History Creator / DiegoLuna

* ProductionPosse: With Alonso Ruizpalacios, who directed him on both ''Narcos: Mexico'' and ''Andor'', and Damián García, a cinematographer for ''Narcos: Mexico'' and director of photography for ''Andor''.[[note]]García was also DOP on some ''Andor'' episodes that Ruizpalacios didn't direct, and a cinematographer on movies that Ruizpalacios directed without appearances from Luna.[[/note]]

-->'''Interviewer:''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXX-WX194Us&t=513s "Did [Gareth Edwards] have a film of yours that he was sort of the biggest fan of?"]]
-->'''Luna:''' "I didn't want to ask, because I asked Creator/HarmonyKorine once, and he said, 'Havana Nights!' And I go like, 'aw, no, what? What?!' [...] I was expecting ''Film/YTuMamaTambien'', or some, you know, weird Mexican film no one watched, but, no, he went for that one. So, uh... now I don't ask that."* CreatorThumbprint: Most of his directorial work focuses on the relationships between parents and children, especially fathers and sons, mirroring his own upbringing by a single father. He's admitted in the past that he tends to use acting and directing as (sometimes very expensive) therapy.

--->'''Diego:''' "Can I say it in Spanish?"
--->'''Conan:''' "Sure, you can say it in Spanish."
--->'''Diego:''' "Can I say [bleep] in Spanish?"
--->'''Conan:''' "Yeah. He's allowed to swear in Spanish, right? Go to town! (to producer off to the side) What do you mean 'no'? Why not?! [...] You don't know what he said!"
--->'''Producer''' (able to be lip-read): "I know what ''that'' meant."
* CreatorThumbprint: Most of his directorial work focuses on the relationships between parents and children, especially fathers and sons, mirroring his own upbringing by a single father. He's admitted in the past that he tends to use acting and directing as (sometimes very expensive) therapy.

* OldShame: His telenovela work while he was growing up and a lot of his early English-language work seem like this to him, but he especially hates talking about ''Film/DirtyDancing: Havana Nights'' because he finds his attempts at dancing in that movie embarrassingly bad compared to the dancing he witnessed in Puerto Rico while doing research for his role. He remembers being relieved at first that it flopped in theatres and hoped it would be forgotten, only for it to do really, really well on home video and TV reruns. As a result of that movie, he says, he is too embarrassed to dance even when he wants to.
-->'''Interviewer:''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXX-WX194Us&t=513s "Did [Gareth Edwards] have a film of yours that he was sort of the biggest fan of?"]]
-->'''Luna:''' "I didn't want to ask, because I asked Creator/HarmonyKorine once, and he said, 'Havana Nights!' And I go like, 'aw, no, what? What?!' [...] I was expecting ''Film/YTuMamaTambien'', or some, you know, weird Mexican film no one watched, but, no, he went for that one. So, uh... now I don't ask that."

* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: His natural charisma, boyish smile, and friendly countenance have been cited in multiple productions as a motivator for hiring him for morally ambiguous and even villainous roles. In the 2004 film ''Criminal'', Luna plays a fledgling con-man and is told in-universe by his mentor that he "looks like a nice guy". Much later, Creator/GarethEdwards said that "you just want to be his mate", which is important for a role where Luna's character represents the dirty side of ''Franchise/StarWars'''s normally unambiguously heroic Rebel Alliance. And then in ''Series/{{Narcos}}: Mexico'', where his character is not only villainous but borders on AxCrazy at times, showrunner Eric Newman had this to say:

* DawsonCasting: A few notable examples. He was in his twenties when he played 16 year old Button in ''Film/OpenRange'' and 36 when he starred in ''Film/RogueOne'' where his character was officially 26 years old (but that's ''Franchise/StarWars'' time for you). It does have the effect of making Cassian Andor look realistically hardened and weary from his lifetime of service to the Rebellion. ''Series/{{Andor}}'', which takes place five years before ''Rogue One'', actually retcons Cassian's age to be five years older than past sources, which would make him 26 at the start of the series and 31 at the time of ''Rogue'', and thus only five years off of his first portrayal of the character. To look younger for ''Andor'', he simply shaved his beard off.

His parents are Alejandro Luna, a respected theatrical set designer in Mexico, and Fiona Alexander, a Scottish/English expat who worked as a costume designer until her death in a car accident when Diego was a toddler. Alejandro started taking young Diego to work with him at the theatre, which eventually led to Diego taking his first acting role at age six in the theatre play his father had been working on, and the rest is history.

Diego Luna Alexander (born December 29, 1979 in Toluca, Mexico) is a Mexican actor, producer, and director.

* DawsonCasting: A few notable examples. He was in his twenties when he played 16 year old Button in ''Film/OpenRange'' and 36 when he starred in ''Film/RogueOne'' where his character was officially 26 years old (but that's ''Franchise/StarWars'' time for you). It does have the effect of making Cassian Andor look realistically hardened and weary from his lifetime of service to the Rebellion. ''Series/{{Andor}}'', which takes place five years before ''Rogue One'', actually retcons Cassian's age to be five years older than past sources, which would make him 26 at the start of the series and 31 at the time of ''Rogue'', and thus only five years older than his first portrayal of the character. For ''Andor'', he simply shaved his beard off.

* DawsonCasting: A few notable examples. He was in his twenties when he played 16 year old Button in ''Film/OpenRange'' and 36 when he starred in ''Film/RogueOne'' where his character was officially 26 years old (but that's ''Franchise/StarWars'' time for you). It does have the effect of making Cassian Andor look realistically hardened and weary from his lifetime of service to the Rebellion. The age difference is even more pronounced in the spinoff series ''Andor'', which takes place five years prior to ''Rogue One'', when Cassian is 21, and that began shooting when Luna was ''41'', nearly twice his character's age. For that, he simply shaved his beard off.

