Okay.
Wait a second.
I need to put these things on.
You look really cool and professional.
Yeah.
I'm part of the franchise.
Star Wars franchise.
Okay.
Hi.
My name is Diego Luna.
And I feel, oh, damn it.
I feel, I have to say, I feel really comfortable.
Oh, good.
About being Conan O'Brien's friend.
Thank you.
I feel very safe.
Fall is here, hear the yell.
Back to school, ring the bell.
Brand new shoes, walking loose.
Climb the fence, books and pens.
I can tell that we are gonna be friends.
Hey there, welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend.
I'm joined by Sona Movsesian, Matt Gourley.
Nice to see you folks.
Why'd you pause?
I paused because I was thinking and then I thought, yeah, it is nice to see you.
Sona, you're having a bit of an issue today.
You had a bit of a spill and this is a common problem for you, is it not?
It's a common problem?
You're a spiller.
You know what?
Before I get angry.
You know what I love?
You always say, what?
And then immediately say, yes.
I know.
Because you are right.
I do spill on myself a lot.
And I have to be more aware of it because this is filmed.
But earlier today, I had a dish with pesto and I spilled it all over.
Oh, I see it.
Yeah.
Do you?
It's right there.
How did you try to get it out?
With a Tide stick.
Shout out Tide.
Well, not shout out Tide, because I don't think it worked.
Well, you used the Tide pesto stick.
Yeah, it's got to be specifically Tide pesto.
I really got it in.
And then it was wet for a really long time.
They were like two wet spots.
And then I thought, oh, when it dries, maybe it'll be cleared up.
And it's not.
And it's bothering me.
That's got to go to it.
Isn't it?
Boy.
And can I say, I've known you quite a while, Sona.
And you have been traditionally a spiller.
I'm a sloppy eater.
Yes.
Oh, wow.
Well, you are.
Who else is a sloppy eater?
You are a sloppy eater.
I don't spell on myself, though.
I always wear a giant bib.
And I say goo-goo-ga-ga when I'm eating.
And I have to feed you.
And you have to feed me.
And why do I wear a bonnet when I eat?
And I kick my feet up in the air in little booties.
Yeah, and you're sitting in a high chair.
I often doze off, and then you put me right in the crib.
Sona, why?
It's just something I used to request.
And you went along with it.
I want out.
Six foot four baby needs to go to bed bed.
Look, we all have our fetishes.
That was mine.
What are you going to do in the future to avoid these spills?
Because nothing.
It's just a part of my life.
It's like something I know about myself.
And I think I need to carry more Tide sticks.
Shout out Tide.
Well, or something that's going to work.
Did the Tide stick work, do you think?
No.
Okay.
Well, then why do you want more of them sent this way?
And maybe they just need to work on their formula.
Or maybe Tide's going to say look, we're a good product, but there's nothing we can do with Sonomos S Like.
That's not fair.
Like, that's not fair.
You know I do have a good sponge, but you just threw us in the Pacific and you're bitching that it's still.
The Pacific is still there.
So I'm going to say Tide.
I bet you're a great product because I can almost not see it.
And it's Sonam Obsession.
Yeah, really.
Good work, Tide.
I have a lot of them all over the place.
Sometimes they- What, Tide sticks?
Yeah, I do.
Oh, so you're like someone who hides knives around the house.
Only for you, it's Tide sticks.
What do you mean?
Yeah, what do you mean hide knives?
You know, when they hide weapons in movies, when people have secreted weapons and guns around the room.
That's you, except it's all cleaning sticks.
Yeah, it is.
But when you have a three-year-old, I'm the same way.
Your clothes are constantly covered in food from your kids, you know?
Yeah, it's from the kids.
Yeah.
Oh, wait a minute.
Uh-oh.
No, it's from me.
Oh, wow.
Do you often get food on your kids?
They're very clean.
They're very tidy.
They're very clean.
You have three-and-a-half-year-olds who are always wearing little white tuxedos and very fastidious about their eating habits.
Yeah.
And you're like, hey, guys, this burrito's good that mama's blah.
Yeah.
Mommy, mommy, our white tuxedos.
You know, I love eating.
I love eating.
And I'm a shoveler into my mouth.
And so it just sometimes it spills on me.
And that's OK.
You know what I love?
It's an expression of joy.
I love that you love eating.
I eat quickly.
I unhinge my mouth, get it in and swallow it.
And I don't enjoy it.
