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There's been a
rise of Latino actors lately in the film
industries. That comes with the success that
guys like Antonio Banderas, John Leguizamo, and
Benecio Del Toro have had to pave the way. Last
year, the success of the foreign film Y Tu Mama
Tambien has led to more roles and exposure for
its two leading stars, Gael Garcia Bernal and
Diego Luna. For Diego, he landed a small role
among Oscar winners Kevin Costner and Robert
Duvall in the hit film, Open Range and
now he's landed his biggest role to date. Coming
out on Feb.27th, Diego Luna stars as Xavier
Perez in Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. In
speaking to blackfilm.com, Diego talks about his
experience on this film and his upcoming
projects.
WM: Are you
shocked by all the fanfare and work you have
received since "Y Tu Mama Tambien" brought you
international acclaim?
LUNA: Not shocked. I'm
proud. I'm happy. I'm excited about it, but not
shocked because that would be terrible and I'd
lose everything. It's really fun to be doing
what I've been doing and having the chance to
work with the people that I've been working with
and having the attention also, you know, to show
my work. I remember when we did 'Y tu mama
tambien', tables had one or two people and they
were on the phone talking to their kids [Laughs]
and now, I have some attention. I have a lot of
things to do and a lot of stories to tell and
I'm glad that there's been some attention in the
world.
WM: What led you
to take on this film? Did you secretly want the
world to know how good of a dancer you are?
LUNA: No, no. That was a challenge because I had
never done that. I'm a terrible dancer. I need
to be really drunk and see a beautiful girl over
there. It was a way of getting close to a girl
without having to speak because always, whenever
I opened my mouth, they would leave. So, dancing
was a chance to keep them close. I wasn't a good
dancer and I had to train for two months, and I
think that I did this movie because, first, it
was a good chance to have a lead in another
language
and I wanted
to have that and make that step. I think that it
was important for me. Also, it was a chance to
do a movie about smart, young people. I don't
think that there's too many movies about
teenagers, or for teenagers, I mean, that they
don't do stereotypes, that they do real people,
and I kind of liked that. My character is a very
political guy and I hope that young people get
to be more political and more active about where
they live and how to change the reality that
they're living if they don't like it or at least
analyze where they are and my character is that
kind of guy and I liked that. I also liked the
bands that play in this movie. When I was
talking to one of the producers, I said to him,
'What's going to be the music? There's too much
Latin, pop crap on the radio. What's the music
for this movie? I'd love to have a listen.' He
said, 'Really? What about this song,' and he
played that song, and I said, 'You have that
song?' 'Yeah, of course, they're going to play
for the movie,' and so, it was a chance to do a
commercial movie with good music and good
people. The two producers, you see the movie
that they've done, one did 'Pulp Fiction' which
is one of my favorite movies and the other made
'Frida' and 'Girlfight' and so, it was a chance
to work with good people.
WM: The original
came out over 10 years ago. Did you watch it
then or more recently?
LUNA: Two weeks before.
WM: What were
your thoughts after seeing it?
LUNA: It's not the kind of
movie when you're eight years old. You want to
go see 'Star Wars' or a football match, or to a
soccer match, sorry, but you don't want to go
and see two people dancing. It's not what you're
looking for, but I had to see it, and it was
great. I saw the movie two weeks before we
started shooting and I'd already made my choices
about how my character was going to dance, who
he was going to be and so, that made my
character unique in a way. I wasn't thinking
about someone else's decisions. I made my own
decisions and then, I got to see that, and in a
way, it was a good because I didn't have the
other movie as a reference. I didn't say, 'Okay,
the character should do this or react this way.'
WM: Are you good
enough of a dancer to enter a ballroom and woo
the crowd?
LUNA: No, we knew the
dance as you see it and it's all the time us,
and yeah, you feel great, but then, you realize
that professional dancers are taking care of you
and making space for your mistakes. So, it was
nice. No, though, I'm not a dancer. I'm a one
routine dancer. I can do what you see in the
movie, but if you ask me to do something else,
it'd take me another two months.
