“I am an actor because I like to tell lies on stage.”

March 2006

Mexican actor Diego Luna continues his assent with his career. On Saturday, the 25th of March, he came to Guadalajara to present his 21^st performance in national cinema: Sólo Dios sabe and he spoke with MagazineMX on his plans, opinions and development.

“If not for Y tu mamá también, my career would not have taken the courses I have now,” mentioned the young actor. Diego on having spoken about chances, luck and things of the future, subjects that touch his most recent performance in Latin cinema, the movie Sólo Dios sabe,  the same in which he plays along side Brazilian actress Alice Braga and under the direction of film maker Carlos Bolado.

In the lounge of the hotel in which he is staying, he sat in a chair. With feet widespread and restless body movement, he responded to each question, even those that don’t matter to him but that he wants to answer to give his opinion. He chats about the reasons he became an actor.

Although he should be more than acquainted with the flash and the accommodating pleas of photographers, this time he decided that none of them should enter the room, using his companions as an excuse, a little time that the actor had. Nevertheless, it can be said that he is kind in his manner. When he speaks, he seems to forget those that surround him, be it the person who handles his public relations or the girl who coordinates the interview. He does not stop looking at the clock in order to control the time of interview.

“It’s true that I grew up in a theatrical environment, because of my father (set designer Alejandro Luna), but it wasn’t until my adolescence that I decided to take it seriously. Let's say that I am an performer because I love the idea of going out on stage or on the screen telling an interesting lie that can be received well by the public,” he explains with anxious hands that he sometimes hides in the pockets of his coat or in his trousers, and he constantly takes them to his mouth while he listens to the questions.

About his 21^st movie of his filmography, in which he also takes part as executive producer, he mentions that he decided to accept it not only for the desires of working next to Carlos Bolado, but also for the interest that the story of the two young people generated. They meet each other because of a supposed coincidence of life or so-called destiny, in a city that they don’t live in, since both are passing through.

In the plot, the loss of the girl’s passport generates the meeting and coexistence of both characters, which discover similarities in their life stories. She is atheistic, he is mystical and in the drama of their romance they will have to mature more than what they think they can bear.

“I like the story because it speaks about the return to faith, death, laying down roots, of desires to want to know where you come from, to risk deciding what you want to do with your life, what path to take and with whom to walk,” he expresses.

“I believe that the lives of all of us are something like that, to go and come from faith, because we all believe in something. We need to place our love, needs and hopes in a belief. On the other hand, there are humans that leave a trace (sign). I do not believe that thing about that “a new worry helps take your mind off the old one”. Rather I believe that each one leaves a hole in our heart and person, so that we are a collection of small hole, made by each of the people that marked our life,” he adds. He met director Carlos Bolado many years ago. He knew him in the cinematographic world, but it was not until 1999, in Guadalajara precisely during the course of the so-called Trade Fair of Mexican Cinema, that both sat down to chat and drink more than one beer, ending with the promise to make something together at the first opportunity.

“I remember that three years ago Carlos' co-producer called to tell me that he wanted to do a new movie and he wanted me for the lead role. I told him that I would love to and would wait for the script to read immediately. But then something more entertaining and special happened, he confessed to me that there was no text; that Carlos only wanted to know if I was interested in being his actor, to sit down to write me a character,” he mentions smiling.

Mexican cinema is a topic that makes him move his body from the support of the chair to get closer to the interviewer, to place his elbows on his legs and to be able to say, “I’m always going to do Mexican movies, because I am from here. I belong to this country. I was born, grew up and fell in love here the first, second and tenth time. I had sex here the first time. I met my best friends here. I chose to be an actor in this place. In the end, I have a thousand reasons to be before the camera of national cinema all the time possible. Also, we have great talent here.”

To go filming in other countries like Spain where he filmed Soldadso de Salamina in 2001 or the United States, where he already earned a name with titles like Open Range, Havana Nights and Criminal.  It is also attractive to him because “it allows me to have an outlet to my curiosity, I am a very observant man. I love walking down the street and more than knowing people, to look at them; to understand something about them, to make use of it the first opportunity that it’s called on me to reinterpret it in a theatre, movie or TV scene,” he points out.

And he is not equivocal when he listens to what they say. His eyes have sufficient time to see the notebook and eyes of the reporter while he takes the glass with water that they have brought over and sometimes he cannot avoid smiling if the question has provoked a bit of nostalgia. But his features harden when it is a question of a topic of opinion or that has to do with this future plans; such is the case of his desire to increasingly get evolved in the trades of cinema. “For me it’s clear that I love movies and at the same time that I enjoy taking characters. Also, I very much want to get into production and in time into directing,” he points out.

In his opinion, producing allows you to ensure that a story takes its course towards the big screen. “I do not believe in the author's cinema. I believe in cinema that occasionally can be done by people that also write it; that film is done by a head (leader) and many arms “so-called actors, photographer, illuminator, among others,” he explains.

His work agenda includes the efforts that the producing house Canana needs, of which he is proprietary together with his friend and partner Gael García Bernal. The same that at the beginning of this year promoted a tour of shorts (short films) in the most noteworthy cities of the country [Mexico].

For what is left of the year, there is contemplation of his participation in the Mexican film Amapola (Poppy), written by Vicente Leñero and directed by Luis Mandoki. In addition to the movie Toto, in which he’ll return with García Bernal, under the direction of Carlos Cuarón. And the English work Fade to Black, that’s already in the post-production stage.

Translated from: http://www.buscajalisco.com/bj/bjfiles_archivo/diego/diego.htm

12 September 2006

In cinema Diego Luna has been a hacker, a cowboy, a vampire hunter, a “charolastra” and a dancer. This weekend he will appear as a journalist in the film Sólo Dios Sabe (Only God Knows) by Carlos Bolado and in a few more months we will see him in the shoes of Michael Jackson in the film Mister Lonely, for which he learned some steps of the so-called “king of pop”.

“Being Michael Jackson the whole day is not so easy... It was very exciting for the whole process of characterization. It is a movie that is a little schizophrenic because I, me the actor, play a guy that does not want to be himself and wants to be another person. And the character that he chooses (Jackson) is a guy that does not want to be himself and wants to be another person, and he shuts himself up in a strange world and wants to live like a child throughout his whole life,” Diego explained with humor.

The film, shot this summer in Paris, France, will also have other celebrity appearances like Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton), Charlie Chaplin (Denis Lavat), James Dean (Josheph Morgan) and film maker Werner Herzog (" Aguirre, God's anger ").

Besides the premiere of Sólo Dios Sabe, in which he is also the producer, Diego perfects the last details of his documentary on Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez.

Q: What is Mister Lonely about, the movie by Harmony Korine that you have just filmed in Europe?

Diego: It’s about the story of a Michael Jackson impersonator. It is one of the craziest scripts that I’ve done. It’s very entertaining and is a nice story. Basically it tackles the love between two impersonators, one of Michael Jackson who lives in Paris, he does nothing well, and one day meets a Marilyn Monroe impersonator who convinces him to go live in a commune in where only impersonators live. He takes the trip with her and comes to a wonderful world where they all share the same need to want to be another person.”