You have to enjoy it.
I know, but will you agree that... Yeah, yeah.
It's just... Yeah.
I've got to get rid of that.
I'm getting better, but that just get to the grave mentality.
Get this food in and then get to bed and blah.
I like.
You know, for me it's like I swear.
I feel like after every bite I sometimes I can hear in my brain going yum yum yum yum yum, and then i'll do it again.
I'll be like yum yum, yum.
You know, i can tell when sona's liking her food is that she'll have a knife and fork and if she's really liking it she conducts a little bit while she's chomping.
She does she's like and then she i can see her.
I've seen her conducting an orchestra.
That's not there because she's really liking her food.
You do that.
People in cartoons do that.
That's nice, i like that.
Yeah, you should be more like me, I should.
You know what?
I've always- You should aspire to love the food you eat as much as I love my food.
And love life.
Yeah, I do love life.
As much as you do.
You're Zorba.
But yeah, okay.
All right.
No, you are.
You're Zorba the Armenian.
Okay.
Also quarter Greek.
And also quarter Greek.
You're Zorba the quarter Greek.
I think, and you get to like eat such delicious food.
I feel like, okay.
All right.
Nevermind.
Whenever the waiter brings it over, I'm like let's just he starts to say now let me tell you what we did with the food.
And I'm like, let's get it in me.
Grave waiting.
Sir, what we do here, it's very beautiful.
We infuse the olives.
Just push it in the hole and open the casket and shut it.
So someone else can live.
I want to give up my spot.
That's me.
I don't know what my problem is, but that's always been me.
From now on, in your head, just go yum, yum, yum, yum.
Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum.
Conducting, conducting an orchestra that isn't there.
What about you, girl?
You just seem like someone who can live.
You live life.
You enjoy it.
You know I'm more like.
I mean either more like you, but lately I've been more like you, but I wish I could say it was, because it's like ah life.
It's more stress.
I'm like finding in my 20s, it was weed.
40s was alcohol and 50s is food is how I cope.
Oh, okay. kind of like I've used up all those other ones, you know?
So now I love food, but it's like a stress coping mechanism.
You skipped heroin.
That's my 60s.
Heroin in your 60s, never a bad idea.
This message brought to you by... Yesterday, I was having lunch with my friend and I had to come here for the... Got to come here.
I had to come here.
And there was a piece of sourdough on the table and I was like, should I take it with me?
And then I did.
And I just came here just shoving a giant thing, slice of sourdough in my face.
So you walked down the street holding the sourdough that you had taken from the table.
A huge slice of sourdough.
And I was like, is this a normal thing to do, to just eat a giant piece of bread?
That's okay.
That's kind of Parisian, you know?
Yeah.
Exactly.
Is it?
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Cool.
You were walking along the banks of the Seine here in Larchmont.
Yeah.
And there was someone.
Did you pass an old man playing the accordion?
No.
Yeah.
Did you pass a painter painting a nice landscape?
How about a mime?
A mime?
Okay.
Yeah.
We went too far.
Yeah.
A lot of stereotypes.
Well, anyway, I do think I should try and be more like you, even if it means the occasional spill.
Okay.
Enjoy life, live life, tied.
It's the stick that can help anyone but Sona.
My guest today has starred in such movies as Y Tu Mama Tambien and Rogue One, a Star Wars story.
You can also see him in season two of the hit Disney Plus series, Andor.
I love Andor.
I know you're a fan too, Matt.
Yes, sir.
I'm thrilled he's here today.
Diego Luna, welcome.
You feel safe being with me.
Being your friend.
Yes, being my friend.
I mean, I can use that, right?
Yeah.
I've been using it.
Yeah.
To get into places, to get away with doing things that are dodgy, you know?
Like, oh, but I'm Conan's friend.
And they go, oh, of course.
Now we get it.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
Like...
I'm glad that my name creates that much of a sense of protection for you.
Yes.
You live.
We were just talking before we began that you live in Mexico City and in the south or, as I say, el sur.
El sur, claro.
Porque yo hablo español perfectamente.
Listen, Eduardo, Eduardo, it's not Eduardo.
Eduardo is in a constant hell of me, pretending that I am fluent in Spanish and understand the culture and that maybe I'm I'm from Spain.
Central America or Mexico.
You look it.
I look it.
You can blend right in.
And then you immediately bonded with Eduardo because of the pain.
