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IIt’s a crisp December afternoon in north London and Diego Calva is thinking back to the night his mother threw shapes with him. leonardo dicaprio Golden Globe Awards 2023. The 33-year-old Mexican actor, who is competing for best actor (musical/comedy), wore a white T-shirt, silver chain and hoop earrings. Babylon, Damien ChazelleA sprawling epic about Hollywood’s transition from silent films to talkies. He is the only newcomer in the category, with Daniel CraigAdam Driver, Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes. What struck him, however, was how surreal it was to see his mother not only “dancing with Leonardo” but “sharing conversations with Leonardo.” quentin tarantino“.
He stopped. “She was having so much fun, and I wanted her to feel the same way I did — like I wanted to be awake instead of asleep, you know?” That last bit isn’t a one-off. This is a callback to something he said Babylon‘s release: For the first time in his life, he preferred waking life to blank nights. Before entering Hollywood, there were dark days. Depression lingers. Now, sitting in a movie studio promoting night managerhe was enthusiastic and his hazel eyes sparkled. When he spoke, his accent was brisk and smooth, each word having its own rhythm and weight.
The BBC drama returns almost a decade after it first aired, and it’s all sun-drenched Mediterranean villas and meandering plots. tom hiddleston Jonathan Pine – a former soldier turned luxury hotel night manager turned reluctant spy navigating the world of oligarchs and arms dealers – did so with such suave demeanor that everyone believed he would be the next James Bond. Adapted by David Farr John le Carré Innovative, stylish and sexy: event television at its highest level. It won a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, an Emmy. In the new series, Farr expands the story beyond the original books to include betrayal, conspiracy theories and guerrilla warfare in Colombia. Starring opposite the returning Hiddleston Olivia ColemanCalva plays Teddy Dos Santos, the mysterious heir to Hugh Laurie’s arms dealer Richard Roper.
Calva locked herself in her home in Mexico for two days to complete the audition, completing scenes with an actor friend. A communication must explore emotion. “The other me had to look dangerous and mysterious,” he said. They recorded 30 or 40 tapes. His performance is outstanding: a perfectly tailored study of the complexity of stillness and sleepy eyes, with the menace just beneath the surface. “Sometimes the silence is more threatening,” Calva said.
His confidence in the character sometimes evaporated in real life. “I feel scared in many situations – the press, interviews, dinner later – but when I’m filming, acting, I’m free.” That freedom, he says, depends entirely on creating the right conditions on set. he and i hate suzy Director George Banks-Davies, who took over from Susanna Bier for the sequel, was key. “As an actor, it’s really important to feel safe … to play, to explore, to be curious,” Calva said. “Teddy was George and Diego’s creation. We created all the layers of the character, but it just comes from trust. I would have no problem working with her every day. That doesn’t happen with every director.”
The same trust was built with Hiddleston. “I’m a rookie,” he said. “Tom has had an amazing career. He’s been doing this for a long time.” Calva describes himself as a “thief” – learning techniques by watching how others work. But Hiddleston didn’t just let the young actor observe from the sidelines. They had dinner together, hung out between takes, and developed a real rapport. “Every team has a captain,” Calva explained, using a football metaphor. “The technical director is Georgi, but on the field, the captain is Tom. If you are selfish, the team cannot win.”
As a teenager in Mexico, Calva was first exposed to the BBC not through television, but through a program on Radio 1 Basic combination. A big fan of electronic music, he singled out the show’s host, veteran superstar DJ Pete Tong, which wasn’t the most obvious introduction to the flagship New Year’s Day drama he stars in.
I don’t think 25 years ago you could name a movie as big as Babylon starring a Latino cast
night manager Continuing a pattern throughout Calva’s career: morally complex characters operating in a shadowy world. He’s the drug lord in the Netflix series Narcos: Mexico;Now he is an arms dealer. Is he worried about being typecast? “No,” he said, “because when people watch the show, they see that the script is so layered. We always focus on the human side of the story. This is a spy story. Everybody lies. You don’t know what’s going to happen. So the only way you can believe a lie is if it’s actually true. We try to find the human side of every character.”
