they have a rigor you know suddenly you realize you're like oh wait I thought I knew this stuff I'm in the bottom 10 percentile but I mean that's even too much You know, compared to the knowledge they have.

Apparently, I'm just a poser. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everything has a meaning, you know, and a reason. And it's incredible to see that and to feel part of something that big, you know. And to suddenly realize that there's that amount of attention, you know, that kind of like awareness of what you are about to show them, you know, that coming from Mexico, I've never experienced that. You know, we're always like, we're always the new thing, but it's never like, oh, of course.

Right now it's different. Right now you have Alfonso Cuadro, Alejandro, and people are expecting Mexicans, you know, to deliver. But back then, no one, you know, back then it was always like the, oh, my God. That was the surprise. That was the odd one. So, you know, since we have some time, we can cover a lot of different sort of things. But take me back a little bit. You were raised in Mexico City.

Correct? And so what was your, and your parents, I know you lost your mom at a very young age, but both of your parents were involved in the arts, correct, if I'm wrong. Were you exposed to a lot of television, film, theater, were the arts kind of just part and parcel of your upbringing? Yeah, more theater than anything, you know? My father was a set, or is a set designer because he still works in theater and opera. And because my mom died, I always had to be around him.

So it wasn't that I would go as audience to watch. I would be there every day of the whole process, you know? My father, this is the kind of guy that is there at the beginning, at the middle, at the end, and, you know, like, he has to follow the whole process. It's not like actors, like, you know, we do. We are there just in a very intense but short period of time of the process, you know. No, I used to see my dad, you know, have those meetings where it was just ideas and drawings on a napkin that would become something, you know.

And because he's a set designer, I used to see the models of how the theater was going to look and help him on that and then seeing that getting created. So I was fascinated with this world, you know? As a kid, I only cared about theater and football, basically. It was the two places where I could feel happy and, yeah. football and aspiration too definitely always still today you know you still think you have a shot i think

i think so i still think i might get discovered um but but definitely theater was was important in the way i started seeing the world you know uh it also brought me this very cynical uh you know perspective of of the people that knew where the trick was uh i knew when the things were going to explode you know I knew when the music was going to come in. I knew who was the, you know, yeah, who's the cheater in the story. You saw the structure and all the artifice behind it, but that didn't detract from your enjoyment of it. If anything, it may be, may you appreciate it more.

Definitely, definitely. And I was always, you know, fascinated by these people when they were not on stage, you know, the whole journey of theater that is beautiful. It's almost like, you know, the world of a circus, you know, that. It's going from town to town, building the circuses, promoting it in the community. All of that is part of the process. And the life of these people that suddenly belonged to a family, you know. And as an orphan or half orphan, the family idea of theater was, yeah, enchanting, you know.

Was the theater you were exposed to? Were these Mexican stories or were these like, I mean, no, it was, yeah, every kind of theater. and you know they would do they would do the classics they would do anything and i i started working at six years old in theater you know really young i i jumped in because i was asked by a director i remember going to my father and and asking him can i can i join the play and he really wanted to say no but uh but clearly he couldn't because i was part of that world it's just that i i didn't have the the feeling of being on stage sure and it did change my life and my priorities

because I enjoyed it so much I felt so relaxed and happy to be there and the first play I did is I was with the national company he was a big production probably the best actors of back then on stage it was like

it was a very special way to start and I didn't like I didn't like really got what I was being part of, you know? Right. For me, it was just the guys my father used to see every day. But I truly started in the right place, you know, surrounded by the right people.

So their influence meant a lot to me and helped me grow a lot. So, I mean, clearly, I mean, you haven't looked back since. Has there ever been a period of time where you've been kind of like disillusioned or over it in any way where it's been like not worth it to you to keep going? I think when I was doing TV, you know, the Mexican cheesy TV, because today you cannot say TV. Right, TV is actually the cool place to be now. TV is where they're taking the risks and they're doing the cool stuff and they're letting young voices kind of like pop out and found and find an audience. But back then in Mexico TV was just telenovelas and again, very cheesy material.