WM: How was it
working with Romola Garai?
LUNA: It was great. We needed, I mean, I think
that everyone was really scared about the
chemistry between us because to dance you have
to really trust the other person. You have to.
It's not the same dancing by yourself and having
a partner. It's about communication between two
bodies and two bodies have to make one in a way.
So, that was the most important thing in the
movie and it happened. We went through the same
things; we watched ourselves the first time and
we said, 'Oh my God, this is never going to
happen,' and then, we started to see changes,
and we did everything together and it was great
because at the end, I guess we were a pain in
the ass. We thought that we were choreographers.
We were like, 'No, that move is not going to
work,' because we felt like we got there by
ourselves.
WM: You were
recently seen with Kevin Costner in "Open Range"
and now you are doing "Terminal" with Steven
Spielberg. Is Hollywood the place to be for you
now?
LUNA: The next movie is
going to be a Spanish speaking film. I don't
want to come and conquer American films or the
American market. I just want to do movies,
movies that I care about, stories that I like to
hear even if I wasn't in the movie. I didn't go
to university, and so, every time that I work,
I'm looking for a teacher in a way. I'm looking
for people that I can learn from and to have the
chance to work with people that I admire, and
it's been happening, but I want to always keep
going with my career in Spanish because it's my
first language and it's where I decided that I
wanted to be an actor, and I also want, there's
something that is really sad, but it happens;
before I did 'Y tu mama', I did sixteen movies
that no one went to see and then, suddenly, they
like your work outside of Mexico and then, you
become big in your country, and in a way, that's
really sad because it's like, 'Guys, all the
talent that you have here and you don't take
care of your own talent. You have to wait for
others to say, "Oh, that guys is good."' In a
way, it's also good because now, I can make
things happen in Mexico, projects that I like
and that I care about or directors that I want
to work with. I might have more of a chance to
make things happen and produce things. So,
that's good and I just want to do movies. I
don't know where. There are a lot of people that
I admire here, directors that I really want to
work with, but also in Spain and in England and
France and Mexico and South America.
WM: What's like working with Steven Spielberg?
LUNA: It was
great. He was great. He's so generous. If you
ask me to describe a good director, it's the guy
that is really clear about what he wants and
lets everyone know what he wants and what he
needs to tell the story that he wants to tell
because you're always just helping someone to
tell their stories. So, he's so clear about what
he wants and he goes straight for what he needs
and he lets you know what he needs and that's
great because you feel like part of the process.
He's amazing. It's great. I'm looking to learn
in movies and that was a perfect place. I would
love to just see them and watch them work. It
was great. You can tell how people on set are
all telling the same story, and that's
fantastic.
WM: What's your
role in "Terminal"?
LUNA: I play one of the
friends that he makes while he's in the
terminal, Tom Hanks. I work with food in the
terminal. I have a food cart, and I take food
from the kitchen to the people.
WM: What's your
role in "Terminal"?
LUNA: I play one of the
friends that he makes while he's in the
terminal, Tom Hanks. I work with food in the
terminal. I have a food cart, and I take food
from the kitchen to the people.
WM:
Your father is a famous set designer. Is he
proud of your work?
LUNA: [Laughs] Yeah. He
always says, 'Damn it, I chose the wrong
career.' It's weird, I admire him so much and he
admires me too, a lot, and it's a lovely thing
when you can share so much and yeah, we did a
play in homage of my mother who died when I was
two and he did the set design and I was acting
there, and we brought all her friends from all
over the world to do this play. It was great,
and I did another two plays with him. We were
really careful though. The first ten things I
did, he wasn't involved because then people
would say, 'Oh yeah, he opened the doors for
everything,' but not, we want to work together.
