It is not entirely clear where Diego Luna (Mexico, 43 years old) lives. According to the biography provided by his agency, he lives in Spain. But he denies it. “No, I don’t live in Madrid, I’m in London. I would like to live in Madrid, right?” he says. “My life at the moment revolves between London and little Mexico.” But with your partner and their three children? where is your family “It’s more complex. Let’s say it’s about other people’s lives, and I’ll keep that to myself.”
It doesn’t matter where you live. Because the most important city for Diego Luna is currently Los Angeles, where his representatives are. Everything happens there, including this Zoom call from Madrid, which he answers in the car he takes back to London from filming Andor Season 2 (“What a treat to spend some time in Spanish, I needed it ‘ he comments laughing). The series of the Star Wars universe has made him what is called a Class A celebrity in the United States. A real star. “I think I realized the power of Star Wars when the first news broke that I would be the character in Rogue One, not even Andor. The morning dawned with television cameras outside my father’s house. They asked him how long I had liked Star Wars. And my dad said, “He’s never liked it!” And I said, “Gosh, that’s the scope of this project.” I haven’t even signed a contract yet, and those cameras you run away from go for my father in front of his house, they never bothered him there.’ Obviously this drives a sometimes exciting and sometimes very perverse machine. It is a project that aroused worldwide interest from the start. I had never felt that before. The best I’ve ever experienced in terms of scale was when I was working with Spielberg. [en La terminal, 2004] that resonates globally, but nothing compared to Andor.” How much has this project changed your life? “Dramatic,” he replies.
He’s been in London since November and still has three months of shooting ahead of him. Assuming it’s not extended by the writers’ strike that has resulted in Disney+ series showrunner Tony Gilroy having to quit. It’s the first break in the streaming era, and at the heart of the dispute is the amount authors receive each time a show, series or movie they’ve been a part of is watched. Considering that Luna is not only the protagonist in Andor, but also has her own money on the line because she’s an executive producer, what do you think of the strike? “This is the first time I’ve been asked that question, so let me think about it,” he says, thinking in silence for a few seconds. “I think it’s good. I mean, I hope there’s a quick solution, but you have to think about a lot of things. The world and this industry in particular is changing very quickly. And we have to reformulate the working conditions. You can’t work in anymore Thinking in cinema terms, I grew up thinking about films, stories that had a beginning and an end, that lasted two hours, that were set in a cinema, that had multiple tickets or not, and that later on on what is called a DVD remained that could be bought . . This world is over. Now it’s all in a cloud. And in that sense what writers are doing seems very, very commendable to me. I just hope they get a quick reply so this industry doesn’t end up being hit hard and for the change to happen so all the families that make a living from it can continue to do so, but upfront I always respect what it means for a guild to agree. How couldn’t Tony join in? Wouldn’t that be absurd? This series is about the uprising. About how oppression creates a civic and social awakening. It would be very contradictory if it were not so. NO?”.
Diego Luna wears sweater and jacket Etro.
Andor is the story of Cassian Andor, a Rebel Alliance spy who first appeared in Rogue One (2016), the story of how the Death Star plans were stolen. The film’s tragic ending was a rarity in a saga that has been at times infantilized since Disney bought the franchise. In 2018, it was announced that Andor, the character played by Luna, would have his own series narrating his life ahead of Rogue One. The first season was released in 2022. Surprise, the argument deepened the same way. For the first time, the rebels were not heavenly beings without an iota of evil. Here they smear with an almost fanatical determination. The message seems clear: revolutions, no matter how noble, are dirty. “If you’re willing to go all the way and sacrifice everything, it can romanticize the story, but we try to make it as realistic as possible. And it is impossible not to speak of obscurity, moral contradictions and constant mistakes. This is about: What do the others do when they realize they are wrong? We’ll have to wait until 2024 for the release of the second and final season to find out the answer.
Diego Dionisio Luna Alexander performed in Spain in 2001 when Y tu mamá también, a feature film by the then unknown Alfonso Cuarón, was released. The main roles were played by Maribel Verdú and two young actors who are now so united that they seem like two-headed beasts: Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna. It is practically impossible to say the name of one without following the name of the other. They are partners in the production company La Corriente del Golfo, but above all they are friends, almost brothers. They’ve literally known each other their entire lives: “There’s a story that I think sums it up: His father starred on the John Ford show It’s a Pity She’s a Puta, under Directed by Juan Jose Gurrola. My father designed the stage set. My mother took care of the wardrobe and Gael’s mother worked with her. Gael was born during rehearsals and I was born during the performance. It seems that a lot of what has happened to us is due to this. The truth is that it’s a job we could do together.” That sounds like a nice end to the cycle. “That’s why I don’t want to do it because it sounds like the end of the cycle,” he concludes, laughing.