It was all about quantity and not quality. And as an actor also thinks if you were in a successful show, your life would change in minutes, you know. Like you would be shooting something today that would air in three, four days. Right. You know, that's as fast as the exposure would come. So there's no way to be ready for that, you know. And it gets you dizzy and you start to behave like an asshole.

So you didn't know how to be... I mean, how old were you when this happened, when the celebrity hit? The first time I really was in the most successful show I did, it was like 15. Right. So that's a recipe for disaster. For a 15-year-old boy, I don't know many that would handle any kind of success on... Definitely. And I had some success at 11.

Then at 13, I did a successful one. And then at 15, I was like in the biggest show of Mexico, you know? And the thing is, like, yeah, that fame also, it's not easy to enjoy, you know, because they want to talk to the character. They don't want to talk to the actor. They don't care about who's behind that character. Well, especially the nature of what you're doing, the soaps, that kind of thing. Oh, of course.

That in particular, you're in the box in their home every day. That kind of fame, exactly. That popularity comes for the wrong reasons, I think. And also it's a popularity that, you're in the popularity that. goes away, you know, and that hurts also, you know, because it is, it is very, like, schizophrenic, you know, for a year while your show is out, you are, they open every door for you and you start thinking, okay, this is the way, this is, this is my life now. And then in two months, you realize there's another kid in front of you and you have to wait and you have to

accept it. But gladly it happened to me in a time I was close to my father. and friends and they protected me or tried to protect me or rescue me better it's a better word to from from from that madness and i think it was theater uh what gave me kept me sane you know so you did you did theater in between that i was always doing theater you were always doing it always yeah till today i at least every every two years i do a theater play in mexico and uh and i tend to do that to go back and and and yeah also feel iance you prioritize this thing remind yourself why you do this in some ways. And feel I belong, you know, also to somewhere.

You know, the thing of theater, which is lovely, is that it makes you go to the same place from Wednesdays to Sundays every night. You cannot, you have to sleep in the same bed. And somehow this audience that come see me now has seen the last five, six plays I've done, you know? So there's a history between each other. I have to bring something new.

to the table and they acknowledge it because they've been part of my whole process and it's an interesting relation, you know? And again, the theater reminds you that audiences are really important. That the idea

is to connect with someone else. Sometimes cinema alienates you from audiences, you know, because you do a film and then a year passes while they're editing and post-production. And then the film comes out and you're somewhere else and you just go to a premiere and then you read numbers and they tell you how many people showed up

or how many people download the thing. But that's not a connection. You know, that is a business connection. But the connection of people reacting to your work, to your process and that dialogue that happens in theater, you don't get anywhere else. You know, that's why it's so addictive to be a, you know, a musician and play on a stage, you know. it's the constant the energy it's all of it it's so special and and transforming and and something you learn a lot from you know and and it can be also uh challenging you know when things don't work out because you cannot step down you have to get to the end of the plane you you you're born

and you you're born and you die every night two and a half hours or whatever you know but every night yeah without like that that very like clear cycle happens to you you're born and you're born and you happens to you, you know, and cinema is like, it's like a puzzle. You don't understand what part you're doing. Right. And then if you do, they can go edit and put it the other way around. Totally. So in theater is the actor that has control, you know, in movies is the director and the

producers. Have you ever done theater here in New York? Never, never, never. Come on by, man. I don't know if you've heard, Broadway, we've got a good thing going to. Exactly. I think you do have a few theaters here. I've been told there's an industry here going on

I have to say that I've never done theater out of Mexico I've done Mexican plays in many places in England in Colombia Argentina Spain like I've taken productions that I've done in Mexico for a few days to other places but to me theater also means yeah going back home I was going to say how much

of it, because you still live back home. I live in Mexico, yeah. So, like, how much of it is that it's home? It will always be home. It's familiar. And how much of it is also, like, a responsibility as an artist where you feel like you need to kind of feed back into the system what that home gave you? It is.

