The Mexican blockbuster Rudo y Cursi is the first film that Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal have costarred in since Y Tu Mama Tambien, the much acclaimed 2001 indie coming-of-age film that simultaneously put Mexican cinema on the Hollywood circuit and catapulted these childhood friends into stardom. The film also marks the first release by Cha Cha Cha Films, the production company founded by Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Amores Perros, Babel), and Alfonso Cuaron (Y Tu Mama Tambien). Not coincidentally, Rudo y Cursi is directed by Carlos Cuaron, Alfonso's brother. In the film, Garcia Bernal and Luna star as stepbrothers who quit their farm jobs to play professional soccer in Mexico City, where hilarity ensues. We recently talked to Luna -- who presents his new film tomorrow, along with Garcia Bernal, at a Museum of Moving Image-sponsored screening at the AMC Loews on 19th Steet -- about his experience making this rags-to-riches dramedy and the enduring, dynamic bond between him and his best friend.
Diego: [Laughs] I hate when... I would hate to think that way. Wait a second--my baby is eating the menu from the hotel.
Not good.
Diego: Uh no. So...
So you don't like that comparison?
Diego: No. In Mexico, you're always asked where
the other is, like if you're by yourself
then you are nothing. That happens a lot. Or
they believe that I know where he is all the
time and he knows where I am all the time.
And that I can have conversations that he's
had with someone else and the other way
around, like they see us as if we're twins,
like we're attached.
Gael does a
hysterical Spanish cover of Cheap
Trick's "I Want You To Want Me" in the film.
What song would you choose to cover?
Diego: Uh, whoa [laughs]. I wouldn't do that to
the audience. I think that would be very
disrespectful to the people, and I do care
about the audience.
Well, if you had to pick a song?
Diego: Ok, well, if I had to pick: "Sympathy For
The Devil" by the Rolling Stones.
Would you like to sing some of it now?
Diego:
No way. No, really I don't do that to my son
and he is eight months old. No way.
You and Gael play brothers who live in
a very remote village in Mexico. The Spanish
dialect has a very fast pronunciation. What
region did you base it out of?
Diego: Lets say we invented a little bit on the
accent. It's based on what happened in the
region, which is on the Pacific Coast, and
in the state of Jalisco. But the name of the
village in the movie, if you look on the
map, it doesn't exist. So we had the chance
to come up with the accent we wanted to do.
And we had to find one that was easy for
everyone. We had actors coming from all over
Mexico and people from the town. It's based
on the Coast with a little touch of the
north and we talked to some of the actors
from that area and they agreed that it
should sound like this or like that. So
yeah, based on Jalisco and Nayarit.
The title of the film is the nicknames
of the two characters. You're Rudo, meaning
tough, while Gael's name, Cursi, means
corny. They're real trashy sorts, country
boys. In Spanish, people would call them
nacos--tacky, new money guys.
Diego: I think naco is just about bad
taste. It's about no education. A naco
can be very rich. I would say there are a
lot of nacos that have a lot of
money. These guys come from a town that if
you compare them to anyone in the rest of
the town they are pretty normal. Like for
example, a naco is the one has the
little dancer that moves every time the car
moves. A naco is the one that has red
velvet instead of normal carpet. Rudo and
Cursi are not that--until they become rich,
anyway.
Fans of Y Tu Mama Tambien have
been waiting for you and Gael to be in
another film together for a while. What was
that pressure like?
Diego: I think the biggest pressure was the one
that came was from us, from the team, the
producer and director. Because when we
decided to do this film and go so far with
the characters, to play these guys that are
so far away from where we come from, I think
that was a big pressure. We could have gone
safer and played something closer to us. The
same with the film: we were working with a
first time director. It would have been
safer to go with a guy who has done plenty
of films.
But once we started shooting, the pressure became exactly the opposite. I enjoy so much working with him and it's amazing to work with someone that knows you that well. Whenever you need a little push or little help--we are there for each other. And that is something that cannot happen every time you work. I am not saying that I haven't worked with generous actors. What I am saying is that when it's your best friend, it's something special. Sometimes I was really so scared to play Rudo and I felt so far away from this guy and I would think I wasn't going to be able to make it, and if he was not there I probably would have quit. But just the feeling of him being there believing I could do it made me strong enough. And I know something similar happened to him.