* MethodActing: In a small, very specific way- whenever he has to smoke on camera, he insists on using real cigarettes, not herbals (read: tobacco and nicotine-free). He insists that he can tell when an actor is smoking an herbal cigarette because, he says, they don't give you a "hit" and so the actor takes excessively long drags on it. (Also, he says, herbals taste terrible, like a salad set on fire.) And so, for authenticity, he smokes real cigarettes onscreen, which sometimes bites him if there are a lot of scenes where he's smoking, like in ''Series/{{Narcos}}: Mexico'', where he burned up at least a pack a day due to his character either smoking or lighting up in almost every scene.

* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: His natural charisma, striking good looks, and friendly countenance have been cited in multiple productions as a motivator for hiring him for morally ambiguous and even villainous roles. In the 2004 film ''Criminal'', Luna plays a fledgling con-man and is told in-universe by his mentor that he "looks like a nice guy". Much later, Creator/GarethEdwards said that "you just want to be his mate", which is important for a role where Luna's character represents the dirty side of ''Franchise/StarWars'''s normally unambiguously heroic Rebel Alliance. And then in ''Series/{{Narcos}}: Mexico'', where his character is not only villainous but borders on AxCrazy at times, showrunner Eric Newman had this to say:

** He has played Zoe Saldana's love interest in ''Film/TheTerminal'', ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'' and ''WesternAnimation/MayaAndTheThree''.

* DawsonCasting: A few notable examples. He was in his twenties when he played 16 year old Button in ''Film/OpenRange'' and 36 when he starred in ''Film/RogueOne'' where his character was officially 26 years old (but that's ''Franchise/StarWars'' time for you). It does have the effect of making Cassian Andor look realistically hardened and weary from his lifetime of service to the Rebellion. The age difference is only going to be even more pronounced in the spinoff series ''Andor'', which takes place five years prior to ''Rogue One'', when Cassian is 21, and began shooting when Luna was ''41'', nearly twice his character's age.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: As early as 2017, he'd been tapped to play Tony Montana in an eventual reboot of ''Film/Scarface1983'', complete with Creator/AlPacino's blessing, but Luna would later [[https://collider.com/diego-luna-leaves-scarface-remake/ state in early 2020]] that he'd left the project.

His parents are Alejandro Luna, a respected theatrical set designer in Mexico, and Fiona Alexander, a Scottish/English expat who worked as a costume designer until her death in a car accident when Diego was a toddler. Alejandro started taking young Diego to work with him at the theatre, which eventually led to Diego taking his first acting role at age six in the theatre play his father had been working on, and the rest is history.

----

In 2016, he starred in ''Franchise/StarWars'' anthology film ''Film/RogueOne'' as Captain Cassian Andor, re-catapulting him back into international attention.

** ''Andor'' (2022)

* CastingGag: He has played Zoe Saldana's love interest in ''Film/TheTerminal'', ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'' and ''WesternAnimation/MayaAndTheThree''.

* ThoseTwoActors: With Creator/GaelGarciaBernal; they have known each other practically since birth. After both did Mexican telenovela work as children, co-starring in the film ''Film/YTuMamaTambien'' brought them to international attention and they later went on to co-found Canana Films and Ambulante A.C. Each continues to describe the other as their best friend and, fandom being what it is, there is more than one tribute to their {{Bromance}} out there on the internet [[https://www.buzzfeed.com/whitneyjefferson/diego-luna-and-gael-garcia-bernal-love-fest]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOL72MsLTWc]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7i5Xu7Qtmc]].

* ''WesternAnimation/DCLeagueOfSuperPets'' as [[Franchise/GreenLantern Chip]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MayaAndTheThree'' (2020) as Zatz

* CastingGag: He has played Zoe Saldana's love interest in ''Film/TheTerminal'', ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'' and ''WesternAnimation/MayaAndTheThree'' .

* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: His natural charisma, striking good looks and friendly countenance have been cited in multiple productions as a motivator for hiring him for morally ambiguous and even villainous roles. In the 2004 film ''Criminal'', Luna plays a fledgling con-man and is told in-universe by his mentor that he "looks like a nice guy". Much later, Creator/GarethEdwards said that "you just want to be his mate", which is important for a role where Luna's character represents the dirty side of ''Franchise/StarWars'''s normally unambiguously heroic Rebel Alliance. And then in ''Series/{{Narcos}}: Mexico'', where his character is not only villainous but borders on AxCrazy at times, showrunner Eric Newman had this to say:

* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: His natural charisma and friendly countenance have been cited in multiple productions as a motivator for hiring him for morally ambiguous and even villainous roles. In the 2004 film ''Criminal'', Luna plays a fledgling con-man and is told in-universe by his mentor that he "looks like a nice guy". Much later, Creator/GarethEdwards said that "you just want to be his mate", which is important for a role where Luna's character represents the dirty side of ''Franchise/StarWars'''s normally unambiguously heroic Rebel Alliance. And then in ''Series/{{Narcos}}: Mexico'', where his character is not only villainous but borders on AxCrazy at times, showrunner Eric Newman had this to say:

** He has played Zoe Saldana's love interest in ''Film/TheTerminal'', ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'' and ''WesternAnimation/MayaAndTheThree'' .

* ''Todo va a estar bien'' (2021), creator and director