The great thing about my profession, my job, is that you cannot establish, like, a clear line between the personal and the professional, you know? So, yes, you're right. a lot has to do with what an artist should do, which is connect with the issues that matter to you, let that context affect you and talk about it and become part of the conversation. So to me it's important to go raise the questions I think need to be raised in Mexico, to become part of the debate that needs to happen in my country. But at the same time, it has to do with having breakfast in the restaurant I like,

or making sure after the play I can go and have a drink to the bar I've been going for the last 10 years. And those two things matter a lot, you know, kind of like the same, at the same level, I can put both of them. And that's a lovely thing of this job. If you are destroyed, if something happened to you, you go on stage and you bring that with you. And you help, I mean, the journey of your role helps you transform that. emotion into something useful and that can you know make others feel something uh but uh but you you cannot leave it down there's no way you know or there's no way you can call and say i'm not going to be performing tonight because i don't feel like it no you have to do it and and then so

then personal professional it becomes the same and and that's also one of the addictive things about what i do you know well you mentioned okay so one of the aspects you just mentioned in in terms of, like, kind of contributing to kind of, like, your own national dialogue, your own home dialogue. That segues well into the project we should at least give some attention to, which is Narcos, of course. So is this, because is there a push and pull when a project like this comes around that, you know, I would imagine, like, you don't want to play into stereotypes or feed a narrative that all Mexican stories are about the drug trade or whatever. There are a lot, there are a million stories in Mexico. At the same time, this is a defining story of the last 30 plus years of your country.

Is that an internal debate when a project like this comes around? Definitely. There was a strong internal debate. I love the way you put it because at the beginning, I said, I don't think I can do this. And I don't think it's the right angle or perspective to talk about the issue. I mean, if we put things in perspective in the last 12 years, there's been more than 250 people killed because of this war we're living. The numbers are huge.

So I live there. I experience that every day of my life. And I was very, I had my doubts about the show. And it was weird to have an American company and a French company come to you and say, hey, we want to tell your story. And at the same time, it reminded me that the story hadn't been told before to the world. It had, like as a Mexican, I know it. You know, I've seen documentaries.

I've seen pieces in cinema and TV that talk about it. But the reach of this show was interesting to me as a tool to actually get the word out. But I had a long conversation with. Eric Newman, who's the show runner and producer of the show, and I asked the questions. I went, like, why do you want to do this? What is the story you want to talk about? And the way he responded to me was the exact way I wanted him to respond, you know? The thing is, this story has been told always in a very, like, a rhetoric that it's kind of like

it's a big danger, you know, where every... Everything has been radicalized and polarized and there's good and bad. It's you against me. And this show wanted to talk about the gray areas here, you know, about like, yes, okay, we are, we know that the traffickers are terrible people. They're willing to do terrible things. But are they the criminals, the only criminals we should be looking for? Because they've told us the story as if, yeah, as if there was. one bad guy and tons of victims, you know, and you go like, well, many of those victims,

in fact, are no victims, you know. They're playing the game, and while you play the game, you become part of a system. And here the angle that the series takes, which I like, is that it tells you, well, for this to happen, these guys needed every level of power to be part of, you know? So this corruption has reached everywhere, you know, in both sides of the border, you you know, also, which is something I normally don't see in these gigantic projects. You know, there's always the good guys are coming to rescue you. And here you go like, well, there's no good guys, in fact.

And the only thing I see here is victims of a system, a system that is working perfectly because of the involvement of all these people. And then I asked, well, and what's the point of telling this story, you know? And the point is to help us understand how did the mess got to be this thing we're living today. You know, the relation between our countries has become a mess. And the way, again, the story of drug trafficking has been told is wrong, you know. It's not the violence in Mexico is not our violence. Right.