The protagonist of “Andor” wears Prada pants and shirt and Alexander McQueen boots. Charlie Gray
His mother, the English artist Fiona Alexander, dies in a traffic accident when he is two years old, and Diego and his older sister María are raised by their father, the set designer and architect Alejandro Luna. Diego grows between scenarios. “I guess I said I was an actor at the age of six or seven with the certainty and certainty that a seven-year-old can have. At first I wanted to play what the adults were playing nearby. I wanted to be part of this ritual that my father participated in with so much seriousness. And suddenly I did it with my father’s full support. Whether it was an act of responsibility or irresponsibility is debatable, but he always left me. It would also have been contradictory if my father had told me, since I made my living from and in the theater, that I couldn’t do it. He had to go to school and in return he could devote the other half of the day to the theatre. Later came TV and movies and it made me a little dizzy. But I also started to get to know people, to feel part of a community and little by little I found my way. And I never stopped.
Here he wears a jacket, trousers and sneakers by Ami Paris and a shirt by Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello.
At the age of 12 he is a star of Mexican television. At 16 he dropped out of college and started his own business. A famous teenager who has money and lives alone initially seems like the perfect recipe for disaster. “Well, I took it very badly. Difficult years, I won’t say no. Between fame and this freedom and unbridled… but I never left my house. I didn’t live there anymore but I felt like I could go back and that gave me security. I think my father did the right thing because trying to stop me would have been disastrous. His father, who passed away in December, is a recurring name in conversation. “I am fortunate to have always had a very open relationship. He didn’t tell me what to do, he told me what he thought of what I wanted and that always helped me. I don’t want to say I didn’t push the envelope, but I always found a way back to safer ground. And I attribute it to my family and the family of the theater because it created protective nuclei that have greatly favored me. I had many mothers in my childhood and youth. My mother died when I was two years old. Many actresses, directors and women from the theater have taken on the task of looking after me, accompanying me and being present. They found my mother’s absence very personal. I think that saved me.
I would give a book to describe Diego Luna’s career since Y tu mamá también. In addition to his work as an actor for Spielberg, Van Sant, Korine and Soderbergh, he has produced; he has directed – his second film, Abel (2010), was an official selection at Cannes –; She starred in Narcos México for Netflix and has even starred in the show Pan y Circo, where she cooks while bringing people together to talk about complex issues like climate change, abortion, migration, democracy or racism. “It’s a similar exercise to journalism, but part of the total bias. I have not the slightest interest in appearing impartial, but rather in being attentive and curious about the opinions that conflict with my opinion and, in the best case, in learning. But I have very clear positions on all these issues. With my team, we first found the topic. And in that moment we decided to bring voices to the table that come from perspectives that you don’t necessarily share, always trying to keep toxic voices away as much as possible. But we seek the confrontation of ideas. Because in this polarized world we no longer have access to them. We live in this bubble that we create for ourselves through what we consume, through social networks and suddenly it seems like everyone thinks like us and it’s nice and interesting to go out into the world and realize that this is not the case.”
The Mexican actor wears sweater and jacket Etro.
In 2022 he starred in a monologue Every time we say goodbye better in Madrid and directed the series And everything will be fine on Amazon Prime Video, which appears to be about the same thing: the possibility or Impossibility of Romantic Love. “This is a subject that bothers me so much … At the age of two, I lost my mother, and then my father had endless relationships throughout his life, and that’s what I’ve had to go through.” Jumping from one to the other with him and constantly questioning what other family is to name. Which in my case had nothing to do with my classmates at school. The core didn’t mean the same thing. It couldn’t be described in the same way. There is also something very beautiful that happens, which is that in this world that sometimes seems to be moving too fast, there are also very beautiful examples of people finding new ways to love each other. Something I think is very important in what I do. In this storytelling, love is there, always there. And when suddenly there are these new shapes and these new structures, then I think it’s the right thing to think about.” What’s your favorite shape? “If there’s one thing I’m clear about, it’s that I don’t like it, I don’t find myself in loneliness. Definitive. I like what I have now. Now I’m very good in that sense. I am very happy and that makes me really happy.”
There’s one concept he repeats when he talks about directing, acting or producing: freedom. Have the freedom to do what you want. How free is he right now? “Now I really feel deeply free. Like never in life. I’m about to achieve a goal I set myself eight years ago [cuando firmó Rogue One] without even knowing it, but with full awareness makes five. And I see it. I retired from acting in August, stayed on as a producer for a year and that was it. This makes me feel very fulfilled and very free because my life is ahead of me, because I have a lot to do and because I have accumulated many interests over these years. The car has been standing still for a while. A message appears on the screen: “You have to get ready,” says Los Angeles.
Poster for the series “Andor” by Disney. Photo: Disney | Videos: Disney
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