As soon as we arrive to a place, as soon as you get into a place and someone speaks Spanish, you go like oh okay, I'm comfortable now.
I mean, he's going to protect me.
That's why you're comfortable being his friend.
Obviously, yeah.
But what about when someone like me butchers it in a well-intentioned way?
I mean it makes me.
It makes me feel like yeah, like I've done something good in my life.
You know that I get to witness you trying so hard because you know, like the first times I went to your show,
Yeah.
It's you.
I mean, I'm freaking out always before going in there.
Oh.
Yes.
Just because I'm so scary.
I'm tall, very, very white.
Well, yeah.
And you have an audience and they laugh, you know, to what you say.
Or they're punished.
Or they're punished.
No one pays them.
So they laugh at what you say and that makes everything you say...
So like, yeah, so then you're freaking out.
So it's kind of nice to see you now freaking out trying to speak another language.
Yes, yes.
Well, you did.
You and I have a bond, which is very important to me.
Yes.
Which is many years ago, during the first Trump administration, my staff and I, when we were doing the show at TBS and you were part of the Sona we worked it out with Televisa.
And we did a show from Mexico City.
And you were a guest.
And it was really a beautiful thing.
I loved doing that show.
I did a monologue en espanol and got through it.
And the audience actually kind of laughed.
It's sort of the right places.
And I think there was some pity there.
But there's some pity.
Oh, he's trying.
He's trying.
He's really trying, which is how my wife.
They were all televisactors.
Yeah.
All the people from the telenovelas were sitting there.
Didn't they look extra cute?
They were so beautiful.
I did.
But you came on the show.
No, you did amazing.
I just want to make sure people understand.
You really put yourself there, which was something like it needed guts.
It was like a big risk and a lot of fun to see you really going for it.
Well, you know, it was fun is Vicente Fox.
Yeah.
The former president of Mexico came on the show and I still they're in my office.
He gave me these boots.
Holy crap.
Which say no, no fucking wall.
And they put my name on them.
And they're fantastic.
They're fantastic boots.
He found out my size.
He does good boots, I guess.
That's what he does good.
His main contribution, I think, as the president was he made good boots.
I'm sure he charged someone for those boots.
I mean, they might be a gift to you, but not somebody had to pay for that.
You know, we were talking earlier about we did that show and it was a very special time.
And we thought, well, those times those times ended.
Yeah.
And now in some ways it those in some ways those times have returned with a vengeance.
And I know you touched on it a little bit when you first started talking about how you feel safe being here.
And these are tricky times, but.
It is.
And, you know, we're not the most political podcast.
We're really not a political podcast at all.
But you have, we have to address the fact that you and I had this really special time in this special moment during that first administration.
And then many of us thought that we were moving past that to maybe a better future.
And here we are again.
Yeah, history repeats, and reloaded kind of thing.
I don't know, I'm shocked on many things of what we're witnessing these days.
And I think the best way to talk about this is I don't think I can fully understand what uh, some part of the community, the Hispanic community in this country, are going through.
You know the, the fear and the.
It's like I can't imagine, I mean, how that is.
You know that you dedicate your life work uh, to to build something.
And suddenly they tell you they're going to take that away from you instantly, just just because of it.
It's just, it's quite scary.
Yeah.
Scary times.
It's also just pointing out that we I've been living in Los Angeles for many years and Matt and Sony are from Los Angeles.
But you live here in Los Angeles and everybody, just everybody.
I work with everybody who works with me, everybody who helps me in any way or helps my family in any way with you know everything that needs to be done with our house.
There's no...
In every way.
Every day, I am working with people who are from Mexico or Central America or South America.
They are such a vital, they are the community in Los Angeles.
It just feels like it's such a, they're doing all the work.
Yeah.
Which is really powerful to see every day.
And I have empathy because if you're paying attention you understand that it feels like 80 of what's getting done here to sustain society.
You know our lives and our culture and our community is coming from south of the border.
So I didn't mean for things to get this heavy this quickly because you're such a funny guy.
But I think I just had a little bit of a flashback to the times we've spoken before.
And I know that this is very important to you and you're a very proud and vocal member of your community.
And so...
It's meaningful to me that you're here today.
Yeah.
Because I've been thinking about it a lot lately and I was very happy you're coming.
And it meant so much to me that you did our show in Mexico City.
And I consider you a very special friend for that reason.
I consider you a special friend too.
And I was very disappointed to hear that, because every time I have to come and promote something I always go like can we go to Conan?