The industry is changing, he added, pointing to his breakthrough role. “I don’t think you could have named a film of this magnitude 25 years ago BabylonThat kind of scale, with a Latino actor in the lead role. “
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Babylon It’s Chazelle’s three-hour ode to Hollywood’s golden age. Calva plays Manny Torres, a wide-eyed Mexican immigrant who climbs from elephant-wrangling dog to studio executive caught up in a gilded orgy of sex, drugs and duplicity. It’s a wonderful show. He finds true pathos beneath his polished exterior and is the film’s warm, watchful centerpiece, his eyes registering every triumph and insult in turn.
This role changed everything. Chazelle discovered Calva’s headshot while searching for an unknown figure to host the film. The audition process continued throughout 2019 and into the pandemic. Chazelle asked for more tapes and told him to practice his English. “My English is really bad, but really, really, really bad,” he told me. “Past tense? It’s impossible, like the word ‘went.’ I just said, ‘I went to the restaurant yesterday.'”
The education began when he arrived on set. Like Manny, he suddenly found himself in the circle of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, such as Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie. It’s hard not to feel scared. “You think you’re dealing with Pokémon, you know, dealing with gods,” Kalva said. “But when you realize you’re dealing with people, right? They share their stories with you, and you realize they were in a very similar situation at some point…” The stories are helpful: “Brad Pitt dressed up as a chicken in a restaurant,” he points out.
Robbie and her husband, Tom Ackerley, noticed Kalva returning to the hotel alone and invited him to move in. In the evening, they cook, play cards, and go to the beach; in the evening, they cook, play cards, and go to the beach together. Meanwhile, Pete quietly helped improve Kalva’s pronunciation.
before landing BabylonCalva has worked in every department on Mexican film sets—sound, editing, production assistance, anything that got him close to the craft. “Between Manny and I, we had the same path, trying a lot of different jobs as copywriters, trying a lot of different disciplines in filmmaking, and then — boom, we made it, right?”
when Babylon Upon its release, critics were divided and it flopped at the box office. The reaction didn’t faze him. “In my mind, I won,” he said. “apocalypse now, fight clubto name just two examples…even good guy…They failed. I hope, yes, to have this dream, and of course in 20 years people’s views on this issue will change Babylon“.
if Babylon It didn’t exactly conquer the box office, but it did bolster Kalva’s confidence. “Over time,” he says, “I realized there was no imposter syndrome anymore.” His most prominent roles since then have come in unabashedly queer romances riding a fast horsein which he played a Las Vegas con man who becomes the secret lover of a drifter played by Jacob Elordi. Calva wasn’t a little over 6-foot minnow, but kissing the 6-foot-5 Elordi, who was wearing a matching white leotard, was a pain in the neck.
There’s an aspect to Manny’s journey Babylon He’s determined not to repeat it: the way he lied about his Mexican identity. Kalva has always carefully maintained his roots. He comes from Mexico’s independent film scene and is interested in returning. “I’ve been able to work on Mexican productions,” he said. “Now my name has a new value and I like to use it – for example, when a new filmmaker is going to make their first movie and have the movie financed, it helps to have Diego Calva. I’ll sign it. I don’t know if we’ll be able to pull it off because of scheduling or other reasons, but I think, in my opinion, it’s very important to go back to your country and perform there. If I directed one day, I would definitely pursue going back and doing it in Mexico, with a Mexican production, Mexican money, Mexican actors and a Mexican film.”
Directing was the original target. For as long as Calva can remember, he’s wanted to be a filmmaker—at least since watching Martin Scorsese’s films good guy. “It was like, ‘Okay, I want to change my life,'” he recalled.
Calva was born in Mexico City as an only child and raised by his mother, who worked in publishing, in an apartment filled with books. For most of his childhood, it was just the two of them. He believes that his father – who by profession was “a thinker…hard to describe” – was not his biological parent. He said they were a very well-educated family. “So maybe if I were a lawyer, it would be weird, but I was the obvious consequence of my parents.” In addition to writing poetry, young Diego Calva also developed a keen interest in cinema – first Disney, and then the oeuvre of Pedro Almodóvar after his first girlfriend broke up with him. but it is good guy This proved enlightening.
Kalva just finished his job her private hell Directed by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, the man behind this neon thriller drive. The work continues. When our conversation ended, Kalva still couldn’t believe his luck. “since BabylonI wish every day had 48 hours, because I enjoy it so much. He smiled broadly. “Life is good, man.” “
The Night Manager airs on BBC One on New Year’s Day