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DOUBLE HELIX
The professional and public lives of Gael
García Bernal and Diego Luna seem perpetually intertwined.
Now with the development of their new company, the future of Latin
American independent film is also part of the chemistry.
By ANNA MARIE DE LA FUENTE
Mexico’s hottest actors can’t recall how
long they’ve been pals. All they know is that their parents
were longtime friends so they may have even shared a crib. These
childhood amigos have seen their lives run along parallel lines,
intersecting and diverging along the way. Both in their early 30s,
Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna have hit the same milestones
almost at the same points in their lives.
When presented with this observation, Bernal jokes, ”That’s
not quite true; I lost my virginity at 14, Diego at 26!”
“We both kissed a man on the same day,” counters Luna
with a laugh, referring to their now famous onscreen kiss in the
film that made the pair famous, Alfonso Cuarón’s Y
tu mamá también.
The arts comprise an integral part of both of their DNA. Luna’s
mother, Fiona Alexander, was a costume designer while his father,
Alejandro Luna is among Mexico’s most acclaimed theater, film
and opera set designers. Bernal’s parents are actor/former
model Patricia Bernal and actor/director José Ángel
García.
“The most exciting moments of my childhood was accompanying
my parents on tour,” says Bernal.
Neither were spared some measure of turbulence in their early childhood.
When he was very young, Bernal’s mother divorced García
and married photographer Sergio Yazbek, while Luna’s mother
died in a car crash when he was 2 years old.
Both started acting in television, film and theatre at an early
age, spending their teen years in telenovelas. They co-starred in
telenovela El Abuelo y yo in the early 1990s before they hit the
big screen.
Bernal’s debut in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s
seminal breakout movie Amores perros in 2000 catapulted him into
the international limelight.
Their first onscreen pairing, in 2001 hit road movie Y tu mamá
también, burnished Bernal’s growing overseas reputation
and launched Luna’s. That year, they shared the Marcello Mastroianni
Award at the Venice Film Festival.
From there, their career paths diverged with Bernal shying away
from roles in mainstream movies for a slew of high profile arthouse
independent films, including Pedro Almodovar’s Mala educación,
Walter Salles’ The Motorcycle Diaries (where he played the
young Argentine Che Guevara) and Iñárritu’s
Babel.
Luna has played supporting roles in several mainstream films including
Steven Spielberg’s Terminal Man and Kevin Costner’s
Open Rang. He played the lead in Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, where
he had to show off his dancing chops. But he also has done a host
of indie films, the latest being Milk, which brought Sean Penn his
second Oscar.
Their second onscreen collaboration eight years later in Rudo y
Cursi (Tough and Corny) reveals an ease borne of a lifelong friendship.
Performing together again in the soccer drama/comedy was a breeze,
they admit. “It was when I had to work with non-actors that
it got more difficult,” says Luna.
“Gael and Diego use a shorthand when acting with each other,”
explains Rudo y Cursi producer Guillermo del Toro. “After
all, 90 percent of an actor’s work is in the other actor’s
eyes. They’re reacting to each other in every scene,”
he adds.
Rudo y Cursi is the first film produced by Cha Cha Cha, the production
company formed by Mexico’s powerful three amigos, Cuarón,
Iñárritu and del Toro. This new shingle has a five-picture
deal with Universal Pictures. Iñárritu is now in post
production for the second film under the pact, Biutiful, which he
directed in Barcelona.
“We thought Rudo y Cursi was the perfect movie to start Cha
Cha Cha as we wanted it to be a family experience,” says del
Toro. “It was also thematically relevant as it is about brothers
and the ups and downs of a family.”
Cuarón adds, “The script gave us an excuse to get them
together again, and to make this a big family reunion.” The
soccer comedy is the directorial feature debut of his screenwriter
brother Carlos, who also co-wrote the script for Y tu mamá
también.
“They are great pros; truly serious actors,” says Rudo
y Cursi co-producer Frida Torresblanco, who shuttled back and forth
between her base in New York and Mexico to oversee the film. “Diego
and Gael used dialogue coaches and trained with professional soccer
players daily while Gael had singing and accordion lessons.”
 In
the film, Bernal plays Tato, nicknamed “Cursi,” who
plays soccer well enough to be recruited by a league but who really
just wants to sing. He does a Spanish cover version of Cheap Trick’s
I want you to want me, or “Quiero que me quieras.” Luna
plays Beto, aka “Rudo,’ his volatile goalkeeper brother.
“Alfonso visited the set twice, Alejandro once while Guillermo
was tied up filming Hellboy 2 but the communication, advice and
support was constant via phone or e-mail,” says Carlos Cuarón,
the film’s writer and director, of his Cha Cha Cha producers.
“Diego and Gael explained and had opinions about everything
they wanted in regards to acting issues. So I was very sheltered,”
he adds.
Just before its Sundance premiere, Sony Pictures Classic deviated
from its standard slate of arthouse films by picking up the broad
comedy. It opens the film on May 8 in the U.S. Rudo y Cursi already
debuted in December in Mexico, where it now ranks as the third highest
grossing local film of all time, having earned close to $10 million.
