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Gael and Diego put on
Rudo y Cursi
Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna have changed roles. Not that they are thinking about making a sequel of their last film together. What’s happened is, on this occasion, Gael is the tough (rudo) one and Diego the corny (cursi) one.
TOUGH! SUPER TOUGH!
Neither sleeplessness, nor a hangover, nor clumsiness are so adverse for Gael, like the events that have swayed the national political scene and the always red-hot spirit of the veteran actor from Guadalajara.
“It seems as if we made (the movie) in another country, on another planet. It was incredible to be at the beach, we had a really good time and now… I’m very pissed off… with everything that’s happened,” the 30-year-old actor bursts.
Not even allowing himself the fond memory of filming Rudo y Cursi (2008) in idyllic Cihuatlán can contain his fury.
“I’m disgusted with the Mexican political system,” he mentions and reproves that in the country [Mexico] it is not possible to play as a team and society is seen as a mass devoid of historical memory. “Deservedly, we are all in the same court and now they want to convince us that there is a person who is not well of his mental aptitudes; being that he is an incredibly lucid being.”
The actor refers to the recent "slip" of ex President Miguel de la Madrid, who before the journalist Carmen Aristegui accused his successor, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, of being wrapped up in important acts of corruption, and then went back to alleging that he was not well in his mental faculties.
The impunity, corruption and Mexican drug politics are the “top of the list” in the combined topics that the actor recaptures in this interview about one of his most notable roles, that of a socially conscious young and publicly critical man.
Nevertheless, his disappointment is so great, that his position has become drastic on having imposed an auto-exclusion since he looks to contribute with his work to see things from a wider perspective and with certain distance.
“What I do is not see myself as a citizen of this country, but as one of the world,” he concludes.
THE ROADS OF LIFE
With Rudo y Cursi, Diego reaffirmed a constant in his life.
“I have worked with almost all of my friends. I know the people there that I keep company with today, and that is because in very intense work, very close relationships happen, where you end up knowing each other suddenly,” he affirms.
We think with his wife, Camila Sodi, who starred in El Búfalo de la Noche (2007), and with Gael who he has shared the stage with since they were young, like in the soap opera El Abuelo y Yo (1992).
“One ends up making his small group of people that you share. Your film family, or your theatre family, that accompanies you forever.”
And although this is a family by choice, the initial push that the 29-year-old actor received to go out on stage came from someone of the same blood, recognized theatrical designer, Alejandro Luna, his father.
ANOTHER TOUGH ONE, BUT WITH PIRATES
The story of Carlos Cuarón, as well as that of all directors, is an epic battle between good and evil, between legality and crime. His enemy to the death: piracy.
“Mexicans see piracy as something legal,” pronounces the director.
And although, clearly, he does not justify it, he tries to understand the phenomenon in its entire dimension.
“It is very complex because it commits a crime against the author, but the Mexicans who live off piracy are many, so it’s a double edged razor. On one hand, it feeds many families, illegally. And on the other hand, it is breaking the law and they hit the whole productive chain where it hurts most. This is the reality,” he finishes.
Translated by Heather |
