Mexican actor Diego
Luna was one of the special guests at the Latin American Film
Festival in London “Discovering Latin America” (DLA) 2007 that
ended this weekend; a perfect excuse to stay with him in an
agreeable place and chat about his latest works.
“Please Miss; can
y
ou
bring me the Tabasco [hot sauce]?” Diego Luna asks the barmaid
of this small bar in Notting Hill Gate where
we hold this chat, meanwhile he looks out of the corner of his
eye at his tuna salad and boiled potatoes.
In addition to
enjoying the British gastronomy, Diego came to London invited by
DLA to present his most recent work as actor in The Night
Buffalo and his debut as director with the documentary JC
Chávez, about the mythical Mexican boxer.
“Two totally
different projects,” as he says himself: “The Night Buffalo
is a dark movie that talks about a group of young people
that have been forced to leave their childhood before their
time. They are very selfish young people who
live in their own world and confuse possession with love. JC
Chávez is the story of one of the most public people that
Mexico has given,” he told me.
At 27 years
old, Diego Luna still has the appearance of a “rogue” that
catapulted him to fame in Y tu mamá también along with
his childhood friend and associate Gael García Bernal (among
other business adventures, both are founders of the film
production company Canana).
Despite having
more than 20 movies to his credit, acting in TV series, works of
theatre and being a businessman of a brand of T-shirts [Naco],
producer and now director, Diego does not exhibit any of the
characteristics associated with success, perhaps for having
digested it in small doses since he first appeared on television
in 1991.
“The advantage
I have had since I was 14 was that I was sure of what I wanted
in life. I understood that I was in the place where I really
wanted to be, telling stories through cinema, theatre and
television. I never had a ‘master plan’ that said: now act, then
produce, later direct. Things arose this way and my only plan
was to satisfy what I felt was necessarily in this moment, being
happy and surrounded with the people that I love.”
The search for
happiness is a topic that repeats itself throughout the
conversation. “How many people are there that do not live in the
city that they’d like to, that are employed in something they
don’t like and wake up with a woman they don’t love?
Unfortunately, there are more and more people who are not what
they want to be.”
Obviously,
Diego Luna is not one of these people and now after his debut as
director with the documentary JC Chavez, he seems to have
found one more source of satisfaction.
“When you
direct you’re there during the whole process and I love seeing
the reaction of the public in the places where the documentary
appears.”
The whole
contrast with what, as he tells me, experiments on his facet as
an actor.
“I had an
awful time in the screenings. As an actor when you have just
filmed, you go to your house thinking about the movie. Six
months later when you see it in the cinema it is something
completely different from what you imagined. It is the movie
from somebody else’s head and one has to learn to have distance
because cinema has a lot of construction like a puzzle, and the
pieces can make you comfortable in order to obtain different
final results. And you, as an actor, are not in that part of
the process.”
His
documentary tells the story of Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chávez.
For Diego the character of Chávez goes much further than the
sports hero and is part of the collective memory of Mexicans.
“As a child I
followed the character a lot. He was the joy of all Mexicans and
he lasted us six months until fighting again. Chávez did not
loose during the 11 ½ years of his career. For me, the idea of a
Mexican that has not known defect is very attractive and it
offered me the opportunity to tell the story of a unique
Mexican. We live in a country where there is one defeat after
another and news of failure after another. Then suddenly one
that appears to be so different seemed very interesting to me to
be told.”
In spite of
the Tabasco, the salad remains on the plate almost intact. I
don’t know if it’s because he doesn’t like it or because in his
eagerness to be a great conversationalist Diego forgot that he
had not eaten the whole day. Before finishing the interview, I
asked him what the best advice was that anyone has given to him
in his career.
“Without
forgetting what you did, it is necessary to always look ahead.
The risk as much in life as in work decisions must be an
essential element. If there is no risk, you do not advance. If
there is no risk, you gain nothing. If there is no risk, it’s
not worth making cinema.”
Translated by
Heather~