And I'm glad we're here.
You're creating the impression that people say no, no.
No.
Well, it's just that you don't have a show anymore.
That would not be a good move for you.
Diego, we're trying to build up your career, and it's really going great for you.
Conan's the wrong move at this time.
No, you're always welcome here.
I love that now you have this new format.
I love it.
And it's good we started like that.
It's good we said it because it's important.
You cannot come to this country.
You cannot come to California.
You can not be in front of a microphone and not say something about that.
You know what situation with this community is going through and uh, and the amount of of support and help they they need these days.
You know they need you to show up.
So the that you dedicate some, some space for that means a lot uh, and it's a good example of what people should be doing with microphones these days.
Um, you know, that being said, i do miss you having a a, a a show on TV, because now I can't go there when I have something to promote.
Well, you can come here and also I do a travel show now for Max.
So maybe we'll go someplace.
Oh, can we travel together?
Oh, you know, we just did.
A new season is starting in a few days and Javier Bardem did a whole episode with me in Madrid.
And we're total idiots, lunatics.
It was really fun and silly.
He's a fun guy.
He is a really fun guy.
And I'm thinking you and I will find a way to go and do it.
I mean, you did do a travel show with me because that was the Mexico City show.
But in this new HBO Max format, it would be really fun to do something with you.
So we'll do it.
I would love to.
I'm going to bring you to Northern Ireland.
Where you'll feel right at home.
Well, I'll tell you one thing.
You're not going to believe it, but I am half Scottish.
I did know that.
Okay.
I did know that.
My mom was born in Scotland and Scottish family.
I have a big British family and I've never traveled through Scotland looking for my roots.
Oh, this is perfect.
Oh, wait a minute.
This is perfect because... And now I have to pay you for the idea.
I did have the idea, right?
Eduardo, you got it right.
You got my back, man.
Gracias.
Eduardo.
Oh, no.
Por favor.
¿Cómo se dice edit?
I wonder what the word could be.
I was reading about your family.
I know you lost your mom at a very early age.
And your father.
This fascinates me.
Your father was a set designer for everything for theater, for opera, for movies, anything.
And so you grew up.
It's no accident that I mean, I'm sure it's part of it's you're extremely talented, obviously but you grew up in a house where your dad would be building sets in the house that had to inform your sense that oh, life is magical and mysterious.
And there was different.
My dad is building weird sets for operas in the house.
That would maybe think, make you think this is a world I could inhabit.
Definitely.
And I saw things go from like a quick drawing to like a model thing, to then suddenly like a gigantic set.
You know, there's a there is a film called Santa Sangre.
And I was very young.
That's why I remember Santa Sangre, because it made a huge impact.
It's a Khodorovsky film.
And my father was was working there as the Yeah, the art director.
And there's this moment where an elephant dies.
You know, and I was with half of the head of the elephant and the trunk.
You call them trunks?
Trunk.
Trunk.
Oh, good.
I just said Trump, right?
He's the other end of the elephant.
Yeah.
Cut to 1930s audience applauding.
Very well done, Matt.
Very well done.
I'm sorry to bring that.
I wasn't trying.
Because there's a moment where blood is coming out of the trunk.
And so I.
But I had the piece of the prop, the gigantic thing, in my, in my living room for months.
You know I was interacting with that thing.
It's like the sandworm from Dune.
Well, that's Jodorowsky as well, dude.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, exactly.
So it's it's it was quite quite a thing.
And and my father at the same time, because you always, everything you do somehow at that age is to piss off your parents.
So my father, like he he loves actors and he works for actors to suddenly use his sets.
But he always complains about what they do, you know.
He would always say, like oh, the actor never gets in the light where you know, I put a light here and he stands there.
Then I move the light and he's in the other side or like.
These damn actors.
These damn actors don't know how to use the ramp in the theater or blah, blah, blah.
So I decided to become an actor also to piss him off a little bit.
And then intentionally stand in the wrong spot.
Exactly.
Exactly.
But yes, it was.
And to be honest, it was more.
I never had like the moment where I went like oh, I want to, I want to be an actor because of what happens.
It was just about being part of his world.
Sure.
And yeah.
Make sure no one would take him away from me.
You know, like and and also because school was boring and it was nice to feel I could be around adults that were acting like kids.
You know, that's that's what theater represented for me.
Like these adults are are much more fun than the kids in school.
These adults.
