Diego Luna, last generation Mexican

Diego Luna is a nice boy who adolescents see as attractive e and adults as clever. Success has not gone to his head. He usually has more drinks when he comes together with his actor friends, always older than him.

How did you begin being an actor? It is a long boring story, no?
Diego: Not so boring. Long, fortunately. I started as a kid. I was 6 years old and worked in a play called “De Película”. At that time I was going to be an actor all my life. But my mother died when I was 2 years old and the only way to share a little of my father’s world, who is a stage designer, was to go to the theatre with him. I never took the decision to be an actor. I saw myself above a stage and I believe that the decision consisted of not lowering me from there.

And when did you feel that you were really an actor?
Diego: Acting is a game that, as time goes by, begins to gain seriousness. And I think that I understood that in the work “The broken pitcher”. There a character was older than I was, that was demanding more things from me. When you are very young the only thing that they ask you to be is natural and that you say the lines well on stage, that you entertain yourself. But as you are growing the requirements are bigger. Equally, I would be lying to you if I said that there was a day when I got up and said to myself: “Today you are an actor.” Things happened in a more natural way…

Do you ever then feel the demanded opposite an actor with more experience, like Kevin Costner, for example?
Diego: Yes, I feel demanded of because if you don’t get your act together they use you like a rag. But I like playing tough. Besides, the actors that I admire are very generous and that is very important. In the movie Retes, for example, I met Héctor Alterio, who is one of the greatest actors in the world. And suddenly this gentleman, when he has you say your part, he sees and helps you. Carmen Maura was left to give you an answer to the end. I believe that generosity is a condition that makes good actors and when you lose it, you stop being an actor.

Did you wonder “Why me?” when you were conscience of growing up without a mom?
Diego: No. The truth is no. This was my condition and my infancy was like that. I am not complaining and my father was very close. Death is having to learn to live with holes; you do not cover them with anything. It is necessary to be able to live with our cracks, knowing, however, that those cracks, once they are opened, never close.

Where did you grow up?
Diego: I grew up in Coyoacán, which is like a small town. It was my turn to grow up in a period when it was still not very touristy. I used to live on El Callejón del Aguacate (Avocado Alley), where cars to no enter, in a rare house made by my dad. We always lived together like two bachelors… Well, it was always Irene, my nanny, who fulfilled all the work that the bachelor pair couldn’t do. I was spending time in school and when I left school, I went to the theatre. I loved going to the UNAM (National University of Mexico) rehearsals, for example.

It seems to be good to be a Mexican actor of the new generation...
Diego: Yes, you’re right. It touched on us at a good time. I believe that it departs from the good thing that is happening with Mexican cinema, the fact that the young people are doing it. If you see the latest commercial movies, they belong to very young directors. Two of them, also, are debuts: “Sex, Shame and Tears” by Antonio Serrano and “Love’s a Bitch” by Alejandro González Iñárritu, that, also, have a completely new casting. And all in a way in which we can presume, like in baseball, by a good batting percentage. We do very few movies, the thing is that we are leaving very well and are turning around. Once concept that it has changed is that we are starting to sell well. We already do not make movies to see them with our friends. We actors have started traveling to present the movies.

Do you have a lot of success with girls ... and not exactly because of your figure as a ladies’ man...
Diego: It seems to me that it is because in the movies I do, they see characters very similar to people on the street. Success consists of the fact that the public believes in your character. This character makes them feel things and provokes them. Often it provokes more things to see a character in his development that the entire calendar of a beauty. Now that thing about that the girls following me, I do not know if it is like that and I also don’t know why it would be. The truth is that I do not go to the gym; I do not dedicate time to my body. I try to exercise other parts of my being.

And you like giving autographs?
Diego: Now, that thing about giving autographs for life, the truth is that it would make me very boring. But yes, what I like is that your work generates something pretty in people. If you begin the chain so that your work generates a response, to receive this response in the form of signing an autograph is very agreeable.

And do you remember when you signed your first autograph?
Diego: Yes, when I was very young and doing “My Grandfather and Me”. In this period I loved signing autographs. I believe that I liked more than being employed at the work.
 

Your girlfriend is an actress?
Diego: No, what do you think? All actresses are crazy. Also, I have no girlfriend.

You avoid going to television unless they offer you interesting roles. Do you have anything against this medium?
Diego: Fortunately life has been giving me the opportunity to do characters who impose challenges on me. The actors I admire are from theatre and cinema. I believe that it is possible to do a worthy work in television. I’m not arguing that, but each time the pace that this medium imposes on you is more difficult. For me, I desire to always see myself doing theatre or cinema, that’s where you have more chance doing a handcrafted work.

Are you a good reader?
Diego: It would sound presumptuous to say that I am a good reader. I read enough on airplanes, of course.

And what music do you like?
Diego: I am quite easy to satisfy in this aspect. I like electronica and my parent’s music: Pink Flyd, Led Zepplelin… of course. I hate pop.

Was it difficult to do sex scenes in Y tu mamá también?
Diego: No, because we did not want to sell anything extraordinary. The scenes were natural and they had to do with the age of the character. What’s more, acting it is not to feel embarrassment because they see you like you are. So it was not difficult to me to undress either.

What does it mean today to be Mexican?
Diego: First I must tell to you that for me nationalism is sad. It is no that walk taking the flag (banner) for all sides to feel Mexican. Mexico is a very beautiful country of which I like the food, and especially the people who do not ask themselves what means to be Mexican. What I don’t like about Mexico is the badly distributed wealth. And in what it has to see with our cinema, I like the little solidarity that exists between us. The people of Mexican cinema live putting one foot in front of the other.

Translated from: http://www.mx.terra.com/estilos/interna/0,,OI807281-EI6059,00.html