Diego Luna on Lifelong Friendship withLa Máquina’s Gael Garcia Bernal: 'Something Bigger Keeps Us Together' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Y Tu Mamá TambiénputGael Garcia BernalandDiego Lunaon the Hollywood map more than two decades ago, but the two Mexican-born actors go back even further.

Years before the 2001 coming-of-age drama, they co-starred in two plays as child actors — and their parents were good friends. Now, they’ve reunited again inLa Máquina,Hulu’s first Spanish-language series.

Bernal, 45, stars as Esteban, or the titular “La Máquina,” a longtime boxing champion, and Luna portrays his ambitious appearance-obsessed manager. A good chunk of the six-episode limited series takes place in the boxing ring, portraying the punishing back-and-forth physicality of the sport. The show also tackles various themes, including brotherhood and the existential quandary some experience towards the end of an illustrious career.

“Boxing in itself is also very universal because it is a sport of where you win, you lose, and there’s always that interesting, very curious dichotomy that exists between sport and life,” Bernal explains.  “People that are very good at sports think that life is the same as the sport they play, and it isn’t.”

Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna at ‘La Máquina’s’ afterparty in Hollywood, California in October 2024.Matt Winkelmeyer/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty

Matt Winkelmeyer/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty

Luna, for his part, acknowledges the two actors have put in the work to keep their bond strong given the demands of their careers and raising children. Luna shares two children with ex Camila Sodi — Jeronimo, 16, and Fiona, 14 — while Bernal has three children — Lázaro, 15, and daughter Libertad, 13 — with ex Dolores Fonzi and a 2 year old daughter with Fernanda Aragonés.

“We’ve done a lot to cultivate this friendship, and we’ve asked each other many times in life, ‘You’ve got to wake up here. We have to take care of this.’ Sometimes him, sometimes me, sometimes someone else comes and says like, ‘Guys, are you sure you’re doing what you have to be doing?’” Luna explains. “But there is something bigger that keeps us together.”

Daniel Daza/Anhelo Prod/Ifc/Kobal/Shutterstock

Bernal explains that being deeply curious, wide-ranging artists also plays a role in keeping their friendship alive.

“We grew up in the theater … and maybe this goes for everybody as well, as an actor you have the ability of playing other lives,” Bernal explains. “There’s a poetic sublimation of the desires and the experience that any artist would love, which is to live many lives within one life. And we get a chance to experience that.”“Some actors really nurture on that. Some actors don’t nurture from that,” he adds. “But the fact that we’ve nurtured that allows us to also experience the transcendence of what we do. But the deep aspects of it, the insignificance, the fun, we can share all of that.”

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La Máquinais available to stream on Hulu.

source: people.com