And these crazy adults pretending to be someone else, telling stories, playing games, like spending all day in this fantasy world.
It's like that old idea of running away with the circus.
Yeah. when I was 18, 19 and seriously thinking about it was, wait a minute, this can be a job.
I just assumed that I my job had to be something that I hated, that you know, I have to go and do something serious and it's going to be something I hate, but then I can be fun with my friends and my family when I go home.
And the idea that that this could be A profession was insane to me because I'm from Boston, Massachusetts.
Nobody's doing that.
It was a very strange feeling.
But I know that idea that of course I'd rather do this than go to school or memorize something or take a test.
And also it's a family that shares a passion and that is, like such a difficult thing to find, you know.
Imagine a Christmas dinner where everyone talks about something that matters to the other, you know?
Because Christmas are like, oh my God, here, the uncle, the drunk uncle again.
Now he's going to tell the story of.
But imagine you care about what they're talking about and you really want to be around that gang.
And that's how it feels in...
In these communities.
You know also, my mom passed away when I was two years old, but she was a costume designer and a painter and she worked with half of the people I grew up working with.
So on a way, it was her love stories that were around me, you know.
And all these people trying to be their best because they knew my mom wasn't around.
So suddenly everyone like was like feeling for my mom.
You know, somehow I got all these crazy interesting mothers, you know, that were like actresses or directors or yeah, designers.
And they were all like very into making my life nice and easy and fun.
And it was, it was the best.
You've said that you had a real connection with women always.
And this what you're saying may have been the introduction to it, but that women would befriend you and confide in you and trust you.
And you were that guy growing up.
Oh, yeah.
Which sometimes I was that way a little bit and I would take it a little bit of as an insult.
You know, Conan, we don't see you as a sexual threat.
Yes.
You don't even seem like a man to us.
So we're very comfortable.
I'll braid your hair.
You braid mine and we'll tell you all our secrets.
And there was a time there where I thought this is this is insulting, but I'm still happy.
Yes.
No, I never felt I was being insulted.
And I do.
I do connect with that definitely.
Yeah uh yes yes, and and always also there was stories you could tell.
No, i mean uh, because i was having a, a life that no other uh kid was having, so i could talk to you about stuff.
Yeah, no one else could.
Yeah, so it was fun.
I guess uh, That's a nice way in.
But then it's quite frustrating to have to go back home and say like oh no, she's now with a boyfriend.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah.
We have this great deep connection, but she doesn't see me that way.
She's with this other guy.
That happened to me, like from, yeah, like for a year or two of my life.
Yeah.
Then things got better.
Are you still there?
Because you look very...
Well, things never got better.
I do have a wife.
I love her and we've been together a long time, but she also does not see me as a sexual person.
You're the mayor of friend zone.
I'm in the friend zone.
I have a very healthy marriage, but I'm in the friend zone with my wife.
Of 23 years.
And I don't know how that happened.
And we have two children, but who knows how that happened.
For your wedding, you guys just gave each other friendship bracelets.
Exactly.
Yeah, exactly.
Instead of kissing after you high five.
We high five.
Do you take this friend to be your friend?
And do you take this friend to be your friend?
I'm curious about.
I know the breakout for you was that beautiful, terrific movie Y Tu, Mama Tambien and that.
How old were you when you did that film?
That's probably the best Spanish I've heard from you.
No, really, wasn't it?
Yes.
Didn't he say, y tu mamá también?
Y tu mamá también.
Okay okay guys, if we call it out every time, I manage to get it kind of right, it makes it worse.
Okay, good job, that was cute.
Oh, my god, this is.
This is quite like a structure.
Your show is about them making fun of you the whole time.
Yes, is that?
Yes, or here, when you guys leave though he, he comes at us but you don't record that.
Therefore, like the actual oh god, we record it.
No, I'm very comfortable being I'm one of six children in my family.
I have many brothers and sisters.
So being mercilessly made fun of is in my DNA.
And I actually, in a sick, sadomasochistic way, I like it.
But... Yeah, sorry.
No, no, no.
I was saying that that was... How old were you when you made that film?
I was 19.
19.
I think when we did that film.
And...
And that kind of changed.
I mean, obviously, theater was a big part of your life and theater still is a big part of your life.
But that must have been a huge change for you.
I was doing I was doing.
Yeah, because I was very comfortable and in Mexico and I didn't even think it was possible to actually start like that moving around and traveling with my work and finding new audiences.