Bernal and Luna are also business partners in the film and TV production
shingle Canana, which they formed with producer Pablo Cruz in 2005.
That same year, Canana inked a three-year term deal with Universal
Pictures’ domestic specialty arm Focus Features, which backed
their overhead and development costs in exchange for a first-look
at their projects. The deal, which ended in September 2008, resulted
in recent Sundance Film Festival sensation Sin Nombre, directed
by newcomer Cary Joji Fukunaga.
“We’re extremely pleased with Sin Nombre, which has
been a critical success, and Rudo y Cursi, which Focus has already
sold worldwide,” says David Linde, co-chairman of Universal
Pictures, as he reiterated Universal’s keen interest in Mexican
cinema.
Luna recently led the cast on stage of The Good Canary, which toured
12 Mexican cities with John Malkovich directing. Canana and Malkovich’s
company co-produced it. “We played to full houses everywhere,”
says Luna. “Maybe we’ll play in a stadium next,”
he laughs.
The stage play is Canana’s first foray into theater and will
hopefully be the start of an annual output, according to Cruz.
Bernal and Luna also co-founded Ambulante, a traveling documentary
film festival in collaboration with Mexican exhibition giant Cinepolis
and the Morelia International Film Festival.
 Ambulante
circulates some 30 international documentaries across Mexico from
February to April every year. “Attendance has tripled in recent
years,” says Cruz. Aside from their screening in several Cinepolis
theaters, the documentaries are played in 60 additional venues,
including hospitals, jails, art galleries and outdoor plazas.
Founded with the lofty aim of discovering and giving opportunities
to new Latin American talent, Canana has become one of Mexico’s
most prolific film production companies. It also has TV projects
in development. “We hope to make a film every quarter with
budgets ranging between $1 million to $4 million,” says Cruz.
Despite their busy lives, the Canana partners are constantly in
touch, sounding off on the various projects in different stages
of development or production.
In recent years, Luna and Bernal have continued to hit milestones
virtually at the same time. In 2007, they both tried their hand
at directing, with Bernal directing his first feature, Deficit,
and Luna, a documentary about Mexican boxing champ Julio César
Chavez.
On August 9, 2008, Luna and his new wife Camila Sodi welcomed their
first child, Jerónimo. A mere five months later, Gael’s
Argentine girlfriend Dolores Fonzi bore him a son, Lazaro, on January
8. Bernal and his new family currently reside in Madrid, where he
is contemplating his next film role.
Luna, meawhile, is hoping to direct his first fiction feature.
Let’s just hope it won’t be another eight years before
their next onscreen reunion.
CANANA
The brainchild of García Bernal and Luna has
developed some impressive films.
Past Releases:
DRAMA/MEX, directed by Gerardo Naranjo
Festival premiere: 2006 Film Critics Week at Cannes Film Festival.
Plot: A mid-summer afternoon in Acapulco; Fernanda claims rape by
her ex-boyfriend Chano.
JC CHAVEZ, directed by Diego Luna
Festival premiere: 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. Plot: A documentary
about the legendary Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez
set against the backdrop of Mexico’s turbulent political history.
DEFICIT, directed by Gael García Bernal
Festival premiere: 2007 Film Critics Week at Cannes Film Festival.
Plot: Realities of affluent Mexican society and its relation to
other social strata as seen by a self-centered 20 something.
COCHOCHI, written and directed by Laura Guzmán
and Israel Cárdenas
Festival premiere: 2007 Toronto Film Festival. Plot: Two indigenous
brothers from northern Mexico are entrusted by their grandfather
to deliver medicine across the Sierra Tarahumara.
VOY A EXPLOTAR, written and directed by Gerardo Naranjo
Festivals: Venice Film Festival 2008, FIPRESCI prizewinner at the
Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece. Plot: Set in
Guanajuato, two troubled teenagers attempt an impossible rebellion
against the adult world.
SÓLO QUIERO CAMINAR, written and directed by
Agustín Días Yanes
Plot: Three women set out to seek revenge against their friend’s
husband, a ringleader and gigolo who brutally attacked her.
SIN NOMBRE, written and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga
Festival premiere: Sundance 2009 US Dramatic Film Competition, winner
Best Director and Best Cinematography. Plot: A migrant from Honduras
and a Mexican gangster are train-bound to the United States.
In Post Production:
CEFALOPODO, written and directed by Rubén Ímaz. Plot:
An artist from Spain’s Basque region travels to Mexico after
the love of his life dies.
In Development:
JEAN GENTIL, written and to be directed by Israel Cárdenas
and Laura Amelia Guzmán. Plot: An intellectual Haitian teacher
in the Dominican Republic is forced to look for another job.
ABEL, written by Augusto Mendoza, to be directed by
Diego Luna. Plot: A delusional 10-year old thinks he’s the
father of his three brothers and that his mother is his wife.
REVOLUCIÓN, written and to be directed by 10
Mexican directors who will create 10 shorts outlining their vision
of the Mexican Revolution.
JUEGO DE NIÑOS, to be directed by David
Alcalde. Plot: A remake of the 1970s horror movie Quien puede matar
a un niño.
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