Diego Luna in Rio de Janeiro

INTERVIEW ONE
30 September 2007

Diego Luna appears in two films at the Rio de Janeiro Intl. Film Festival as an actor, Mr. Lonely and The Night Buffalo. Deficit is Gael García Bernal’s first movie as a director producer, and Diego has his own debut in the direction with the documentary JC Chavez, about the Mexican boxer champion of the 80’s. The intense production made Luna very tired, but very happy and fulfilled. For the first time participating in the Rio Festival, he talks about this special moment in his career.

Almanaque Virtual: You are presenting four films in the Festival, JC Chavez, Deficit, The Night Buffalo and Mr. Lonely. Is it the first time that you participate in the Festival?
Diego Luna: Yes, it’s my first time. I feel very fortunate to bring all these films to the Festival. I was surprised with the amount of people who are here because of the festival. I think that if everybody goes happy to participate in Cannes or Venice, the same should happen with Rio’s Festival. It is essential that we have more interchange among the countries in Latin America. The films are the easiest way to transmit culture. In two hours a film says more than many words. We have much to learn with Brazil. Here there is more incentive to the culture that in Mexico. Brazil has a protection policy that we, Mexicans, do not have. We are closer to the United States. However we have more similarities with Brazil. When I was in São Paulo I felt like I was in Mexico. And I am very happy with this opportunity to come to Rio de Janeiro.

AV: JC Chavez is the first film that you direct. How was this experience?
Diego Luna: It was the best thing that I’ve made in my life. To direct is a wonderful experience, a work of deep commitment. JC Chavez is one of the most famous personalities in Mexico. From 1985 a lot of things changed in the country. The government changed, the guerillas appeared, and we had the earthquake. Our only joy was JC Chavez. The country stopped when he fought. It was a great responsibility to make this film.

AV: Do you want to direct again?
Diego Luna: Yes, but we can not speed up the process, the script history has to be ready. It is different from fiction, you can not improvise. I think in the first place we must be good spectators. The direction is a team work. That is why I like to be surrounded by friends to make a project or any other activity.

AV: Is it because you like to work with friends that you have a lot of projects with Gael Garcia Bernal?
Diego Luna: Yes, we've known each other since childhood. We established, alongside the scriptwriter Kizza Terrazas, Canana, which is responsible for the four films in the Festival. Bernal and I must travel around Mexico with the Ambulant project, which will cover 14 cities showing documentaries made in Mexico.

AV: Besides these four films, are you involved in another movie?
Diego Luna: Not right now. I intend to rest and travel with these films. It is almost a paternity sensation. I want to show them to the world like a happy father who just had children.

Translated by Cris
http://almanaquevirtual.uol.com.br/ler.php?id=10442&tipo=23&tipo2=evento&cot=1

INTERVIEW TWO
2 October 2007

Rio de Janeiro Film Festival: Diego Luna launches four films

Rio - The Festival finishes only on Thursday, but nobody can take from actor Diego Luna the title of male muse of this edition of the cinematographic marathon. Discovered in Y tu mama tambien, alongside his best friend and partner Gael García Bernal, the actor of 27 years is in the city to promote four films.

Besides The Night Buffalo and Mr. Lonely, in which he acts, Luna signs the executive production of Deficit (directed by Gael) and appears for the first time in the direction with the documentary JC Chavez. “It is a wonderful coincidence. It makes me very happy, because I believe that it is an important festival and over all because Brazil is a country where my films are rarely seen. I hope my visit will help to ‘oil the machine”, twists Luna, who arrived Saturday night and went directly to “Espaço do Cinema” to present The Night Buffalo with director Jorge Hernández Aldana.

Starting the session, the pair went to “a lugarcito” (to a place) near the movie theater to drink some beer and cachaça (typical Brazilian beverage), when they came back, the audience had already left. “It was horrible. We had to go to the Cabaret Kalesa, a funk (a Brazilian music rhythm) ball and to Mangueira (a samba school) headquarter to drink more beer and cachaça. Only at 6h30 a.m. I started to forget the sadness that I felt for not being able to talk with the audience,” jokes Diego, adding that it was one of the best nights of his life.

The actor gets serious when he talks about his directorial debut. JC Chavez is a portrait of the biggest Mexican boxer and also a panel of the economical and political changes that the country went through the 80’s and 90’s: “It was a time when opening the newspaper was a masochism exercise. We had the earthquake (in 1985), the depreciation of the Mexican peso, and several political crimes. Chavez was the only good thing that we had until 94, when he suffered his first defeat and his relationship with (the president) Salinas threw him in the middle of the crisis. I wanted to show him as a reflection of the country.”

“I am far from being a sex symbol. I have to talk, make jokes and conjure tricks so that girls give me attention,” guarantees Diego, former-boyfriend of Brazilian Alice Braga. Besides the actor's career, he owns Canana alongside Gael and Pablo Cruz. “We have a power in Mexico that we wouldn’t have any other place. In two years we made five films,” he says.

And he gives us the scoop on his new projects. “I’ll make a short documentary about the environment and I am writing a script. It is about a boy…,” summarizes Diego. He only complains about the lack of time to play soccer: “I was a great liar when I was a kid. I feel very fortunate to have a job that allows me to do that.”

Translated by Cris
http://odia.terra.com.br/cultura/htm/geral_126432.asp