Like I was pretty comfortable doing cinema that was very small.
We had an industry that was doing 10 to 12 films a year back then.
So it was very small.
Your family would watch it and someone in a festival probably.
But that was it.
But I had theater and I was doing TV to support myself.
I was living by Yeah.
What kind of TV did you do?
Oh, like the last.
Did you do telenovelas?
The last telenovela I did, it was just right before Y Tu Mama También because I was 19 years old.
I remember that day as like the day I stopped doing telenovelas.
I'm never going to forget.
But I started really like at 12.
I worked on the first telenovela.
So it was a good seven years of my life.
I occasionally will be talking to someone from Mexico.
This happens a lot.
And we'll be chatting and they'll want to know.
They know that I work in television.
They've seen clips.
But I always say to them, well, I did a telenovela because I did it when I was in.
And I was in, I think it was the something malediction.
I forget what it's called.
Mi adorable maldición.
Yeah.
Mi adorable maldición.
That's close.
It's more like mi adorable maldición.
You'll get it, Eduardo.
Okay.
You'll get it.
He just needs a little more time under my tutelage.
Wow.
Yeah.
I'll teach you how to do it in a Boston accent.
But no, they wrote a part for me and they were really funny.
They wrote a part for me as a cheese merchant.
And they gave me a mustache.
And I come in and I have this scene where I'm getting very angry.
And it's this, one of the most beautiful women I've seen in my life.
The women in these, the men are so good looking.
This woman was, took my breath away.
Yeah.
She was so beautiful.
And you can see the clip online.
And there's a point where I'm getting very angry with her.
And it's all in Spanish.
And I'm yelling at her in Spanish.
You do not treat me this way.
I will not be.
And she puts her hand out and she touches me.
And I guess they have a name for it in telenovelas, which is the thunderbolt or something, where a woman touches a man and suddenly they have that moment of connection.
And it's such a soap opera thing.
It is.
But I'm yelling at her and she touches me.
And I look at her and they cut to her.
And she suddenly feels this emotion, which, by the way, she would never feel in real life.
And the crowd went crazy.
They go crazy.
And it's one of my favorite moments from my career.
And I love to show it to people I talk to.
I'm constantly calling it up on my phone and saying, check this out.
And my wife is like, you're not making them watch.
You're telling them.
This is Pedro.
And this is Jose.
And I'm showing it to them.
And they always... But I...
It's so funny because it all depends on the perspective, right?
I'm trying to disappear everything that's out there from the work I did in telenovelas.
Really?
Nah.
You're a kid.
You're a young man.
I was 19.
I was still doing telenovelas.
And there was a few.
No, there's a few that I'm more proud of than the others, but it is a big thing.
And it was when I grew up in theater, where they would see like they would like judge you if you were going to work on a telenovela.
But the point came where every actor had to be in both things, you know, to survive.
You know, theater wouldn't be enough to pay your rent and actors would be doing telenovelas and theater at night.
And it was quite a thing.
And you can tell, like, what happens with the popularity, you know, in telenovelas.
Like, you are doing one, and you are very popular.
But another one comes and everyone forgets immediately, you know?
Right.
It's that kind of thing where because it's What some people have said too about being in soap operas or telenovelas is that if you're playing the bad guy, people in the supermarket who see you are mad at you.
They're like, I don't like what you're doing.
And you're like, no, no, no, that is a role that I'm playing.
So yes, people take it very seriously, become part of their lives.
Obviously, I mean and, and things have changed.
I think in the 90s and early 2000s, like the tv was always on, you know in in, in many homes and you were there, you were part of their everyday's life.
You know, it was like uh telenovelas, there was the ones that were meant to be playing while you're doing something else.
Also, you know and, and that's why they repeat them over and over the same scene.
You know, because you're not really paying attention sometimes.
You know, But television was really important for audiences, not these days now.
Now people are more like into searching for what they want to be consuming.
Yes, there was a time, it's a great term for it here, where people are siloed.
Everyone's in their own little tube watching all this stuff that they just want to see.
They're not connected to each other.
Yeah, the bubble, no?
You live in this bubble.
You're in your own little bubble and you're watching and all the content is catered just to you.
If you're online, you're seeing everything that you would want to see, as opposed to when I was growing up.
Obviously, I'm much older than everybody here, but it was TV was there's three channels. four channels and you had to wait for what had good reception because we didn't have cable.
