Diego, Gael and their fathers too!

January 2002

The two pals that co-lead Y tu mamá también have known each other since they were born and have been friends for ages. Their fathers were working in the same artistic way, and they have known each other since they saw the light of the day for the first time. “When Gael was born they were practicing a work of theater together and when I was born they were putting on the scene,” tells Diego on the cool terrace of a hotel in Beverly Hills.

“My parents were very young and dedicated to acting,” Gael takes over, “but the situation in my house was more of excess. Rather the bohemian environment existed in Diego's house, whose dad is a theatre designer.” Luna’s mother died when he was only 2 years old and his home turned into a kind of bachelor's residence. “There was a very ‘hippie’ vibe, of renting a big house and living there with few things,” he reports.

It’s clear that their fathers’ professions influenced their careers. “There was no one taking care of us in our houses and that's why they were taking us to the rehearsals and functions,” tells Gael. “It was the only way of being a part of their world, because the theater is like that: you have to be there all the time,” Diego finishes. “We were spending time surrounded by adults and although everything began as a game, we realized we were already inside.”

The first time they shared a television set together was when one was 11 years old and the other 12, as part of the cast of My Grandfather and Me, a soap opera of which they have a bad opinion of that spreads to the whole genre. “In soap operas, at least in Mexico, it’s really hard to pay attention to quality,” adds Diego. “It’s like doing a movie a day. As an actor one is interested in doing well polished work, almost handcrafted. But in this case, once they find something that they like, they ask you to repeat it endlessly.”

The same one recognizes that, if he had not taken part in El premio mayor (The Biggest Prize) – where he played the son of Huicho Domínguez – he would not have gone ahead. “I did it for three months after I went to live alone. And the truth is that if it was not for that, I would have had to return to my dad’s house. The good thing is that one goes up; the bad thing would be that now they were offering me, for example, El premio mayor II.”

While Diego was acting in different Mexican films, Gael decided to hang up the shoulder bag and do Europe. “Once I was there I got bored working as a bartender and decided to go to a London theater school. The level of the education impacted me.” When García Bernal made Amores perros (Love’s a Bitch), his first full-length feature film, Luna had already been a part of several cinematographic projects. Nevertheless, the popular film by González Iñarritu opened innumerable doors to Gael; so much that in the last two years it equaled the number of movies that his pal had on his résumé.

This certainly did not awaken jealousy, especially after Diego lost the option to play the same role in Amores perros?
“No,” Gael hurries in answering, “because as an actor you think it’s cool that a friend of yours is really good, especially if it is non-gratis, like in this case. Of course if he was doing soap operas, perhaps yes, it would bring big resentment.”

The experience on the small screen was seemingly a hindrance for Diego’s development as a movie actor. He says that Alfonso Cuarón, director of Y tu mamá también, initially doubted his capacities for the cinema because of this cloudy matter of his past. “I reminded him of it,” answers Diego between laughs, without giving any more explanations. “I earned myself the movie in a screen test and this is finally what one looks for as an actor. If Alfonso was one of these stupid directors who let themselves go for the first thing they see, he would not have had the chance of seeing the screen test [mine]. How horrible it is to tell you that the director spoke to me because he’s a friend of my dad and, since one day he lost a bet with him, he had to hire me...”

Do these types of arrangements happen frequently in the Mexican cinema?
“Ohhh!” exclaims Diego, simultaneously Gael contradicts it: “No.” “Of course not?!?” Luna takes up again. “Excuse me, but I have been in more than three movies where I did not even do a screen test... they influence favoritism and these ways a lot.”

“What he means is that in Mexico a good infrastructure for casting does not exist yet,” García Bernal apologizes. The story of Y tu mamá también has very strong moments, brimming with explicit sexuality; whereas it establishes a triangle between the principal characters, played by two Mexican actors and the beautiful Spaniard Maribel Verdú.

It also counts on a scene that needed tight physical contact between the young Mexican actors. But neither of the two made objections on having read the compromising script. “Everything that was there seemed logical to me, very justified,” clarifies Diego, before his glance changes course because of the passage of a beautiful passer-by and says to Gael: “Right now you are going to see a striking thing pass by,” leaving no doubts about the sexual preferences of both.

