Friendship is at the core of this beautifully shot, perfectly written, wondrously acted series, which just began streaming on Hulu in the US and Disney+ around the world. And for those of us who missed watching this wonderful duo act together, it comes at the perfect time.
They say you should not meet your heroes. But in the case of Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal, whose careers I’ve watched since almost the very beginning, it proved a great experience. These two men are as lovely and funny and kind as they seem to be on the big, and now little, screen. And their friendship is real.
By now you must have read the NY Times piece featuring the duo, and must have read tons of coverage on La Máquina. If you haven’t, I’ve got a bit of insight, as I was privy to a special preview screening in London, complete with a reception and Q&A featuring Luna and García Bernal. The latter sported a very big two-tone beard, along with a pin-striped suit and a dark mustard-colored turtleneck. Luna has also grown a beard, though a shorter one, and wore a dark silver suit with a black t-shirt. Both brought their sense of humor and warm personalities along to the special event, signing autographs for fans after the screening and mingling with the guests there. During the pre-screening Q&A, when García Bernal’s microphone seemed to malfunction, Luna immediately reached across and held up his own to help his friend and co-star. It’s a moment I managed to capture with my iPhone. But also a kind of inner capturing of “how a person makes you feel” in their presence.
Photo © E. Nina Rothe
La Máquina is the story of an aging boxer (García Bernal) and his attempt to retire from the ring with a bang — a winning bang that is. He is aided by his very Latin manager Andy Lujan, played by Luna sporting lips prosthetics — to mimic collagen injections of course — tweezed eyebrows complete with a Botox-ed bridge, and wearing a fake bum. Yes, you read that right, a fake posterior, something which a friend confirmed is a thing in Latin America. For both men, and women.
But the fight which Esteban “La Máquina” Osuna is preparing for might not turn out the way he wishes. Behind the scenes, the underworld is threatening Andy unless they throw the fight — allow the opponent to win, regardless of his skills. And Esteban is experiencing some weird sensations, which may or may not be psychological. It’s all there, drama, action, personal connections, and a lot of humor. So much so that I laughed out loud a couple of times during the screening of the first episode. Granted, I’d had a glass, or two of rosé, but this was not the wine laughing. While the series has dark undertones, it lives best in shades of tragicomedy.
“It was in Berlin, we were drunk, at night, at the film festival,” Luna admitted before the special screening, “and we talked about doing something together and we decided that night that boxing was going to be the context of the story, that it was going to be about a boxer and a manager and that Karaoke was going to be involved…” García Bernal added, “we also said this was going to be about a boxer saying goodbye and then another element…” Luna jumped in on queue, “yeah, yeah my butt wasn’t going to be my butt.” The audience broke out in laughter, of course, at the mention of Luna’s “gigantic butt on screen,” which he admitted was his first time. “I’m not spoiling anything,” the actor continued, tongue in cheek — pardon the pun.
About the butt, Luna even added, “if you like it, you can buy it of course, I got it in a store.”
García Bernal next addressed copying with becoming a boxer, a part which he inhabits, very credibly on screen, complete with a six-pack and all. “I got into boxing when we were coming up with the idea and was training a lot for a project that never came about, and I was really into it,” the actor with the boyish good looks admits, “it became a discipline, it became my sport, I felt I was good at receiving punches and at resisting them — part of the thing is that we love boxing, we grew up with it and I’ve been training a lot and Diego had done a wonderful documentary about [Mexican boxer] Julio Cesar Chavez so why not make a story about boxing.” The actor continued that the duo agreed they didn’t want to make a typical boxing linear success story, rather to tell the kind of grey areas of how a boxer says goodbye. “How to say goodbye from success, in the world we live in now, where success if like a cage you can’t escape,” García Bernal admitted somberly.
Then, when the time approached to make the series, García Bernal had to go into “deep, proper, solid training, three hours a day — one hour cardio and two hours of boxing and also eating a lot of broccoli.” The final result, he admitted, was there, “but it was hurting all the time, it helped me for the character, but I was hurting all the time.”
Out of his pain and their effort comes one of the most beautiful friendship stories on screen, and off. And one you can now watch on Hulu or Disney+. Trust me, you won’t want to miss this one.
Images courtesy of Hulu/Disney+, used with permission.