So sometimes the channel that had something good on wasn't coming in, and then you'd flip the channel and it's a Catholic mass.
You're like, oh my God, but it looks good.
It's coming in.
I guess we'll watch this and hope a gunfight breaks out.
Oh, Jesus.
Never did.
But you're right.
You were forced to be exposed to things like old movies, things that you wouldn't watch normally, because that was what was on television.
What's fascinating to me about your career is that you have this very bohemian background.
Theater, small movies, arthouse movies.
And then you're in what's arguably one of the best of the Star Wars franchise films, Rogue One, and that's got to just change everything.
I mean, and then it's led to you know, today you're here because Andor is out with the second season, a show I love, by the way.
It's fantastic.
And I'm not even a Star Wars person per se, but I love it.
I think it's such a great, it's a beautifully told story.
And so now you find yourself in this world of a huge international audience in in and the power of the Star Wars franchise behind you.
It's, it's such a, you weren't setting out, you weren't looking for that.
No, not at all.
Not at all.
And, and also because it would have been painful.
There was no room.
You know, I grew up watching these films, but I never thought I.
I mean, I never saw someone like me there.
I never thought it was possible.
And I didn't even want to, like, I was doing theater really happy.
I was When I did it to Mamá También.
I started traveling with my work and it was suddenly I realized there was a community, that it was really close to me.
You know, in the States, for example, when I went the first time to Sundance, I realized there was people that struggled the same way I struggled to work on film.
You know, the Hollywood wasn't a thing like that.
Hollywood was just like a... There were different subsets, communities.
Yeah, independent cinema theater, people doing cinema but theater, and then cinema again and struggling to get financing for their movies and finally getting it and having very little resources or have to like, with creativity solve things, and all of that.
I started finding those connections in the States, in London, in Spain.
Sure, yeah.
And suddenly was like, OK, great.
I can keep doing what I what I do.
When I was asked to do Rogue One or to go into the process of doing auditions for Rogue One, the director said to me I want to do a film in this universe that tonally it feels very realistic, close to what you guys did in Ito Mama Tambien.
And I was like, what?
Are you OK, man?
Exactly.
Who was saying this?
Gareth Edwards.
Yeah.
The director who I owe him being here talking about Andor because he had the idea.
He shot in Mexico a film.
He loved it to Mama Tambien.
And he was crazy enough to think that there was a room for me in that project.
I couldn't really believe it.
I make the joke a lot of times about like I was sitting there going like what does he want from me?
Does he want the number of an actor or like, does he want me to help him with Gael?
You know, I don't even speak English, you know?
I mean, what is this about?
And he was like, very honest and saying like, And he got an amazing cast of people that were doing the cinema I was doing, but in their context, you know.
Felicity, Risa May, Mads Mikkelsen.
Like it was a cast of like people that were doing tiny films in their countries and dramas that were all about the storytelling.
And anyway, so I went into doing that and...
And I freaked out.
I was like, wow, this is amazing because I can still be myself.
And I have to thank yeah, Lucasfilm and Disney and everyone, because they gave us the tools, but then the freedom too, you know.
So it felt like I was...
Just on a set of a film that I've been my whole life.
I felt the same freedom.
I didn't feel like, oh shit, we have to now behave differently because we're doing these gigantic projects.
Well, I think that also the moral of the story is sometimes a big popular movie can be fantastic.
Yeah.
Do you know what I mean?
And have integrity.
Yes, there can be a reverse snobbery sometimes of, oh, this is a popcorn movie.
This is going to be huge.
Everyone's going to love it.
No.
Yes, people are going to love it.
A lot of people are going to see it.
It's a big franchise.
And it's now this television series.
And it is...
Beautifully acted.
The story is so well told.
And what's so fascinating to me is Cassian, your character.
It makes sense to me because of the story.
The backstory of Rogue One is he comes from this other place and he doesn't belong.
And so there's something that lines up very neatly with someone coming from, in your case, Mexico.
You know and you are coming from a different land and trying to struggle to figure out what your place is in it.
So it's all it all makes sense.
But it takes someone with vision to see that and go, we got to get Diego Luna.
And ninety nine point nine percent of the people in the room would say, what are you talking about?
That's exactly what Garrett said.
Including me.
I don't mix it.
They did call me because I had worked with you and I said, I think it's a mistake.
It's a mistake.
It's a very good verse.
I said, I'm more of a... Get him a telenovela.
I said, I'm more of a Cassian when you think about it.