Although they assure to be very different to from Julio and Tenoch, their characters on the big screen, they share the taste for older women. García Bernal, for example, has been paired with Cecilia Suárez and Vanesa Bouche, although “all ages are to his liking,” according to him. “The school circle was not our only circle; we related very much to adults,” explains Diego to justify this fondness.

In contrast to what happens in the movie where Julio and Tenoch equally enjoy the generous sexual favors of Luisa, an experienced and sensual European lady, Luna assures that he has never shared a woman with Gael. “At least the SOB has not said it to me,” it points out. “I believe that we are a little more intelligent [than the characters] and that we value our relationship very much as to not to put it in danger by throwing ourselves at anybody. Of course, when I have gone away to the beach with an older woman, I have not invited any of my friends.”

“I identify with Julio from the waste down,” points out Gael. “Yes, it has smallness,” Diego emphasizes, not loosing a single opportunity to render a joke. When he finds out that Penélope Cruz is in a nearby table, Gael asks for permission to greet her. “She is my friend,” he mentions. Moments later, the Spaniard will approach the table where the interview is taking place.

Let's return to ours. In addition to its sexual subject-matter, Y tu mamá también is a road movie that gathers some hard images of the rural life in Mexico, even presenting in several occasions the military squads, many of which were filmed as they happened before the eyes of the production team, without need to resort to actors.

“These squads had a duty to the certification program against the anti-drug struggle that the United States was giving to our countries and that was actually more a form of control. Fortunately, they disappeared already,” Gael assures.

“Let me to tell you no,” Diego contradicts him once again. “I have just been in Oaxaca on vacation, going from beach to beach, and they stopped me for less.”

Being friends does not mean necessarily sharing everything and they seem to exercise this to the perfection. Moreover, they even have a different opinion about the performance of the Mexican president.

“Things are changing, yes,” García Bernal does not hesitate to affirm. “Some members of Fox’ political office have awareness of the problems and are very well prepared. Mexico City is ungovernable; to fix it is going to take a lot of time.”

For his part, Luna thinks that no political party has a lucid and viable proposal. “There is no clear one who is good and who is bad. Y tu mamá también commits itself to an objective vision: Mexico appears as a deserted place with respect to political order. The country does not go to any one side. They have devoted themselves to plunder it.”

What other similarities do they have with the characters in Y tu mamá también? Do they listen, the same as them, to Molotov and Plastilina Mosh?
Gael: “Fortunately, for music we are quite mixed. We listen to everything and amuse ourselves with what it is.”
Diego: “There is something in that, yes, I am in accordance with Julio and Tenoch: I do not like pop very much, because it’s suitable for making any piece of nonsense.”
Gael: “But there are few geniuses inside this roll... Emmanuel, for example, has the best things.”
Diego: “I don’t share the taste for Emmanuel,” he refutes with a sarcastic smile.

Another similarity is the taste for the tequila and for different spirit drinks. In fact, they shared their first drunkenness at the tender age of 12 and 13. “It was you who we put in the tub of cold water, no?” Diego remembers, before referring to the goodness of the national Mexican drink. “But I do not use it any more to seize value like our characters. No. Also to study, to speak, to wake up,” refutes Gael, returning the preceding jokes to him. “Me, what I can’t drink are barrels.”

Tequila was a big help for shooting one of the most difficult scenes in the film, one which produces quite a lot of intimate contact between Julio and Tenoch. “We took nine shots for this scene and we started drinking tequila after doing the second one,” admits Diego, before adding between loud laughs: “At the end we were asking for mango margaritas and silk tights.”

And what is there of their characters excessive taste for marijuana?
“This is acting. Pure acting,” assures Diego, adopting for the first time in the whole interview a tone of the most serious and formal. At his side, Gael cannot avoid laughing. “It is time they legalize drugs: pot, at least,” he says a little later. “Yes. Actually, with that our countries would get out of the hole that they find themselves in,” Diego highlights on the end.

Translated by Heather
 Source/Español