It's a violence that belongs to the whole world because for this to happen, there's a global issue, you know. And if you think about the market, if you think about consumers, if you think about addictions, then we're all involved, you know, because these people wouldn't be who they are if there was no market to fit. Yes, the unpleasant truth is, as you say, we're all complicit and we all... And this violence, for example, something no one thinks about, which hopefully Narcos will talk about, but it's like this violence in Mexico is making many people rich in the States, you know,

All the weapons and all the, yeah, the, how do you call them, damn? The bullets. Yeah. Shit, sorry, I haven't slipped in. Part of you is in Mumbai still. Exactly. You know, can be traced to a legal cell in the States. And you go like, well, then we are part of this thing, right?

It is our issue. There's something happening here that clearly is wrong. You know? So anyway, the angle they wanted to tackle is the angle I care about. And I thought, well, it's important to go tell this story out of Mexico, you know. People are really loving the show in Mexico, more than I was expecting, in fact. But to me, what matters is what happens with this show out of our borders, you know, because... Changing the perspective a little bit and the story and the narrative a little bit.

Well, and also in the 80s is where, like, these needed to happen for the borders, you know, the mess you know we're living right this is the moment where they created a structure that suddenly fell apart and and brought all these violence all these uh all this fear you know and and fear is very dangerous man very dangerous because it makes you do the always the wrong choice you right um i know we're bouncing around a bit but i do want to go back in time because you know we what we left off was sort of you finding your voice again in theater uh and then of course you reference, like the press store of E2Mama, but I want to talk about a little bit about Aitoumama and your association with Alfonso, who, you've seen Roma, right?

Yeah. Unbelievable. Amazing film. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it is, it is quite a, quite a project also coming from what he did before, you know, and what it means in his career and how young he is and how much we are going to still see from Alfonso. I know.

My only sadness is it takes him a while. I understand why it takes him a while between each project, but each one is just like Like a jump. Well, exactly because he does the exact opposite, you know, with the same warmth and love and humanity and dedication. But, yeah, if you compare Harry Potter to and your mama too, or gravity to this, clearly he always wants to raise the bar, you know. He wants to aim further. Did you know when you were working with him that you were working with like a level of talent? that was in the stratosphere.

I mean, he'd done some exceptional films, but Tumama kind of broadened his profile. Yeah, I felt I was working with someone that knew exactly what he wanted it. I basically, also, I had no reference, you know. I did like... You're like, where's my earpiece? I mean, I don't get it.

Exactly. No, but I did like 10 or 15 films in Mexico before working with Alfonso. But I thought I knew everything. And then I realized, holy shit. There's a different way to do this. That's pretty cool. This guy understands the need for rigor, you know, to have time for every decision, you know, and to take the time to think about every possibility also, you know?

Like, on a way in Mexico, we tend to react as soon as the money is there. So we improvise a lot, you know, because. There's no money, and they say, okay, you have money here, you go and execute right away. Otherwise, you know, you got to get it done. So you get it. So there's no time in pre-production. There's no time in development. Not as much as it should, you know.

And you realize when you give yourself that amount of time, then you deliver something amazing, you know, or with a great potential. And that's one thing I learned from Alfonso, and not just me, I think many, you know. And also the way of aiming further away, you know, not thinking about the niche your cinema belongs to as the only place you can find an audience, you know? Suddenly if you forget about that, if you're not thinking of pleasing everyone, suddenly you can go out there and be so specific that you end up connecting with everyone. Yes. Because people, I mean, going back. Back to Narcos, Narcos showed that you can ask people to read subtitles if there's a meaning for those subtitles.

If you were telling me a story, I didn't know. And the only way to get to that story is through reading this, I'll do it. Right. You know? So I think that idea of not thinking of pleasing everyone, but making sure you please the story, you please the context, you are honest and, you're honest. and yeah, and good with the context. You obviously, in that one, shared the screen with Gail,

who's been like a lifelong friend, partner, like business partner, creative partner, et cetera. Has it must be, like, that's a rare gift to go through a journey like this, this crazy roller coaster, with someone for, how long have you known, probably 25 years at least? I mean, no, I think my whole life. What age did you guys meet?

