How did the journey of this movie begin?
Everything began when they invited me to see a live boxing fight of José Luis Castillo. I wanted to write a movie of fiction on his life, but they sat me next to Chávez and I realized that I had forgotten the idol he was for me since infancy. In him we had to the best boxer pound for pound for 11 years. Somehow, thank to Chávez I had the opportunity to reflect on what I lived in adolescence.

What were you interested in showing?

It interested me to tell the story of a forgotten hero. New generations do not know who Julio César Chávez is. I realized that the important thing at this time was that I started acquiring a certain political conscience, having a position in view with what was happening in this country [Mexico] and I jumped from a child to an adolescent.

Is it a personal vision?

The movie has a very strong emotive charge because this guy climbed into the ring with a hundred million Mexicans on his shoulders. But it is not a boxing movie, but about a human being and human behavior in general.

What did you capture of his personality?

His charisma. My idea was to talk about his greatness, but the most attractive thing turned out to be the common and ordinary person who exists behind the boxer. An important part of this movie is the relationship with his son, with his affections and some memories of that greatness.

What did you learn?

I learned that it’s necessary to value what you have, the emotions, and to protect myself from fame. I also lived through the experience of doing a movie from another side and that's why I could value what the people around me do when I film as an actor more. As an actor I learned – or I am in the process of learning – to tell a story. In short, I discovered the importance of working as a team, being able to surround myself with the right people, being able to listen and to ignore what it is necessary to ignore.

How did you prepare the script?

In a documentary the script is written while you are filming, and once you sit down to edit it is like the last rewrite because you are discovering and exploring things along the way. You also take licenses in order to investigate and go deeper.

This was the toughest part, conducting interviews so that the story showed what I wanted to tell. I made the decision that the movie would be told by the people who surrounded Julio César. The whole story relates to their promoter, Don King, Mike Tyson, Finito López, Ana Guevara, Salinas de Gortari, their mother, their son… and everything in order to speak about what for myself was called on me to see.

Hero or antihero?

He is a misunderstood hero who was a magician of boxing, but like the big geniuses also has dark parts. In the movie you are going to know two sides of Julio and boxing. It is an exciting movie but it hits hard. It’s sad what we have done with our champion, having judged him not only for his sports merits which are great: he defended his title 37 times and has the two most important records in boxing, and we have forgotten that.

Did it change your idea of fame?

The relationship Chávez has with fame impacted me greatly. I believe that we are very unfair with success. At first you become famous for your work and in the end the last thing that matters is your work and they judge you apart from that. Obviously when speaking about what interests me about this person, I ended up talking about myself. One talks about fame and demand, of the weight of peoples’ expectation. And in the end one speaks of the battle that we live day by day with ourselves.

But in your case you’ve been able to handle it…

What cost me the most of everything I do is fame; it hinders me. If I can use it to say what I think, to generate the changes that I would like to see, or at least point towards them, I will do it. It is a responsibility.

Why is it important to do cinema?

Because I believe that cinema greatly defines the identity of a culture, of a society. Furthermore, cinema reflects us. It is the highest point of communication and the simplest form to get to us. I love the ritual that exists around cinema: turn off the lights, the phone, your life, and someone tells you a story through images and sound.

Is this the beginning of Diego Luna the director?

I see myself doing cinema and theatre my whole life – what part, I don’t know. I’ve enjoyed cinema very much, that work one makes as a whole and that might not be otherwise. When you do cinema you say, “tomorrow they release my movie”, because you gave a piece of yourself. You hold up your life for three months if you are an actor; six if you are employed at the production; three if you produce; and five if you are the director.
 

What things have you given up to be there?

A lot, to grow before time, to have responsibilities when they normally solve them for you. It’s difficult to be where you want to be. Every time the world edges you more to where certain spheres of power need you and not where you want to be. The world goes towards there and we must work hard to the contrary.