Q: You had to put yourself in Michael Jackson’s shoes?

Diego: Yes, I got to. I took to the dance and learned the steps and all that. It was very intense. One does not try to be Michael Jackson, only an imitator. That is to say, a guy that does not want to be the same. It was not a question of being as good as Jackson, because my character is a guy that has no job or money.

Q: What was the most interesting thing about the experience (the filming)?
Diego: To work with really cool people. Werner Herzong acts, Samantha Morton who I believe is the best English actress, and French actor Benny Lavant. It’s a small, low budget movie, but with really good people.

Q: In Sólo Dios Sabe you play a journalist. How did you prepare this character?
Diego: Damián is a person very near to Carlos Bolado. And I was inspired by Carlos Puig (emerging journalist from Proceso), not of now, but in his earlier stories. That is to say, a guy that’s not sure what he wants to do in his life, but has a need of knowledge and this is what it takes for journalism. He’s a guy that is capable of driving to Tijuana in a depression, from perhaps where can come his best piece, his best writing.

Q: In the movie there are topics that touch you deeply?
Diego: Yes indeed, like the loss of the mother; the idea that orphans go through life looking for family. I share that very much and that's why I devote myself to what I devote myself to.

Q: Do you look much like Damián's character?
Diego: There are things that I understand very well. People believe that it is easier when you interpret yourself, but when it feels so personal and deep for you, sometimes you have a mental block and that happened during the shooting, because I am speaking about personal topics. I met Carlos Bolado long ago in the Guadalajara Festival and we chatted a lot about our things. We found many similarities in our stories. And one day Yissel Ibarra, his producer, said to me that Carlos was writing a script and wanted to known if I wanted to do it, for he was writing it with me in mind. It was a little strange, but it was not very difficult for me to say yes and hence it was put together.

Q: There are two very important topics that the film touches on; the first one is abortion...
Diego: Abortion should be a topic that we talk about more. And that should also be legislated to protect violated women. It is a very delicate subject and I believe what my character says: it does not matter what we decide, the only important thing is that we decide together. There must be a law that protects mothers who are not ready; that cannot have a child; that must not have a child; to violated mothers. I believe that legally there should be the option for many cases where abortion should be legal.

Donde Ir (Where To Go) Magazine

April 2006

I am Diego ~ Diego Luna Increasing (Developing)

The actor discusses his new film roll as a journalist in his new movie. About learning ways of acting as diverse as cinema, theater and television and the characteristics of a great work.

Diego Luna Alexander is an actor who learned the love to the acting profession on stage. From childhood he shared the world of drama with his parents, and with time this experience helped him appear on television and further on in cinema. In this latter setting he met an important person who marked his life decisively: Alfonso Cuarón. Diego speaks to us briefly about his learning to act and about his new cinema work in Sólo Dios sabe (Only God Knows), the film directed by Carlos Bolado.

Is it difficult to play a Mexican journalist?

Diego: As a matter of fact, I am going to the put the name of your profession in a high place. No, it’s not difficult. There is no difference with any other character. It is to understand a profession, to find the reason of the person. Damián is a reporter who is beginning; he goes to Tijuana to carry out a report. He’s a guy that loves driving in highway and to travel around his country. It fascinates him to take photos and write about these trips. He is a guy that’s very curious about life. I believe that it is a very important quality for people that do journalism, to never loose curiosity.

How was the construction of the character?

Diego: Damián looks like many people that I know. In fact, he is very much like our director. Carlos Bolado, only you can’t tell him, it is a secret, although he will have found out already. In this precise moment of life, the guy is losing faith. He’s an individual who knows that love is the most important thing, very centered in this sense, someone adorable who commits many mistakes.

What were your reasons for accepting the character?

Diego: I took the role for several reasons. The first is the admiration of Carlos and because when I saw Bajo California and Promises so much, his two movies, I enjoyed them very much. They stayed in my head a long time. That’s the main reason. And the second for the rhetoric of the movie, it has a lot to do with me. Especially for a subject that is very important, in the movie it talks about a brotherhood (association) of orphans. And this is a subject that comes to me and sticks to me very much. It is a film where I share many concepts with Bolado.

What are you left with at the end of the movie?

Diego: With the wonderful journey that we made for Mexico and Brazil, the pleasure of working with many people that I like and admire. And the pride of having a movie ready to show.

Of the actors you collaborate with, what can you tell us?

Diego: The cast is solid and I met several Brazilian actors who impressed me with their work.

And of Alice Braga?

Diego: I am grateful having worked with her. The truth is the public will go away pleasantly surprised with her work. She’s a bad-ass!

You have acted in cinema, theater and television. Where do you come across best?

Diego: They are so different from each other, they are incomparable. Perhaps where I have liked it least, along my career, is in television. There you have less time, as an actor, to develop your character, to prepare yourself, to achieve a work more handmade. This does not want to say that it should not be possible to do good television. This is not to want to say that one cannot make good television. There are some attempts to make it. In theater and cinema the process is more organic. It is the process for which I go. To have to choose between theater and cinema would be like choosing between the salty thing and the sweet thing.

What learnings have performance in theater and in cinema left you?

Diego: In theater, the affection and love for what I do. I was in theater since I was a child, my dad devotes himself to that, and half my life, when finishing school, was to be in a theatrical enclosure. It was there that I decided to do this, but there I also set out that wanted to do many things. There I grew, I owe it very much. Besides, as an actor, it is the best place to practice. In Mexico one cannot count on a school of acting in cinema, all that want to do cinema had to start in theater. There are some exceptions. I believe that the stage and the experience you take in the theater. The cinema gives you much less opportunity.

To cinema, what do you owe to it?

Diego: Cinema is much trickier. In theater you are standing in front of the public, you depend on text, light and someone opposite you that listens and sees you. In cinema there are many more elements. Cinema is more than one specific point of view, it is a story that only one person tells. There it is the director. One becomes a tool so that he can extract his story. It is the point of view of this eye, with the personality of the director. Hence, an assembly is created to help him. In cinema there is a boss. Well, in good cinema there is a boss.

What directors have left you an education?

Diego: It is going to sound pretentious, but I try to learn from everyone that I work with. Everyone can grab hold of something. There are directors that I admire very much, and that has to do with the project and the process that they take. Undoubtedly, working with Alfonso Cuarón has been something which marked me more in all respects. Therefore, he, as a person and as a director, he is someone that is going to always be there.

What are your plans for the future?

Diego: First, to be happy. Next, to be able to keep on working with the people that I admire. To speak seriously with the Pumas’ board of directors to sort out some contracts and structural problems of my team. [Pumas de UNAM – a Mexico City soccer team.]

PROJECTS

Sólo Dios sabe (Only God knows)

Director: Carlos Bolado

Cast: Diego Luna, Alice Braga, Damián Alcázar

The paths of a Brazilian student named Dolores and Mexican journalist who answers to the Damián name, cross in the border town of Tijuana. Dolores, on her way to San Diego, loses her passport, for which she will have to travel to Mexico City to obtain another. In this trip her new friend Damián accompanies her, in whom she will find an almost magic relationship. Behind this dream there will be several obstacles.

