"This is a really bad time for movies in Mexico," Luna says. "The government hasn't realized that Mexico is known in the world for its culture and for its corruption, and they are choosing not to support the culture, and that is sad." Luna's passion for acting is understandable. He was quite literally raised in the theater. Growing up in the Mexico City neighborhood of Coyoacan, he spent hours following around his father--his mother, a costume designer, died when he was two years-old--as he prepared sets as a production designer for theaters and opera houses.
At 7 he was invited to play a small role in a play and has been acting ever since, he says. "I like telling lies to people, and I found out there was a job that paid me to do that. I remember being five or six years old, watching my father and learning all the lines of the play to share time with him." The theater became a surrogate parent to the young Luna, who found it more enjoyable to hang around a set than to play soccer with his friends. By the age of twelve, he made his television debut in the tele-novela El Abuelo Y Yo and went on to star in several more television productions before being cast in director Javier Bourges' Academy Award-winning 1991 short film El Ultimo Fin Del Ano.
"In Mexico you have to do TV to pay your rent and theater to have fun and learn the trade," he says. Not that he has had much trouble finding work these days. Since Y Tu Mama Tambien, the actor has been offered a steady stream of work in Hollywood including a role opposite Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall in the Western Open Range, as well as in Spain where he worked on the film adaptation of the novel Soldados de Salamina by Spanish writer Javier Cercas. Nicole Guillemet, the director of the Miami International Film Festival, says Luna is "definitely a young actor to watch. Since 200, he has been doing extraordinary work. The three films he is in that will be coming out in 2004 are going to really propel him into the limelight of an audience that will love him."
One of those films, The Terminal, has Luna in the role of an airport employee who befriends an immigrant (played by Hanks) who takes up residence in the terminal after authorities refuse his entry because his country of origin has ceased to exist. Being on the set with Hanks and director Spielberg has been a revelation, Luna says. "That they are so successful and still enjoy what they do a lot, and work a lot, gives me a lot of hope. Steven gives so much energy to what he does. It's almost like watching a young director giving a lot of passion to his work."
He added that Spielberg "allows people to collaborate. He enjoys making people happy and telling stories. And the same with Tom. He's also very generous. You would imagine that such big names are tough to work with, but it's the opposite."
Luna hopes to work in the future with directors Paul Thomas Anderson and the Coen Brothers as well as a new crop of Mexican directors that he says are up-and-coming. He also hopes to reunite professionally with director Cuaron and on screen with his best friend and Y Tu Mama Tambien co-star Bernal, with whom he shared a passionate kiss in the final moments of that movie.
"You know, that kiss follows me around everywhere. Everyone asked me about it," Luna laughs. "Who's the best kisser? Maribel, for sure. With Gael I had to remember I was an actor getting paid to do that. I haven't kissed another guy since."
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