The thing is, My, our parents, sorry, our parents were doing a theater play in 78. They were rehearsing the theater play called the John Ford one. It's a pity. She's a whore. And I think he was born during rehearsals, and I was born when they opened, you know, basically. So my father was the set designer. My mom was the custom designer.

his mom was assisting my mom and really good friends of my mom and his dad was the main actor you know so they call us the sons of the whore and we were born yeah there in a theater you know so he was a few months old when I was

born and and I guess yeah we share a basket or something you know so we know each other since then we've been part of the same world and family since then. Have you ever gone up for the same role?

Have you ever had to compete against them? Oh, many times. But never compete, you know? Because we've been so lucky, I think. So, and in that horrible period of time where I became an asshole. Otherwise known as teenager. Like, it's like all of us.

I was an asshole, too. I just wasn't on a soap. He went to England to study. we did a TV show where he was the lead and he got all the attention called El-Awe-I-Yo. He was like he was very famous in Mexico he was like the show, the kids show

you know, the kids soap and I had a small role there but then after that I think I think his mom went like no you gotta go go somewhere and Guy was really was wanting to go to England to study and he went there to study so we stopped seeing

each other for a few years and and we kind of like got back together in Itumama Tambien where we both had a role right you know and since then it's been that easy you know and when I end up doing something he didn't want it to do or the other way around

it's always because we talk to each other and it's something we share and I don't I don't think we we compete in that level it's been always football girls you know what we compete about Is it true that Alfonso didn't want to cast you in my team mama?

Definitely. I was the young kid from soap operas, you know, and I was an asshole. And I was like really famous and doing theater and he didn't like that either. But the real issue was that I was cast like every other kid and I had an accident the day before. So I arrived with this thing in my neck that I couldn't move and I didn't learn the lines. and so I was reading and it was the worst audition ever and I think Alfonso saw that

and I said clearly this guy doesn't understand what acting is about and he went to to meet with like I don't know how many you know like hundreds of kids he saw after that and he didn't like any of them

or he didn't feel they were right for the part so I did another audition like later on and the audition Gail was already hired so we did it together and for that one I did prepare and also what happens with Gail and I

is that we have such a strong connection that there's some the chemistry is perfect if you're thinking about telling the story of two best friends you know we we landed so much of that friendship to the characters that is really difficult

to get from two actors that don't know each other, you know, you just have, I mean, we saved him months of rehearsal, basically. It's funny, as you mentioned that story, it reminds me of what I've heard about in Roma. I don't know if you've heard this, like the lead actor, he hired her best friend. Like, she was reluctant, like the housekeeper in the story. She was reluctant to do the film. And I think he convinced her to do it when he hired her best friend, who also plays her best friend in the film. So he, I think, is understanding of that, that's silly, but real thing we call chemistry.

Yeah, I mean, and that's what actors are supposed to do, you know, like last film I did, you know, you phone the other actor and you go like, hey, let's let's get together, let's have a drink, let me go to your house, come to mine, let's connect as soon as possible because we have a few weeks or months to prepare, you know, and you have to build all these memories that you can relate to when you're acting. And after a bit for rehearsals don't happen anymore on well, also that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a. a thing I don't get, you know, I'm a theater person. I love rehearsing. I think repetition is great. There's, when I directed a kid and I truly believe with someone that doesn't have the training, it's really important to make sure you capture that authenticity of the moment actually happening. But when you have great actors, in fact, rehearsing can be amazing.