Origin: Brazil – Mexico

Fade to Black

Director: Oliver Parker

Cast: Danny Houston, Paz Vega, Diego Luna, Christopher Walken

In order to recover from his divorce with actress Rita Hayworth, director Orson Wells travels to Italy, where he will be surrounded by a series of intrigues and murders.

Amapola (Poppy)

Director: Luis Mandoki

Cast: Daniel Giméz Cacho, Diego Luna

Written by Vicente Leñero, it is based on a true story that deals with the topic of friendship, ambition and the loyalty of two friends that devoted themselves to organize the cultivation of the poppy to provide morphine to American soldiers during the Second World War. The actions of both will have repercussions in the future and in the life of anti-drug agent, Saúl Garza, who investigates an organization of drug traffickers in San Diego.

Toto

Director: Carlos Cuarón

Cast: Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal

Film debut of scriptwriter Carlos Cuarón; a drama on of the world of the professional football (soccer).

Reforma newspaper ~ Mexico     August 2006

Paola & Diego are in Paris

For the actress known as the character Barbie Bazterrica, this trip to Europe is a test of fire to find out if her relationship with the acclaimed young gentleman works or not.

The recent romance between Paola Núñez y Diego Luna has had the distance factor against it, since they hardly had a one month relationship when he had to go away to Ireland and later Paris to shoot the film Mister Lonely, in which he plays Michael Jackson.

Nevertheless, the separation did not prevent the couple from continuing to stay in contact. “We were talking daily, but the cellular bills were getting to high. In fact they cut off my service like four times, so we decided send little messages and only call each other in the morning and at night,” Paola comments.

That’s that, eager to see Diego and tired of arduous months of recording of the popular TVAzteca soap opera Love in Custody, Paola packed her things and flew to Paris to catch up to her love, ready to spend a few romantic vacation days.

She was just in the Charles de Gaulle airport in the city of Light when we picked up lover Diego. Like a complete gentleman, he went to welcome her with a bouquet of flowers. Pavillon de la Reine, a small hotel situated in the north of Paris, was the ideal setting to begin the adventure.

In total they stayed about four days in the French capitol. Diego even had to record scenes, as he was working, Paola crossed the street and went shopping.

Also for the protagonist of the soap opera, this experience has a very special meaning: it is her first time to the old continent and “the test of fire to find out if (Diego and I) work as a couple or not. According to a book that she buys, trips of this type are very good to define if you are compatible with the person that you travel with.”

To this is added the surprise factor, since the young woman from Tecate, Baja California, did not know the places to which she would go; Diego would be their tour guide. The only thing she knew was that they would visit Italy and Spain too.

PAOLA NÚÑEZ OPEN TO LOVE

Before traveling to the old continent, the Baja Californian beauty told us he (Diego) is her boyfriend and clarified that she is not ready to be “one more on his list.”

Days before Paola leaves for Europe, we drink a coffee with her to have lively chat that reveals to us the particulars of her relationship with one of the most quoted bachelors.

To begin, one notices that she is excited. When she talks about Diego Luna her eyes light up and she cannot avoid blushing. They met during the casting of the movie The Night Buffalo. “Since we met, there was a very special click between us. We spent time during the movie rehearsals at his house,” Paola remembers.

The work commitments of both caused them to not see each other for a time, though they met again at a party, from then they began to go out.
 
The Caffine Bar in Condesa and the Depeche Mode concert in Mexico were witnesses of the new romance. Paola comments, “Several times we went out with his friends, we went as a couple. For him, friends are fundamental.” Although she admitted that she has not even had the opportunity to meet Gael.

The Baja-California actress says that her boyfriend is a romantic and a perfectionist. He is an ‘old fashioned’ guy. He asked me if I was his girlfriend twice. The first when we were going in his Porsche, the second days later at his house. I had my reservations in respect to him, he was not putting trust in me."

And she continues, “On several occasions Diego came to TvAzteca to visit me and stayed in my dressing room waiting for me, or on the stage seeing my scenes until I was finished. Then he accompanied me to my apartment. He could not believe that I would not let him enter. But the detail that kills me was one day, because of my allergy to mites, I cleaned his whole house. I changed the carpet and even bought a comforter.”

EVERYTHING OPPOSITE TO BARBIE BAZTERRICA

Paola describes herself as (cero fresca?), not very malicious, jealous, slightly irritable, a perfectionist, passionate, that does not support mediocrity.

Her ideal man “does not have to make me feel that I depend on him. He has to give me the opportunity to be independent and understand that we are two individuals with the same rights, that I am not his little trophy. He cannot be a male chauvinist.” She prefers them intelligent, with teeth and nice lips, thin, dark skinned and with brown eyes.

 
On marriage and having children she thinks that although her parents (Silvia Rivas y Héctor Núñez, owners of a newspaper distributor) are very catholic, she does not know if she wants to marry and much less to do it in a church. “I see myself with children, but I don’t know when. For now I’m not looking for such a formal relationship.”

What’s odd is that it seems her family has still not met Diego in person, and neither she his dad. “My mom called me twice, first when she saw him in the movie The Terminal and later in Y tu mamá también and she was scared by the scenes.”

Before Diego, Paola had a relationship with German Svenn Stephany, whom she met on the carmen beach. For his part, the actor (Diego) has been linked with Alice Cepeda, Tatiana Ortiz Monasterio and Alice Braga. However it seems that he is serious, since in general he was trying to keep his romances far from the spotlights. This time it has not mattered for him to be seen in public with his girlfriend in an affectionate manner.

When we say goodbye to Paola Núñez, we are left with the image of a woman with firm decisions and strong character that is professionally starting to enjoy the sweetness of fame. The sentimental one is sure to feel very happy. “And although the distance has not helped us, I think Diego and I are going down a good path. I believe that’s because we are in the “falling in love” stage, where everything is a pink color. I hope that in a few months, when we return from our vacation in Europe, I can say the same thing.”
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http://community.livejournal.com/diegolunaloco/

GATOPARDO Magazine

October 2003

Diego Luna’s Goals

In Mexico the press pursues him everywhere, scripts from film directors of the whole continent accumulate on his desk and some of the heavyweights of Hollywood – among them Steven Soderbergh, Spielberg and Kevin Costner – want him in their movies. He, nevertheless, keeps on being the old friend of his friends and says that to live well, one only need eat, a girlfriend, work and football (soccer). One Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles, he works a couple of months, Diego Luna was alone in his apartment. It was not a good day; some news of personal nature had him sad. He did not want to see anybody. He was on the verge of not answering the call in which his agent informed him that Steven Spielberg was interested in making him an offer for his next movie.

 “This is my life lately. When I feel things are not fine, when I am sad, something happens. And everything that has happened, up to now, is very good.”

