Diego Luna is one of the the biggest star in the galaxy far, far away. His role in Andor, available with a Disney+ subscription, is widely regarded as one of the best pieces of the entire Star Wars franchise. It’s made Luna a more high profile actor, and it’s helped him (mostly) break free from being offered the same sort of movie roles again and again.
Diego Luna recently participated in a roundtable discussion for THR that included the likes of Walton Goggins, Eddie Redmayne, Jeffrey Wright, Adam Scott and Cooper Koch. He told the group how, prior to being cast in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, he was only offered roles as drug dealers. Luna explained…
Before Star Wars, the only projects I’d get offered would be drug dealers. And then I could be the nice drug dealer and not the vicious one but still a drug dealer. Because the system wasn’t even sending messages of, like, ‘Yes, you could find a way to be yourself and still work in those projects that you’re looking at and hoping to see yourself reflected in.
A lot of people likely became aware of Diego Luna for his role in Narcos: Mexico, where he did, in fact, play a drug lord. While the shift in the roles being offered to Diego Luna may have coincided with Star Wars, he doesn’t credit the franchise exclusively with changing his career. Instead, he thinks there’s been a larger shift in the way the entertainment world works that allows the audience to be in more control of demanding what they want to see. The actor continued…
But I do think that’s changed, and the middleman between the audience and us is not there anymore. There’s no guy with a cigar saying, ‘You! You’re gonna be a star, boy.’ People just click now, and suddenly it’s like, ‘Shit, they’re watching a Mexican show.’ You can be as far away as you can from the system, and the system will go and search for you if there’s a need to hear your story.
While the modern entertainment landscape, specifically the popularity of streaming, has arguably had some strong negative impacts, such as on theatrical exhibition, there are other ways that streaming has certainly changed things for the better. The global reach of most streaming platforms means audiences all over the world can watch shows and movies from anywhere, and it gives the ability to see performers in different ways.
All this being said, it apparently hasn’t ended the endless stream of offers to Diego Luna to play drug dealers. It’s just that now he doesn’t feel obligated to take the roles simply because they are offered. He knows there are roles out there that will be more of what he wants to be doing, not simply what others tell him he should be doing. Luna says…
Oh, I still get a lot of drug dealers. (Laughter.) It’s just I’m not looking for what they want me to play. I can look for the stuff I want to do. It’s that freedom that comes with understanding that people today care about specificity. I remember being asked, ‘Are you going to clean up your accent?’ That’s not part of the conversation anymore. But when I was 20, it was like, ‘Man, you’re great, and if you work with your accent, you’ll be doing what this person or that person is doing.’ And you go, ‘Why would I like to do that? This is what makes me unique.’
Diego Luna will next be seen in the upcoming film adaptation of the musical Kiss of the Spider Woman with Jennifer Lopez. It certainly won’t be the same old drug dealer role.
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