Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna wanted to write an anti-fable where losing was winning your freedom.
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Spoilers for all six episodes ofLa Maquinabelow.
We wanted to find an anti-fable where losing was winning your freedom.
Garcia Bernal plays boxer Esteban Osuna, nicknamed La Maquina for his years of machine-like efficiency in the ring.
Estebans pain about his fathers absence inspires him to be a more present father.
Andys wife leaves him, giving him the humility he desperately needed.
You two started working on this idea a decade ago.
We wanted to find an anti-fable where losing was winning your freedom.
Thats when the inclusion of Otras Personas came about.
Diego Luna:The project transitioned.
In every version, there was always the need for understanding to come at the end.
Its a beautiful moment of friendship.
What experiences inspired you to approach the losing is winning theme?G.G.B.
:We live in a society that is pulsating for the perpetuity of success.
Theres no manual for how to escape from that.
Success is so, so relative.
I had to find my own understanding of that, and make that not bother me.
So I had to say no to things.
I had to realize that what I said no to was as important to what I said yes to.
You step out and you decide to witness from afar.
And Im not there.
The sport is about winning and losing.
In the finale, Esteban gives all he has in one last boxing match and then retires.
The final scene shows Esteban helping to train his sons at the boxing gym.
How did this become the end of the season?
Did you film chronologically?D.L.:[Laughs.]
It was one of the first things, no?
:It was the first thing we shot together.
What was that like, to do it in reverse?G.G.B.
:That happened withY Tu Mama Tambien.
We shot the last sequence at the beginning.
:Theres a practicality to it emotionally.
The ending is Aristotelian.
Theres nothing left to tell.
Its a bit of an epilogue: The hurricane passed and the remnants are still there.
It liberates us from trying to gain the momentum to send them to that climax.
We dont have to work for that anymore.
Its there, its what it is.
We might feel one thing, but the camera is seeing something different.
Let the narrative be a consequence and not the guiding force.
:It sets the energy and the expectations in the right place.
Its like the big difference between shooting a documentary and a film.
You did not succeed if nothing transformed you.
How do we do it?
We know exactly where were going, and we wont rest until we get there.
Youve known each other your whole lives.
Youve acted together before.
Was there a moment on this set where you were surprised by a choice the other made?G.G.B.
It was his way of concentrating, but not in that kind of tortured actor way.
Diego was very open with the joy of this character.
I was surprised Wow, hes really going for it all the time.
Andys energy kept the set alive.
He was making fun out of everyone and everything.
:There are two things Im gonna say.
I felt his characters ability to feel, and that robust energy takes over the story.
And the other is, in this project, everything, literally everything, was about us doing it.
Every second we were reminded, Were doing this because you guys got drunk in Berlin.
:[Laughs]
D.L.
:Were doing this because you guys want to act together again.
Were gonna do this because you guys wanna shoot inChurubusco.
He really let go and is just in the moment.
Fans ofY Tu Mama Tambienwere probably looking for that moment of exchanged love.
:Its completely different.
The beauty of working together every 10 years is that wearedifferent.
We dont know what would have happened to the guys ofY Tu Mama Tambien20 years later.
Probably well find a parallel for it, but I dont think it was even part of our conversation.
These characters come from a very different background.
They have a very different dynamic.
So there is a very strong connection.
I might say for both of us, its always there because it was a fundamental project.
You both do karaoke with Eiza Gonzalezs Irasema in the first episode.
How did you want to introduce those characters?G.G.B.
We said, They must havecantarseand sublimate.
We must find a way that karaoke is always there for the guys.
Theres history between the three of them, in fact its a triangle.
As soon as you see them you go, Oh, shit, yes.
Theyve been doing this for years.
:It was very interesting to do choreography for amateur lovers of karaoke.
It made it really funny and very 80s.
:At the beginning of shooting we said, We have to record it perfectly and really rehearse.
And then … TV.
You prep, you discuss, and then you have hours or minutes to execute.
We had so much fun, but we had to do it really fast.
We squeezed everything out of it.
We really went for it, no?
:The one who did it really well from the beginning was Eiza.
She was like, Come on guys, catch up.
:Youre being nice, because she didnt say, Guys, catch up.
She was like, Fuck, Diego.
Get it right, you fucker!
G.G.B.:[Laughs.]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
:I didnt go through the rehearsal with them because the process of prosthetics really isolated me.
The same thing with the karaoke rehearsals: I rehearsed by myself for very few minutes.
Obviously they were gonna look very synchronized.
:Theres no way Andy would exist in English.
That would be Napoleons worst nightmare.
For us, it was not a choice.
Its not even a question.
Definitely what Diego mentioned about Andy not existing.
But also, in Spanish, theres two verbs for being: permanent and transitory.
So youre always on the verge of an existential question: Are things written like this?
Are they going to be the way they are?
Or are they always conditional to some change?
Thats engraved in the language, and that offers a huge span of possibilities to to play with.
We dont know what Otras Personas are, really.
What do they do in life?
What is their job?
We wanted to play with that dimension.
Theyre everywhere; they reflect all available possibilities.G.G.B.
:Yeah, exactly.
And to put it in a more superficial example, were comparing Mexico and the United States.
The United States is more a culture of winning, no?
Its always known as the culture of winning.
G.G.B.:Exactly.
And in Mexico, it is not the culture of winning.
I dont know what it is.
We relate more to knowing that success is not the ultimate thing in life.
:A great example of that is the Day of the Dead.
The idea of celebrating the people who are gone.
We want to keep them here and to keep them around.
Its a very difficult concept to understand in other cultures.