It is true that a little magic is happening in the life of the actor. In the last two years he has been employed in five American movies with the most powerful names of the industry: Kevin Costner, Steven Soderbergh, Lawrence Bender and now Steven Spielberg. They all have put their eye on the actor of Y tu mama también.

American magazines say that he is the young actor to follow in the next year. His stock on the Hollywood Stock Exchange has doubled its value in the last six months. Scripts are piled up on his table and a day does not go by without a new work proposal. In the 2003 San Sebastian film festival Luna had to be everywhere at once. He presented three movies: the Mexican Nicotina, the American Open Range and the Spanish Soldados de Salamina.

Country by country and movie by movie, the Mexican actor of fashion has an agent for each country, a lawyer, a business manager and a publicist, but he does not have a house. In his hotel room boxes are accumulated with his clothes, scripts, books and movies. “Why would I furnish a house?” says Luna. “I have a couple of years in which I cannot plan anything. It’s entertaining and complicated. My home for the time being is the movie sets where I work.”

In the first week of September, in the international news agencies reported from the voice of several producers that Mexican actor Diego Luna would be employed in three Latin-American movies in 2004. Nobody saw that the three would be filmed on the same dates and even in different countries.

The last night of this week I sat down with Diego in Mexico City to finish this report that I had begun one month earlier in Los Angeles, California. Nothing was certain, he said to me laughing. In fact, he told me that the movie in Spanish that he wanted to do next year, by Mexican director Carlos Bolado, Only God Knows, was short of money and that he was looking for financing. And that before coming to Mexico he had chatted with Terence Mallick, who wants to film next year.

Earlier, he said, he had gotten angry. But now he understands that for reasons even he can’t explain, his name next to some project gives him better possibilities of financing. “If I can help in something, I help.” The curious thing is that everything has to do more with resources up until the day it is seen on the screen. Although he has filmed five movies since Y tu mama también, none have yet made a début on Latin-American screens.

In Mexico the press follows him all over. The gossip magazines publish the menu of what he ate and the number of beers he drank. Paparazzi were on guard outside his hotel for days. “The only thing I miss of my past life,” Diego says, “is the anonymity.”

What could happen next year when the movies are released, he does not even want to imagine. “I only know that I will work in the movies that I decide. That’s enough for me. Look, in life we need to eat, a girlfriend, to work and football.” Not any more: in one of the interview sessions Diego made me accompany him to buy new shin guards. On the following day he was making a debut on a Mexican team in Los Angeles. He was as nervous as before filming a movie. Half of the interview he was revising his strategies mentally. He had to be generous on the field, he said, to play for the team, “so that they invite me to come back.” He was happy with 10 minutes. “To score a goal?” I asked him. “This would be like the Oscar.” The following day the criticism was not all right. There was no goal, but he had played the whole the game.  He had made a couple good passes, but he’d lost some balls. The worst thing was that his agent had just called and it was likely that because of work commitments, outside of Los Angeles, he might not play the next three Sundays. “You see? I cannot plan anything.”

Many years have passed since a seven-year-old small and chubby child trod for the first time on the theatrical scenarios of Mexico, pushed by his father, the most prestigious Mexican theatrical designer and art director, Alejandro Luna. And even more from the time in which his mother, the painter and wardrobe designer Fiona Alexander, would take baby Diego in her arms to the theaters where she was working.

His mother died in an accident before Diego was two years old. “My dad had to play mother and father. To a great degree I knew acting and theater because my dad was taking me all over. It was not easy for those he left me with.” For years Diego did not cry for his mother. “In that I am a little rare,” he says. “It is very difficult to miss her because the truth is that I do not remember her. I did not have the experience of a mother. I had a dad who fulfilled all rolls. If I cried a little, and sometimes up to now, it was seeing how my father’s life was determined. That does not take away that I am a normal person and deal with people that have a mother. I understand how important a mother is for any person. But I cannot miss her because I do not know what I lack.”

At the age of eleven Diego was already in the National Theatre Company. He says he never had doubts about what he wanted to do. In his house he met playwrights, actors, actresses. It was his life. His theatrical experience took him to television. They invited him to Televisa to do soap operas.

His daily routine was going from school to the television set. There he constructed a parallel family that up to today he continues maintaining. “In addition to my dad, the most important thing in my life is my friends. The hardest thing of having spent this year and a half way away from Mexico is not seeing them, and now, to realize that they go on there. I have to be very careful (attentive) with the people that I love because I have realized now that they are there. And that if one goes on talking about someone, you bore people. It is very pretty to come and to see how everyone’s lives go, and that they have lives and do things. And what is important is to share it. The biggest risk of this that is happening to me is the temptation to surround yourself with people that just flatter you. It seems horrible to me. Fortunately these weeks that I have been in Mexico, none of my friends have asked me about Spielberg.

The fact is that Luna is only happy on the set and among his friends. The majority of them are actors that he has known in his long career. Everyone I spoke with has only affectionate words towards Diego. There is no single phrase of envy or mistrust.

When Luna speaks with someone he does not avoid the look (direct eye contact). In the days that I spent next to him there was no request that he would not deal with or question that he would not answer. The waiter that asks for his autograph, the young student who asks him for advice, the executive who wants him for a movie or the photographer who has him pose for two hours. They all end up pleased with Luna’s smile, with his hug. Diego likes embracing his friends. When Alfonso Cuarón invited him to Y tu mama también, Luna was not only a soap opera star. He had in his curriculum of a dozen of Mexican movies and about 20 works of theatre.

“Luck and work is the formula. More the second thing than the first,” says the actor. Impelled by Cuarón, Luna began to travel to Los Angeles, paid for with his money and sometimes accompanied by Gael García Bernal. “We were coming to the Standard [hotel] on Sunset Boulevard. There we were running into many like ourselves; foreigners with desire to act here. We were laughing saying that it was the hotel of hopeful actors with rare accents.” In the US his only work had been seen in a small role in Frida by Salma Hayek.

At the same time, with Jesús Ochoa and other actors he formed a small theatre company in Mexico and presented The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), a comedy that takes 700 performances, an unusual event in Mexican theatre.

Diego was traveling often to Los Angeles, but his first intention had been to test luck in other countries. He continues to believe that Spain and Latin America are the natural market for Spanish speaking actors. “That's why it is so important to try to create an industry where we all could work.” In Spain he did a role in Soldiers of Salamina, by David Trueba, based on the successful novel by Javier Cercas.

Between trip and trip, in Mexico they offered him a script that he loved: Nicotina, which is released in Mexico and Argentina in October. Directed by Hugo Rodríguez, Nicotina is a thriller in tone of comedy in the one that acts with Jesús Ochoa, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Lucas Crespi, Carmen Madrid and Rafael Inclán among others. Nicotina was selected for the festivals of Toronto and San Sebastian.

“What I loved about Nicotina was that for the first time they offered me a character that was not like me. For the first time the character description did not say: a young man that still has an innocent face, with a good family, nice, rather shy. Here there was a chubby guy with glasses that was his time in front of a computer. For years I have not been fat, I do not wear glasses and I am not very skillful on the computer… an antihero. A guy that is difficult for you to like. It was my opportunity to do a different character. Here, in Los Angeles, that has not happened to me yet. They offer me characters that look like me.” After working under the orders of Costner, and making Nicotina in Mexico, the opportunity that will put him in the mind of the American spectators came to him: Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.