Yeah. Again, honing in, like you talked about sort of like the, you know, artist like Alfonso, It was all about chiseling it down, kind of like getting to the truth, getting to the art. With Alfonso, what we did a lot was we worked, we improvised a lot, we worked together a lot in the things that were not happening in the film, you know, building those moments that connect scenes. So, you know exactly where you're coming from and you explore things and you find things that are not written there that are useful in fact. But we did spend weeks with Alfonso, you need to be working. We traveled to Spain, the three of us, to meet Maribel, and that whole trip was like the charolastras, you know, flying to see a girl and fighting for the attention of this girl. And Alfonso is a charolastra somehow, you know, at least during this process, he became one of us, you know.

is, um, you haven't been, correct me of it wrong, you haven't been directed by Alhandro or Guillermo in a film, right? No, well. It produced some things that you've done, I feel like. Guillermo, we've done, uh, two animated shows. Yeah, the, the, the book of life, that he was a producer, because it's directed by Jorge. Uh, and then, uh, on, on troll hunters, uh, my first session, he was there.

Uh, but it, but it's a different scale of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, You know, so that must be something that you'd love to do at some point. I mean, to be in his hands, Guillermo is just like such a life force. I mean, with both of them, I, I, you know, well, it's, it's a weird question because on a way I think I have, I now I know them profoundly. I can call them friends. And, and it's, it's different. I've reached something that I value much more than the experience of acting with someone.

I did work with Alejandro long ago in a little short thing he did for a brand in Mexico. That was before Amores Perros and everything. And again, with Guillermo in these projects, I feel I've worked already really close to him. But I don't know. I'm more worried about what I'll do as a director in my life, you know, these days. You yourself, because you've directed a couple times, obviously. And I, my brain is there. Like, as an actor, I do want to bring the best for a director to tell the story he wants to tell or she wants to tell.

But at the end, I have to say, I'm always there watching their process thinking about my own, you know, thinking about how much I can learn from this person in order to grow as a director or as a producer. Yeah, my mind is more in acting in theater and directing in film, you know. And the Odd Star Wars Project here. Exactly. Well, that I'm very happy to do. So obviously, you know, I talked to you a bunch of times over the Rogue One press period

and what a wonderful film that turned out to be. What a fun group of folks to talk to repeatedly. I have no complaints. I'm sure you don't either. I mean, but I appreciate it about you in that press stores, I recall, is like there are like some actors that are like kind of too cool for school about it.

They're like, they play it cool. Like, yeah, I'm in a Star Wars movie, whatever. It's fine. You were like, I felt like you were enjoying every second of it. I mean, truly it's like it is really difficult to even imagine that you're going to be part of it. something that you cared so much about when you were a kid you know and and again going back to that thing of like there's no line between the personal and the professional here we the experience

is so intense of shooting something and when you care like that it's amazing because i found myself many times witnessing things as if i was part of the audience you know and i suddenly were able to jump in the screen and and get to meet the characters and and see the world from the inside. Yes, I was enjoying every second and going back to that universe is like a dream come true because I started having nostalgia the day after, you know? He was like, oh, no, it's over, you know? And clearly because of the story we tell, there's nowhere to go.

Did you know from day one you were going to die at the end, or was there ever a question? No, no, no, we knew. We knew. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was no iteration that wasn't that, as far as you know. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure they thought about it. But I thought that was the most amazing thing to be part of, you know? And the biggest challenge in cinema, you know, it's like, how do you, how do you, yeah, present a story where people have to understand that it's not about dying or not dying?

It's about, you know, the print you live, you know? It's about, yeah, what do you generate for others. You know, it's about the others, you know. It's the meaning of sacrifice, you know, as the core of your film, you know. I thought it was like the most modern thing ever I've heard, you know. It was a balsy move and it paid off. It worked. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, I mean, I know there's nothing to, like, spoil. I'm sure you don't even know anything about this new series that we're excited about the announcement, nonetheless. I'm just curious, like, mechanics-wise, like, how and when were you even given, like, a heads-up? Like, were you, like, told a while back that this is something they were thinking of? Or is it literally just, like, the day before the announcement, they're like, you in? And you're like, thumbs up, yeah. No, there was a process, and I love how they work, you know? It's because they invite you to collaborate.

it's far from being the show people imagine sometimes where you just arrive and they tell you what to do at least that hasn't been my experience I was invited to Rogue One and I we improvised on set and our ideas were heard and we would meet with the producers

and the director and the writer and like we were part of the process you know and our opinion matter which is something I I look for as an actor, you know, to have that input. Otherwise, I get bored really fast. I start thinking of something else, you know. And here they were very open to that.