It's just weird because he does theater and
opera, and so, I remember when we were on tour,
he never got to travel in first class or
business class, and it's kind of sad that you
can be the biggest set designer in Latin America
and you still have to drive yourself, and you do
one movie that has a bit of success and everyone
treats you like a king. It's pathetic. It makes
me how stupid we are. We think that it's so
important and it's just movies, and that's it.
WM: Were you
conscious about your body and bulking up for
this movie?
LUNA: It's just that we
talked about having a real guy. I want to see
movies where I can relate to the guy. If I see
the Governor of California, I never relate to
his characters because I would never spend four
hours in the gym. I don't think that's human.
So, I wanted to do a real character which is a
guy who works at two different jobs a day and
uses his body for his work, but he doesn't go to
the gym and they allowed me to do that, and it
was great. I had to stand more straight which
was hard because I'm always like this. They
always think that I'm 5'6'' and I'm 5'10''. This
character is a bit straighter than me well, not
straighter [Laughs].
WM: How do you
think that your character would look back on his
decision to stay in Cuba?
LUNA: Oh, well, I just
think that revolutions always happen because
people need the change, but what they have now
is not what the revolution was fighting for.
They won a lot of things. It's amazing to see
how well educated they are. You're in the cab
and the cab driver will be a doctor or a
dentist, but it's also really sad to have a
dentist driving a car. So, it's a weird feeling.
For my character, I don't know if he'd be in or
out. The only thing that I love about Cuba, not
the only thing, but one of the things that I
love about Cubans is that no matter where they
live, they love their island and they think that
that island is the best place to live and
they're very political and they all have a point
of view. They're very political. All, even the
people in Miami, they talk about that everyday
and I just want to make clear that my character
wants a revolution and wants a change to happen.
I think that there's a difference between saying
Pro-Castro and Pro-revolutionary. Revolutions
happen because people w anted to take control of
their island and they wanted to enjoy their
island and I don't know if they can enjoy what
they have now. I've been there twice and you see
these amazing, beautiful people that want to
give so much and are so open and share
everything, and they have great things, and they
don't have what they deserve, I think. It's
weird what Cuba is now.
WM: How come
there aren't more Mexican filmmakers in Mexico?
LUNA: Because they tend to leave Mexican movies.
It's weird, you do a good movie and it takes you
another five years to make another one in Mexico
because suddenly, they make things really easy
here. Guillermo Del Toro, a good Mexican
director that did 'Blade', and he said once, I
read this, 'Spain is the best place to shoot a
movie. It's like paradise to shoot a movie.' It
was something like that. I'm not using his
words, but he said, 'Spain is the place to be a
filmmaker,' and it's really sad because here's a
Mexican guy that can't say that about his
country. It's like, it's sad, but that's
reality, and you have to keep going and you
can't be waiting over there. Nothing is going to
change until the government really understands
that culture has to be a necessity and not a
luxury as it is now, but that's not changing.
The party we just changed in Mexico, it was
after seventy years of one party and the power
we changed, and the reality is that it's the
same. They don't think that people have to know
things. They don't think that education is
important and that's the thing that when you go
to Cuba, you say, 'Wow, all of these people,
they read.' If you see how many people read a
book a year in Mexico, it's sad.
WM: Can you talk
about one of your upcoming films, Criminal?
LUNA: It's a con movie and
my character is a guy that lives in L.A., a
Mexican guy that lives there, and he's pulling a
con with the character that John C. Reilly
plays. It's a very fun movie and a very smart
script.
WM: Are you
afraid of being stereotyped in traditional Latin
roles for futures films?
LUNA: I'm always going to
be working on my English and I'm always going to
work on my English so that I can do different
characters from different nationalities. I think
that I see it as a problem. There are all the
American actors that are my age that can't do a
Latin accent and I can. So, it's not a problem,
it's great. Everyone is different, and so, I
don't want to repeat anyone else's career. I
want to do mine. If I have an accent now, and I
can work with that, I'm going to work because I
want to open my range of possibilities, but just
because I want to do that, I have to be proud of
what I am. And I am. |