Under the orders of Lawrence Bender, producer of Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting, to mention some, and directed by Guy Ferland, Havana Nights tells the story of a young American girl, played by Romola Garai, that comes to Havana in the 50’s and the delight of the musical Caribbean culture, especially dancing. Of course, she falls in love with the best dancer of the island, Javier Suerez, that is to say Diego Luna. The trailers of the movie are already in American cinemas and it is the biggest release of Miramax-Artisan by the beginning of next year.

Filmed in Puerto Rico, Luna spent a month and a half just rehearsing. “They were weeks in which the only thing that we did, Romola and me, was dance.” Diego also learned what it is to make a studio movie, while those who take the decisions are in an office kilometers away. “It was very hard. I came from doing small movies and this was enormous. But to work with Romola was a luxury, I would pay to do it again.”

Luna also gave steps to turn into a popular figure. He was chosen as the presenter, together with Mario Pergollini, of the MTV Latin Awards and appeared in an advertising campaign in the United States for GAP. Furthermore, he turned to seeing other businesses. He invested in a new restaurant in Mexico City and is an associate of Naco, a clothing brand, particularly T-shirts. Diego, their major promoter, wears them everyday.

This business spirit is explained, according to the actor, for the need to be provided with money to be able to have control on the artistic projects that he does. “Why is all this of use to me?” he wonders. “To be able to decide what movie I do and what movie I don’t do. To be able to sit down at a table with a Mexican, Argentine or Colombian producer and collaborate on the fundamental decisions. Here in Los Angeles I have learned that a movie is much more than weeks of filming. Your work in a movie concludes when the DVD goes out. In many movies the errors are from the mixing desk. They did not happen in the shooting. There are many movies that lack planning or money and things in which perhaps now I can help: the money so that a scriptwriter spends two more months writing, to be able to have two weeks of rehearsals, so that nobody has to do a commercial in the middle of filming. That costs money.”

And Diego is sure that millions are not needed. He gives as an example the last movie that he filmed in the United States. Criminal is a remake of the successful Argentine movie Nine Queens. Steven Soderbergh bought the rights of the script from Fabian Belinsky, re-wrote it and produced it with the direction of Gregory Jacobs, his associate and assistant director for the past years.

Luna costars next to John C. Reily and Maggie Gyllenhall. “We rehearsed two weeks and filmed it in six and a half, like a Mexican movie. The difference is that we all were concentrated and committed on only the movie. Even the driver who picked me up in the mornings had read the script and knew what we were going to do that day. This is what we have to achieve.

The first day that I saw Diego Luna for this article, he had just finished Criminal. Soderbergh and Jacobs asked him not to see Nine Queens until the end of filming. This day, I accompanied him to buy the DVD and we saw it together in his hotel room. Luna plays the role that Gastón did in Argentina. Luna praised and analyzed each decision of the Argentine actor and was grateful not to have seen it before. “My character’s decisions were different and if I had seen it, it would have been very tough for me. I do not know if I did it better or worse, because he does it very well. But I made it different, that gives me peace.”

In October Luna will face the biggest challenge of his career. The news that he will work with Spielberg occupied the front pages in Mexico. Terminal, with Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta Jones, is the story of a Central European immigrant, that when he arrives to the New York airport finds out that his country has just disappeared due to a civil war. Without having anywhere to go, he makes the air terminal his home, and those who work there, his family. Diego says that he is not nervous but anxious. “Since the deal was clinched the only thing I think about is to have time to prepare myself and film already.”

- How much does the name Spielberg influence you?

Diego: “I am making use of all this to learn. Javier Bardem was my idol many years ago, but when I saw him working in Before Night Falls, I was left with my mouth open for weeks. The same thing happened to me with Robert Duvall. The big actors and directors are those who take risks; that never make themselves comfortable. I am an instrument of the director, one of his tools. Does the name influence me? Yes, clearly. But in the sense of working with the big one; learning and hoping to take risks with him.

- Has it been very difficult for you to come here?

Diego: “It is not that I was saying: I want to go to Hollywood. I believe that what one thinks is: I want to do things that I like, in conditions that I like. One goes to the cinema one day and sees The Big Lebowski and says I hope some day to work with the Coens. One sees Magnolia or Boggie Nights and says I would love working for Paul Thomas Anderson. This opportunity is here, to make movies with people you respect. Sometimes I think that in Mexico we are too close to the United States and that has screwed us in so many ways.

- For example?
Diego: “In that we automatically denied the possibility of coming to the United States for fear of failure; out of fear that nothing was happening. How many times have we not heard, not only in Mexico but in other countries, about Spanish language: “I do not like that cinema.”, “these types of films don’t interest me.”  But very good movies are made here. Not all movies are American Pie.”

- When did you feel that all this began to happen for you, that you might work here?

Diego: “When we won the Mastroianni award in Venice. When I saw the response to Y tu mama también I started thinking that things might go better. Perhaps a little earlier, when we finished making Y tu mama también, we stayed a few more days at the beach and Alfonso Cuarón spoke with me. He gave a pull on my ears: “this is going to be your opportunity, do not make yourself comfortable,” he told me.

- And then what did you do?

Diego: “I filled up with fear. I started working like a madman in Mexico until I traveled to Venice. It was the first time that I was going to a big festival. For me festivals were going away to get drunk in Guadalajara with my friends. When we won, the rest was almost automatic, agents look for you and scripts come to you. I realized that what Cuarón had said to me was true. Here it is necessary to know the mechanism and to start working. It is necessary to meet agents, to go to parties, go to meetings. I was coming to the Standard [hotel] or my friend Ángel Flores’ house here in Los Angeles. They invite you to the studios, they sit you in a room, and you chat with the executives and leave with nothing. You have to enter this machine. It cost me money, to pay for the hotel and car that you rent, but it is necessary to come to work. All this was before they released Y tu mama también here. Suddenly the movie was here from nowhere, Kevin Costner called me and invited me to eat at his house.”

- You have 5 movies in the US in a short time. Why do you think it has been quite so rapid?

Diego: “I think I fill a niche and have to make use of it. In the US there are not many dramatic movies for young people, and therefore there are not many actors who have this recognition. I presented myself here as a young actor in a serious movie, beyond his content for comedy. The movies for young people here are not stories about normal people. The majority are movies with stereotyped characters with stories that are close to ridiculous. I think they are excellent actors, but since they come from TV comedies they offer these movies to adolescents without any pretension. I insist, they are excellent actors but they are stereotyped. They are the best. Much later, when they are fed up with that, they throw themselves into some independent movie or they call them for another kind of role and they demonstrate their quality. Somehow, I came from another side. From a festivals movie that was a commercial success here. That was my opportunity.

- What up to today have they offered you as ethnic roles, where you are always the Latino?

