Diego Luna was surprised that his performance in Y Tu Mamá También helped him snag the role of Cassian Andor in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
In the latest episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Luna shared that Rogue One director Gareth Edwards set up a call with him and he was unsure of what the meeting would entail.
“I was sitting there going, like, ‘What does he want from me?'” Luna said. “Does he want the number of an actor or does he want me to help him with Gael [García Bernal]?”
Edwards wanted neither of those things. Instead, he wanted Luna to audition for Rogue One because of the actor’s performance in the 2001 cult coming-of-age classic.
“The director said to me, ‘I want to do a film in this universe that tonally feels very realistic, close to what you guys did in Y Tu Mamá También,’” Luna recalled. “And I was like, ‘What?'”
O’Brien and his team broke out into laughter at the thought — given the controversial subject matter of the film — echoing Luna’s surprise. Luna credited Edwards for being “crazy enough to think there was room for me in that project.”
IFC Films/Courtesy Everett Collection
Diego Luna as Tenoch Iturbide in ‘Y Tu Mamá También’
Luna has previously shared how Edwards felt inspired by Y Tu Mamá También when making Rogue One.
“He wanted to make a very particular Star Wars movie, with a different style of acting and hyperrealistic tone bordering on naturalism,” Luna told Vanity Fair. “He wanted to create something that was close to being almost like a documentary in its tone. ‘I want them to improvise, to take over the characters, the dynamics between them. I’d love to feel like I’m watching something like Y Tu Mamá También,’ he told us.”
This convinced Luna to audition, although not all studio executives had the same vision at first. Still, Luna was excited about the prospect of marrying indie dramas with blockbuster action films on Rogue One, while still being able to “be myself.”
“He got an amazing cast of people that were doing the cinema I was doing but in their context,” Luna said to O’Brien. “Felicity [Jones], Riz Ahmed, Mads Mikkelsen, it was a cast of people that were doing tiny films in their countries and dramas that were all about the storytelling.”
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Luna’s role as Cassian Andor recently came to an end as the Rogue One prequel series Andor wrapped up this spring. While many fans may be sad that this chapter of the Star Wars universe is concluding, Luna said that he’s relieved that the series ended with a clear storyline.
“There’s one thing I don’t like [about TV], which is things start without knowing where they’re going to end,” Luna said. “Everyone’s talking about the next season and probably there’s another one and there’s an anxiety of, like, how much more can we achieve? And it’s nice to start something knowing where it ends.”
Check out the full episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend with Diego Luna below.
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