Rising star Diego Luna has made
quite a name for himself since U.S. audiences first saw him in 2002's "Y Tu Mamá
También." Since then, the 24-year-old has already worked with Steven Spielberg
("The Terminal") and Salma Hayek ("Frida"). And now he can be seen in
"Criminal," a remake of the Argentine con-man caper "Nine Queens," co-starring
alongside Maggie Gyllenhaal ("Secretary") and John C. Reilly ("Boogie Nights").
Diego was recently in New York and stopped by MTV's balcony overlooking Times
Square to talk to MTV News' Vanessa White Wolf about how much he believed in
first-time director Gregory Jacobs' ability to harness the character of Los
Angeles and the acting talents of his co-star Reilly.
MTV:
When you signed on for "Criminal," had you seen the original, "Nine Queens"?
Diego Luna:
No, I watched "Nine Queens" a week after we wrapped this one. I had bought the
DVD
and was very excited and showed it to the director and he said, "No, no, please,
man! Don't see it." He was totally right. It was such a good movie and the
actors are so good in that movie. "Nine Queens," it's almost perfect, you know?
And I was going to be thinking about all the choices the other actors made, so
at least I can say that the approach I had to the movie and to the character was
what felt right to me. "Criminal," that was the movie I was doing, I didn't have
the other one in mind.
MTV:
Buenos
Aires played a big role in the original. Were you worried that fans of "Nine
Queens" wouldn't like how "Criminal" was moved to Los Angeles? Did you think
director Gregory Jacobs would be able to make L.A. as much of a character?
Luna:
I think he did a fantastic job. I think it's a very different movie. It's the
same plot, but the characters are different because we're different actors, and
in this movie,
L.A. becomes a character. It's a very honest movie
about L.A. You don't see that L.A. too often in movies, you just see the palm
trees and the movie business, and there's a whole city behind that. There's
normal people that work in the streets, there's bankers, doctors — not everybody
has a script ready to shoot. So I think it's going to be a nice chance for
people to get to know L.A. It talks about how many cultures are in the same
place but they don't really mix. There's so many frontiers inside L.A., it's a
weird city. I like it. There's a big Mexico in L.A. If you go to the east side,
that's Mexico, they live like in Mexico, they eat Mexican food, they buy Mexican
products, everything's in Spanish and people actually walk in the streets, which
is rare to see in L.A.
MTV:
What was it like working with a first-time director? Were you ever worried that
he wouldn't be able to pull it off?
Luna:
No, I really trusted Greg. We had a first meeting that was great; I felt that he
was a very honest guy, he wasn't trying to impress me, or he wasn't trying to
tell me how many movies he had seen. You find that a lot — directors start out
talking a lot about other movies to show you that they know a lot about movies.
And Greg was very honest, very simple: He told me what story he wanted to shoot,
why it was important for him. It was pretty easy for me to say yes. I also liked
the energy of a first-time director, you can tell they've been waiting a long
time to get there. And he knew what movie he wanted to shoot and he was very
clear, and it was a good process. He wrote the script, so he knew page by page
what would happen. I loved the script. And also, I loved the cast and all the
people that were behind the camera — amazing people. When you have a good story,
great people get involved.
MTV:
Speaking of the cast, John C. Reilly, who's an amazing character actor, is
usually put on the sidelines, but in this film he has a major part.
Luna:
Oh yeah, John is one of the actors I admire the most from the States. I always
believe him in everything he has done, and he knows which roles to choose. He
has integrity. And I found myself, so many times, just watching instead of
acting. Like, "Wake up, buddy, you gotta act!" [He slaps himself.]
Because it's just so nice to see him, he has such an intense look. There's
always something going on, you can tell. He's such a great actor. I admire him a
lot.
MTV:
So your next project is called "What God Knows," and you're going to be
producing it, right?
Luna:
Yeah, "What God Knows" is a script that got to me like two years ago. Like five
or six years ago I had a chat with the director [Carlos Bolado] — he's a guy I
like a lot, his work — and we said, "We need to work together," and he came back
two years ago with a fantastic, beautiful script. It's a love story between a
Brazilian girl and a Mexican journalist and they drive through
Tijuana in Mexico,
and the end of the movie happens in Sao Paolo in Brazil. And it's a love story
between two orphans, it's a beautiful, very sweet story. And it's very personal
also. The character, it's really close to me. Sometimes too close. [He
laughs.] So I'm happy to shoot again in Spanish and be back in my country,
traveling, getting to know better my country, working with a lot of people I
like, people I admire a lot, and yeah, working in Mexico is always a pleasure.
MTV:
You must be really happy with your success as an actor — that it's helped you
get to the point where you can produce a movie.
Luna:
Yeah, I mean, it took us two years to get the money, but it's definitely
helping. I'm putting money in and getting people together to put more money in
and just trying to make it happen, just because ... I don't want to stop working
in my country. That's where I decided to be an actor, and there's a lot of
reasons for me to keep working there, so I want to make things happen and help
as much as I can. Because we have a government that doesn't do anything, doesn't
help culture, and education is not a priority for them, so we have to fix it. We
can't just complain every day about the government, we have to do things, and
we're doing things, young people are doing lots of things in
Mexico, and that
gives me a lot of hope.
MTV:
At age 24 you're in a position where you can help revitalize the industry there.
That's pretty amazing. Two years ago, when "Y Tu Mamá También" came out, did you
expect that you'd be producing movies and working with people like Steven
Spielberg?
Luna:
No, no, that would be very pretentious, to be like, "Four years ago, I knew this
was going to happen." No, I think the better things in life come as a surprise.
It's about being there in the right moment, and I'm happy with what's happening,
and I'm going to try to use it as much as I can to make my own things happen.
But I don't know, I wasn't expecting any of this.
Source:
http://www.mtv.com/shared/movies/interviews/l/luna_criminal_040907/