And I did a VR experience that got me to play the role for two days in a studio in Mexico, where we did all this material of me talking to the, you know the rebels and telling them what the mission was and and during that process we we started talking about this possibility you know but this was just a possibility and uh and then is gareth involved at all or we don't know yeah we don't know yet basically because of what the story will tell you the first thing they needed to know if if we could do it together and obviously i said yes from day one because uh it's uh it's yeah it's It's an experience that changed my life also.

You know, I can talk about it, To Mama, too, about working probably with Gus Van Sant as another moment. Of course. I love the film. Milk is amazing. And this, you know, and Rock One. And also, after doing something like Narcos, really, I mean, I always say this as a joke, but it's not a joke. After being in a show that I have to hide from my kids, it's such an amazing thing to make my kids part of my journey, you know. Again, because there's no professional and personal, you know. I want them to read with me the lines when I'm working at home.

I want them to be able to see the sets where I'm working, to go visit me to. And this is something I can share with them. And not to mention you talked about the shades of gray for Narcos. It may be a strange connection. But Cassian, from that first scene, Herb One, doesn't get much more gray than this guy. He's not, you know. Exactly. This is going to be fun territory to explore.

him even before the events that kind of even humanized him a bit more, I would expect we're going to see the bad and the ugly of this character. Well, it is. I love that idea of how Rogue One starts, you know. Again, it is very modern, you know. These days we have to talk about a much more complex world because it is, because it has become, because of the way we are interconnected now,

and the amount of... Yeah, the bar has been raised. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's, uh, I think they, they reacted and they took the challenge, uh, the way it should. Uh, and, and again, we're very brave to, to say, yeah, we're going to do a film that will live in the world of Star Wars and characters will live in this world, but we're going to bring this complexity also, uh, you know, because audiences are... They're demanding it now, yeah.

Yeah, I think so. So my son got it, you know, his friends got it, and I love the film. And making a film that can reach that range, you know, it's amazing. So, yeah, I am excited of the possibilities we have with the show. Last thing, and I'll let you go. Have they taken your suggestion that you just hang out with Java for 10 episodes? Because I know that was the ultimate ambition of the first press tour. It's incredible, you know, how social media work.

since days. I never thought that interview is going to last and hunt me forever. I'm sorry if I contributed it at all. But you know what? I still say it, yeah, of course. I am going to put that in my contract. I want to touch Java

and if that doesn't happen, I won't do it. Diego, it's always good to catch up with you, man. I love this conversation. I love Narcos, and I love that you return to Star Wars soon. That'll give us more opportunities to chat. Definitely. Thank you.

A pleasure. And so ends another edition of happy, sad, confused. Remember to review, rate and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't pressure to do this by Josh. American history is full of infamous tales that continue to captivate audiences, decades, or even hundreds of years after they happened. On the infamous America podcast, you'll hear

the true stories of the Salem Witch Trials and the escape attempts from Alcatraz, of bank robbers like John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd, of killers like Lizzie Borden and Charles Starkweather, of mysteries like the Black Dahlia and D.B. Cooper, and of events that inspired movies like Goodfellas, Killers of the Flower Moon, Zodiac, Eight Men Out, and many more. I'm Chris Wimmer. Join me as we crisscrossed the country from the Miami Drug Wars and Dixie Mafia in the South, to mobsters in Chicago and New York, to arsonists, kidnappers, and killers in California, to unsolved mysteries in the heartland and in remote corners of Alaska. Every episode features narrative writing and cinematic music, and there are hundreds of episodes

available to binge. Find Infamous America. up wherever you get your podcasts.