Diego: “One is what he is. I have a condition, I was not born in Massachusetts and my language is Spanish. I have to be employed in my accent. If English is not your first language or as far as you trained as an actor, it is very complicated. I had a small character in Before Night Falls and after days of practice, when Julian Schnabel said ‘action’, I realized that it is not the same to read or think it than it is to act in another language. I think the problem is not that one plays the role of a Mexican or a Cuban or a Colombian. No. The matter is in the universal approach of movies. I did not want to read for Papi chulo, for example. I waited. I did not snatch the first movie that they gave me.”

- I say it because before there was this sort of complaint about Latin-American actors in Hollywood.

Diego: “Sometimes in our countries we love complaining. In Mexico in particular, the success of others does not give us too much pleasure. The first reaction is to discredit. The press spends its time comparing me with Gael in terms of provocation. As if they did not know that Gael and I are like brothers, and that what happens to him he enjoys what happens to me. We are used to speaking badly that they are fine.”

- Some Mexican film makers are not very generous with this generation of Mexicans abroad.

Diego: “It’s incredible. I remember when Y tu mama también was in Venice, the newspapers in Mexico were saying that it was a light movie; that it was not that of a festival. Five million people paid for a ticket in Mexico to see it and still it was not convinced of the worshipers. According to me, what they must have done was make a fuss (lowered the boom?).”

- Being the sort of soap opera king in Latin-America, many actors say that Latin-American cinema despises television actors. Do you not think that they have some reason?

Diego: “I think that its part of this habit we have of complaining. I owe television that I never stopped paying my rent and I never stopped being an actor. I owe it because there I met some of my best friends, Chema Yazpik or Oswaldo Benavides. But I also owe it for the energy to leave Mexico to construct a future where I could do what I want to do, with people that want quality above all. There are great actors in Mexican television. Great actors!! Doing soap operas that occur like very long chores, where they do not have opportunity to show their real talent. That motivated me to look for other horizons. Many film and theatre actors have to do soap operas to survive. I do not think that it is not possible to make good television but in Mexico at least, nobody has too much interest to do it well. There have been attempts, but very few. It is also true that there are actors in Mexico who are very well-off. They call them for all the few movies that they do. They record a couple of soaps, a couple TV/radio commercials and there they take it.”

- Was leaving your only option?

Diego: “In order to do what I want to do, yes. I don’t mean Hollywood specifically. But yes to work in an industry where everyone is concentrated in what it’s doing. Many bad movies are made here, too. The difference is that here people are thinking about what it’s doing. Not like in Mexico or in our countries in which while you are filming a movie, the actor has to do five TV/radio commercials, go for the student at school, perhaps do two theater functions on the weekend, negotiate the next soap opera and see how he’s going to live through the year that comes. To have an industry means that here the writers write, the directors direct and the actors devote themselves to acting. It is the professionalism of what we do.”

- Impossible in Mexico?

Diego: “Impossible under the current scheme in which the only ones that prosper are the exhibitors. Look what happens in Mexico. In the last years the big box offices have been Mexican movies, over those of other countries. Sexo, Pudor y Lágrimas, Amores Perros, Y tu mama también, El Crimen del Padre Amaro, and it continues without money to produce. Does it not seem strange to you? The government talks and talks, but does not do anything. There are no fiscal ways of thinking like in Brazil, there are no incentives for production and the law keeps favoring those that don’t take risks. We do very little cinema but our batting average is very high. There is talent there. What does not exist is the industry.”

- How long do you think you’ll be in Los Angeles?

Diego: It lacks a lot, I am beginning. Until my goals have been fulfilled.”

- The Cohens, P.T. Anderson?

Diego: “And I met both. I have chatted with them. They liked Y tu mama también.”

- And next?

Diego: “The same. I cannot do something else. I do not like doing something else. Work, food, girlfriend and football. Of course, a lot of football.”
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Love between celebrities. Is it real? Diego and Paola: a movie romance.

This is what Paola says about their engagement: “Sometimes the universe lines up in such a way that things happen. Almost magically!” And when it begins… ohhhh! The news surprised all of us: Paola Núñez and Deigo Luna are the couple of the moment! One knows the particulars of such a pretty romance that looks to be from a movie!

Love at first site

In December [2005] Paola did a casting for a movie without knowing she would find love! It turns out that Diego Luna was the protagonist, and although Pao did not remain for the recordings of Love in Custody, the boy invited her to go out. They were friends until the love could be more and they became sweethearts. Paola and Diego insisted on concealing their love, but the photos and their smiles give them away in the end.

“He is a great man!”

Paola told us how she is with Diego, find out!

Por Ti: Paola, how do you feel to be in love again?

Paola: Love is so beautiful, and more when you live through it fully in the professional thing and the sentimental thing. It is incredible!

Por Ti: Is it complicated because Diego and you are famous?

Paola: No, it’s very interesting, since he is so occupied like me, so he does not make demands of me if I have no time to see him. We value our times together very much.

Por Ti: What do you admire most about him?

Paola: He is natural, talented, intelligent and mature. This is what I have felt and lived up to now with him. He is a great man!

The Future
Paola: After the success of Love in Custody, she will take a vacation and return with the a charged battery for a lot of TV projects, and you guessed, cinema.

Diego: His producing house will be a success and he will continue with movies abroad.

Together: They are intelligent and confident, their romance will last long.

Por Ti read his [Diego's] mind
All wish to know of their love, but what does Diego think of it? We analyze the photos and discover it! Poor boy, the press will harass him more than before! Diego thinks: “Oh wow, what did I get myself into, help, Gael!” The lady's man knows fame so well that he will avoid the indiscreet questions. Diego thinks: "Ha, I have a secret weapon!”

Lovers Archive

Paola: She went out with Ricardo Palacio. Diego Luna is her second boyfriend in the artistic way. How nice!

Diego: Uff! This guy earned himself the title of  the lady's man of cinema: Cecilia Suárez, Alice Braga (Sólo Dios sabe) and up to the manager of his pal, Gael García.

http://community.livejournal.com/diegolunaloco/

Diego Luna: We sat and he spoke. This is his story.

In his house in Mexico there is only a bed, a fridge and a poof. But the scarcity of objects does not bother him. On the contrary, he knows it is the beginning of something that will be his and that can be big. With this sensation of relief and plenitude, of certainty and absolute confidence, we chat with Diego Luna. First in his house, then at a party, by phone, in the street and seated, and finally on the couch of his antique house.

Diego Luna’s life has changed radically in the last two years. In 2003 his agenda was filled, for the first time in his career, to the ceiling. He did not come to Mexico any more than a month and a half the whole year. He was occupied filming abroad, being present at film festivals, at premiers, to appointments with the big ones of Hollywood, who were starting to become interested in the 24 year old Mexican. From this moment the ascent of his career happened suddenly, and in a short time, Diego already had the attention of the producers and the most famous directors: Steven Soderbergh, Steven Spielberg, Kevin Costner and Lawrence Bender. Something that not even he was hoping began to happen in his life.

