Diego Luna (left) and Gael García Bernal in Los Angeles in September.

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Actors Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal have been friends since childhood in Mexico City.

Actually, it is said that they met earlier.

“Diego was still a molecule. “He was just a little amoeba,” says García Bernal – who, according to family lore, was a year old when his parents took him to the hospital where Luna was born.

“When I was finally brought into this world, he was there waiting for me,” Luna says. “And he looked at me and said -“

“You’re late, but welcome,” interjects García Bernal.

Her parents had also been good friends; García Bernal’s father was a celebrated theater director, his mother an actress; Luna’s father was a well-known set designer and his mother was a costume designer.

“They put on a play and I think Gael was born when they were rehearsing and I was born when they were performing the piece,” says Luna. “Those who weren’t actually needed on stage probably took care of us. And I think that has a lot to do with the connection we have.”

The evening before our interview, Luna and García Bernal appeared together on stage at the Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. They announced and presented an award entirely in their native language.

“It was nice to go all the way…to do it only in Spanish,” Luna says, explaining it was a nod to the large Spanish-speaking audience in the United States

“We don’t have to apologize for this, because Spanish is one of the main languages ​​in the United States,” adds García Bernal. “Contextually and politically, there is a reason to speak Spanish. And it sounds a bit radical too.”

On Hulu La MáquinaGael García Bernal plays aging boxer Esteban “La Máquina” Osuna and Diego Luna plays his manager Andy Lujan.

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Now Luna and García Bernal are teaming up again for Hulu’s first original series in Spanish: La Máquina.

“I’m 44,” says Luna. “I had to wait until I was 44 to do a show in Spanish produced by an American studio. So it’s just the right time, right?”

Two intertwined careers

Both actors followed in their parents’ footsteps: as teenagers in the 1990s, they starred on stage and in TV soap operas such as: El Abuelo and Yo. In 2000, García Bernal had his big break in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film Amores Perros.

The following year, he and Luna starred as best friends in a love triangle in the coming-of-age road trip film Y Tu Mama También.

“It was clear from the beginning that the incredible talent and the incredible friendship they have was something very touching and truly beautiful,” remembers director Alfonso Cuarón.

García Bernal says that it was such a small production team that they helped carry the camera bags and asked for the camera lenses. “They found us like these little mascots,” he says, adding that hearing the conversations between Cuarón and cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki felt “like being with John Lennon and (Paul) McCartney and talked about music.”

“I had to wait until I was 44 to do a show in Spanish produced by an American studio. So it’s exactly the right time, right?” Diego Luna laughs along La Máquina Co-star and lifelong friend Gael García Bernal.

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Cuaron remembers that the two actors always made fun of her. “You have a great sense of humor. I think it’s one of those great cinematic duos.”

In 2008, the couple teamed up again for the football film Rudo and Cursiand again in 2012 with Will Ferrell Casa de my Padrebut they had mostly separate acting careers: Luna with a role as a drug dealer in Narcos: Mexicoand as the lead in Star Wars Villain One Spinoff series Andor.

García Bernal has now played everything by Che Guevara The motorcycle diariesto orchestra conductor Mozart in the jungle to great-great-grandfather at Disney Coco.

As producers, they founded the Ambulante Film Festival together almost 20 years ago to present documentaries in Mexico. They also founded two production companies, Canana Films and La Corriente del Golfo, which focus on social justice issues. Later this month, Netflix will begin streaming a documentary executive produced by Luna. State of Silence (Estado del Silencio)about the risks Mexican journalists face when reporting on the drug wars.

Cuarón says he admires her artistic choices and the opportunities they offer other actors and filmmakers.

“What is truly incredible is seeing how over the years they have embraced life with integrity and full responsibility for who they are and who they represent – ​​especially in Mexico and Latin America,” Cuarón says. “And just seeing the two of them on screen is pure joy and pleasure.”

Production of La Máquina

Luna says they’ve been trying to cook up another project for many years to get back together as producers and actors. And one hungover morning during the Berlin Film Festival, they say, something occurred to them La Máquina. It’s about two best friends: a boxer and his manager.

“Diego had made a great documentary about (world champion) Julio César Chavez and I had trained a lot in boxing. And we love sport. Mexico is one of the best countries in boxing. So the question was: Why don’t we tell a story that’s entirely ours?” says García Bernal.

García Bernal plays the aging boxer Esteban, whose nickname is “La Máquina” (“The Machine”). Luna plays his manager, who is obsessed with plastic surgery. In the story, criminals threaten to kill both of them if Esteban doesn’t throw his next match.

“You have a great sense of humor. I think it’s one of those great cinematic duos,” says Alfonso Cuarón of Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, who starred together in Cuarón’s 2001 coming-of-age road trip film Y Tu Mama También.

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“We wanted to tell the story of a boxer who is (at his) peak, in (his) complete success,” says García Bernal, “and who realizes that losing is a path to victory.” This is a counter-narrative to how the world talks about success and everything. Then losing becomes winning.”

Luna says he and García Bernal understand what boxers go through, not only having to perform but also constantly touring and dealing with managers, agents and promoters.

Fans hope to see more of Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal together on screen, in every language.