The Basic: Pals

For Diego there is one thing that is fundamental in life: his friends. On having spoken with him, one realizes that only there is something which he makes a special emphasis and of what he is absolutely sure. This is what he calls his second family, his friends. He says that his combination of friends is odd, a mix of ages and personalities (we must say celebrities?) that only have one common denominator: acting. Chucho Ochoa, Chema Yazpik, Osvaldo Benavides, Gael Garcia and Rodrigo Murray are the first ones that he names. “Time passes and you become good friends that end up becoming your family, and it is cool to be able to choose your family. We can work together also, and that causes the relationship to become super rich.”

Nevertheless, Diego is out of the country most of the year. And it is obvious that he misses many things, who wouldn’t. “Nostalgia hits strong when you spend too much time outside; strange food, friends, parties, but it is necessary to have time to return and to see what has happened in life that you want. Looking after friends is most important.”

Till not long ago, when Diego was coming to Mexico, he stayed, slept, and ate at his friends’ homes because he still didn’t have one of his own. Fortunately now he has one of his own: “I already have a house in Mexico. I have slept there five nights. I have a bed, a fridge and a chair. Although I know that I am going to keep on traveling, it is good to know that I have a place of my own to go to.” Furthermore, tells the actor, he also gets fed up with hotels and that everything smells clean and new. Nothing like having  ‘home sweet home’. “Right now I have everything that I need. I am happy: house, friends, work and I am in love. What more can you ask for.”

The next most important person in his life is his father (Alejandro Luna is one of the most important Mexican theatrical designers). “My dad and I are in contact a lot. If something has been good about working so much, it is the fact that now I can ask for an extra ticket so that I can go visit where he is. We are always in communication because I want it and I always want to know what he thinks and what I am doing.” And when there are bad days, problems or doubts (of each guy), Luna goes to his father. “And buddies too. It is fantastic what is happening to Gael because somehow he is living through the same thing that I am. Although our careers are different and we are doing different movies, the phenomenon is similar. To be able to talk to him, to share what happens to us, and that you can identify with is the best.”

One year ago exactly, Luna said in an interview in order to live well one only needs to eat, a girlfriend, work, and football.

Now you no longer eat (you are very skinny), it’s a long time that I do not know you have a girlfriend, you do not play football, but of course, you have much racket. Do you still follow with this idea of life?

He laughs… “I keep eating very well, nothing more that I suddenly have to put myself on a diet (if the job requires that he is skinny); I continue watching football. Whenever I can play it, although each time is less. It is always possible to have a girlfriend and I think that the most important thing in life is to be in love and to make someone happy. So to sum up I am very well. I cannot complain.”

A Tough Guy

Diego was seven years when he set foot on stage the first time. Since then he has done everything: soap-operas, film, and of course theater. Undoubtedly, his time in television is what more repudiates him. “The worst of all my works has been in television in general. In any country in the world Mexican soap-operas are happening and the bad thing is that in Mexico one does not make good TV. Everything stays in intentions, but it sells so well that nobody is interested in making it better. It is like a factory of potatoes. What they are interested in is not feeding the people, but that they buy the product and they have a mind to watch.”

On the other hand there is theater that, for ages, monopolizes his best memories. Not only because it was his first introduction with acting (due to his father), but because there he has met his best friends. One of Diego’s most sincere smiles in this interview was when we speak about The Complete works of William Shakespeare (abridged).

- Did you enjoy yourself in this work?

“It is one of the most entertaining things that I have done. It was a work where three actors and friends were producing, this is paradise for any actor. Furthermore, the theater was filling up almost always and that does not happen much in Mexican theater. In Toluca, for example, we gave performances for 2,600 spectators and this is the closest thing to feeling like a rock star. Imagine the 2,600 laughing at the same time. It was necessary to take 40 second breaks in hopes that they would keep silent. I believe that this presentation lasted three and a half hours. It was impressive.”

After Y tu mamá también nothing was the same again.

“Since we started filming to date, this movie keeps on giving me incredible things and people remember it very well. For some reason, the eyes of the world stuck on us from this film, and immediately after that I began to receive job offers abroad.”

But in addition to showing on a global scale, Y tu mamá también had other repercussions. For the first time, Diego and Gael worked together, which in this moment did not mean very much, but in the course of time this work opened the doors to both and now there are several who hope to see them  sharing credits again.

“Yes there are plans to do something together – it urges us, but we still don’t know exactly what. To film with him again is going to be great for both of us, in addition it is marvelous to work with someone that you love so much.” The only problem is that they be in the same place and at the same time.

The Biggest Screen

After theatre and television, the biggest international showing that Luna has done, of course, cinema. In the career of any actor, cinema can be synonymous with glamour, stardom, lights, money, fame, and what one becomes in Hollywood can be very tempting. But Diego’s perspective is different, not because he doesn’t like stardom, but because it is seen that he loves what he does and believes in that. Acting makes him feel good inside.

 “Cinema is incredible because it allows you to add a little of your reality and what you are. I like cinema in which you forget that you are in a movie and you get really into the story. The funny thing is that this cinema is cheaper than that of Hollywood. And although the Hollywood productions are definitively a work opportunity, the sure thing is that it is necessary to be able to choose, since this industry does bad cinema, and a lot of it. ”

 “To have it as a goal to do it in the United States is an error; to go there and hope to snare it can be very depressing because it makes very bad cinema and there is also a lot of competition. There is a lot of dough (money) but that does not mean that there is quality. Nevertheless, there are also actors, photographers, and excellent directors with whom it is possible to work. But this is not a work of money, but of convictions and desires.” It’s that simple. An actor’s success is not taking an airplane in the direction of Los Angeles. Or at least this is his vision.

The glamorous part does not seem to call him so much attention either. “When you do a red carpet it is not you; I do not go out in the street in a suit, I don’t worry if brown goes with black, if I need to take sunglasses or not. Suddenly everything that they set up, the glamour and the parties, only represents more work. The different parties, which belong to friends, they are never going to belong to those. The only good thing is that I am not going to buy myself clothes for a long time; they send you clothes and they fit you. That is incredible. It is amusing, especially the first time.”

In Mexico or Latin America, making cinema is very different from the United States, where the budgets are incomparable, glamour does not exist, and the form of work is opposite. “Here they take so much time raising a project that you are not going to get to any thing, but something that really matters for you because you have to invest time and money. It’s a hard process where you often leave injured.”

The form of work is so different that it even might look like a joke. Luna knows that while in the United States there is an expert for everything – “to place the table, to say ‘action’, to move a light”, here there are ten people who do everything, that repair and improvise to make the day. For example, at least in Mexico, there are times that the camper does not come and Diego has to change his wardrobe in the car, so many others have had to lend their clothes or their car for what it offers. “On the other hand there (in the US) – he adds - everything is much more comfortable, which works in the 'big' productions because the people do not come to the shooting tired and you do not have to worry any more than about the movie.” But in the middle of so much comfort there must be a good script, a good story, because if it is not like that, “it does not matter how many comforts they give you, you are going to be the nuisance. A bad script does not make a good movie nor does a lot of money,” he specifies.

The Most Anticipated: Criminal

When a film is written by Steven Soderbergh and Gregory Jacobs, and led by John C. Reily, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Diego Luna, we can be sure that we will have a good movie.

When Diego received the proposal to do Criminal, he was in the middle of filming Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights: “I was suffering very much because it was a movie easily different from everything else I had done” – let’s say that Luna had never been considered to be dancer. “In one of these tortuous days the script for Criminal came to me. As soon as I read it I was completely sure of wanting to do it. This is the first movie that they offer me without meeting me, nothing more because they saw me in Y tu mamá también. I did not do casting (and even though I like to do castings because it is useful to see if you want to work with the director, if you believe him, if there is chemistry); but in this occasion Gregory Jacobs and Steven Sodebergh told me that I was their first option to play the role. In addition, incredible people entered the project: John C. Reilly, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Mollan, among many others.”

Criminal is a remake of the famous Nine Queens. Luna’s role is that of a Mexican swindler, “but not the typical role that they offer to Mexicans,” he clarifies. The character description said: this is a guy that inspires confidence, he looks like a nice guy. And the actor likes that. Furthermore, for the first time, he says, he felt comfortable and relaxed acting in English. It is the first time that he films a movie in so few days (28 days of filming) and it is the first occasion that he notices an absolute commitment on behalf of all the staff members of a film. “Each and everyone was there for the story, up to the chauffeur who picked me up every day had read the script.”

On November 19 (2004) Criminal makes its début. The eyes of Mexico will be on Diego. He knows that this might be the second big springboard in his career, but he does not want to get ahead of himself. “Nothing can assure the success of this one, nor any film. And you cannot expect things go well because if not, you get upset about life. That a film comes out well depends on many things, so many people… and magic. You need all that so it comes out well, and of course it’s a bitch.”

Diego Quickly

What you enjoy most about your work?

“To tell lies and that you create them. ”

One frustration:

“Movies that I have already have prepared myself for that suddenly fall through.”

Your greatest quality as actor:

“Mmmmm, I don’t know. The cool thing about this career is that you can always improve, grow and take new risks.”

5 things people envy about you:

“I don’t know, rather I hope that nobody envies anything about me.”

Best moment of the day:

“When I’m not working; to be able to get up at whatever hour. The only thing that hate about movies is that they wake you up at 6:00 every day. And when I am filming, the best part of the day is when shooting starts.”

A disk (CD):

“Right now I am listening to Jack Johnson, Dub Side of the Moon, and Beta Band.”

Your biggest extravagance:

“To travel with my small can of chipotle chilies.”

Favorite object, that you use every day:

“My Blackberry. It is my contact with the world. And my i-pod because in that thing you take your music all over and, when you have music you miss less.”
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Julio 16, 2004

Diego Luna Inicia Romance? 

Diego Luna y su nueva novia?

El actor parece tener ocupado su corazón con una novia mexicana. Quién es? In Touch platicó en exclusiva con esa misteriosa mujer.

A Diego le llega el amor?

Las buenas noticias no se hacen esperar, y menos cuando se trata de uno de los actores nacionales más cotizados en México y Hollywood.

Este 2004 es el año de Diego Luna, de 24 años, no sólo por su incursión de lleno en Hollywood, sino porque al parecer la estrella ya tiene con quién compartir su vida amorosa. Por primera vez, al protagonista de Y Tu mamá también se le ve en público con una guapa mujer.

Mientras las especulaciones circulan por diversos medios sobre quién es la afortunada, In Touch entrevistó en exclusiva a su acompañante. La joven prefirió omitir su nombre, pero señaló que ella y el actor se conocen desde los 12 años.

“La verdad, verdad, yo soy su gran amiga”, dijo a In Touch.  Sin embargo, al preguntarle sobre las fotografías donde Diego y ella se besan, expresó: “… hasta la pasamos muy bien.” Y, obviamente, este contacto implica algo más para la pareja: “Él ya quisiera ser mi novio!” agregó.

Un sushi repleto de besos

El jueves 8, Diego y la misteriosa mujer llegaron al restaurante Kaiten Sushi, ubicado en la colonia Roma.  Ahí se encontraba un grupo de unas 30 personas, de una compañía que celebraba una despedida. La ocasión se convirtió en una fiesta de bienvenida cuando apareció la estrella de Nicotina.  “Al ver que Diego entró, las mujeres que estaban en el restaurante se acercaron a él para pedirle autógrafos y tomarse fotos”, comentó Ana Luisa a In Touch, mesera que los atendió. “La acompañante de Diego se portó muy risueña y además posó amablemente con las admiradoras del actor”, agregó.  También añadió que al principio de la velada se mantuvieron distantes, y ordenaron naranjadas. Mientras avanzaba la noche, y el restaurante se quedaba vacío, ellos optaron por acercarse más y cambiar de bebidas: ella tomó una cerveza Corona y Diego un whisky de etiqueta negra.  “Cuando se empezó a ir la gente, ellos comenzaron a ponerse más cariñosos, se abrazaron y se besaron”, afirmó a In Touch la mesera.

Luego de dos horas bastante agradables, y de saltarse el postre, el actor pidió la cuenta (480 pesos) y partieron, dejando una generosa propina.  Ana Luisa, la mesera, describió a Diego como un hombre amable y caballeroso con su misteriosa acompañante.  “Permanecieron un rato más juntos y alrededor de las doce de la noche se fueron”, agregó.  Diego y su ‘amiga’, fueron al bar de Hotel W, del DF, para platicar. Ahí permanecieron un par de horas más.  “El Martini de manzana nos encanta a ambos, y eso fue lo que tomamos”, expresó a In Touch la mujer.  La ‘amiga’ del actor expresó que se ven muy seguido, y comer sushi es uno de los puntos en común que tiene con la gran estrella de cine.  Al preguntarle las implicaciones que puede traer el beso, ella sólo afirmó a In Touch “…la pasamos muy bien”.  Con este nuevo amor en puerta, puede se que al actor y protagonista de Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, de Guy Ferland, y The Terminal, dirigida por Steven Spielberg (cintas que pronto se estrenarán en México) tenga en el amor un cuarto placer que, según él, se necesita para vivir bien.

Él la necesita?

De acuerdo con la psicóloga Verónica Romero, la presencia de una mujer es justo lo que requiere Diego Luna. “Él está viviendo una de las etapas más intensas de su carrera. Dio el salto a la internacionalización, y eso implica muchos viajes y cambios, podría sentirse solo.  Ahora necesita compañía y, si ella es su amiga, puede ser una fuente de afecto que él requiere para sobrellevar tanta presión.  El hecho de dejarse fotografiar abiertamente puede significar que para él esconderse de los paparazzi y guardar las apariencias, ha pasado a un segundo plano.  “Y aunque tiene poco tiempo, es benéfico que ella sea una persona fuera del medio, porque así lo mantiene con los pies sobre la tierra.  Debe ser tolerante, con una mente muy abierta, y consciente que él está  en contacto con importantes figuras del medio; ser muy afectuosa y sensible para que funcione.”
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