And they did some tests and apparently not good.
No, you don't fit in the cockpits also.
My head, they had to cut a hole through the spaceship.
No, but it is.
So I I, I did realize on on the process uh, and of, on the process of of Rogue One and then Andor uh, that it was more my prejudice speaking you know that because uh, I think Andor is a, it's a, it's a great example of of, of um, of how things should be done.
You know, it's like a, it is a gigantic project.
It has a, uh, a wonderful and very diverse reach.
But the way they did it is the way they do the films I love.
We are there because there's a perspective, a point of view, which is the creators, Tony Gilroy, the amazing writer and producer and director that is behind this.
And we're following a leader and a voice.
And if you commit to that, then...
That's integrity.
That's where integrity comes from, you know?
And then this thing can fly and be huge, you know?
And obviously we all get it.
I mean, we're part of a community.
People really want to see this.
People really want this to be good.
And they're expecting the best out of you and you have to bring it.
But it had that kind of like, that sense of like, okay, we're working for a vision, you know?
From beginning to end.
And I was really pleased.
And then many people think your life changes because of being part of a project like that.
And it's true, but not in the way probably that people imagine.
It changes because I'm a different person.
I went through a revolution myself with this project.
I'm part of a community.
I got to work with people that are as talented as it gets and i got to learn.
But then you go back to your life and your life is the same.
Yes, you know i, i go back and i want to do a tiny little film about this particular event or or or character, and i don't go out there and find money to do it and you know they go like oh no, that one no, not for that one.
You know yeah yeah yeah no, it doesn't change in a.
In a way that's refreshing, It is because you can still be yourself and you can go through an experience like this and be transformed in the best possible way.
But then also go back to who you were without having to leave something behind or don't...
Yeah, to avoid being back, you know, as if it was a bad thing.
To me, it's the opposite.
Going back is great.
I've always found it very, in a way, refreshing that I'll have a moment that's supposedly like a big moment or something in my career.
And then the next day someone will say oh, I saw you host the Oscars last night and then you did a really good job.
Oh, you did a good job.
But I'll say, thank you very much.
And they'll say, and you can't park there.
Exactly.
And I go, oh, oh, I'm sorry.
And you're like, oh good.
Nothing's, it's gravity.
Gravity is always acting on you.
Well, I want to cede the floor to Matt for a second because Matt is a huge... He's falling asleep.
No, no, no.
He's very conscious.
I'm just so relaxed listening to you guys talk.
I'm serious.
I could listen all day.
I don't know that you should cede to me.
It's only fair and right because Star Wars and all of it means so much to you.
And this is...
I know that you have raved about.
I mean, when you saw Rogue One, just you thought that oh, they've really made a beautiful, beautiful movie.
Particularly Andor and Rogue One, and what you and Tony Gilroy and all the other actors are doing is so damn enjoyable and so good.
I mean, it's just...
That's all I have to say.
No, but I mean, you were in a very happy place today because Diego was coming in.
And I know what I've noticed about Andor is that I don't again.
There are some shows that are part of a big franchise, that kind of demand.
You know X, Y and Z.
And um, I remember going to see when I was a kid, my brother Luke, and I went to see the movie Dune this with Kyle MacLachlan in whatever it was 1980 or something, at the Hearthstone Plaza theater, which isn't even a theater anymore.
I think it's a pot dispensary because everything that I grew up with is now a pot dispensary.
Yeah.
Except the pot dispensary is now an ATM.
But I remember we got there and they handed you a little booklet that you had to read before you could watch the movie.
That explained okay, this is this.
And I thought, what the fuck is this?
I think that's just because what David Lynch did to that story.
Yeah, yeah.
God bless his soul.
But anyway.
I like him.
Don't get me wrong.
It's just insane.
You and your anti-David Lynch propaganda.
I won't have it.
But what I love about Andor is you can know absolutely nothing.
Mm-hmm.
And it's just great storytelling, really great storytelling and terrific acting.
And then you get to sit in a TIE fighter.
What's that like?
Yeah, yeah.
We got to that.
You be quiet.
The TIE fighter.
Yeah, it's a it's a special prototype, right?
That I'm it was it was fascinating because things actually work.
And you guys can go.
We got this.
No, I want to hear.
So when you say things actually work, what do you mean?
You turn on a button and a light comes on.
The screens are showing you, you know information, you can relate and communicate, you know, with the object.
I didn't know that.
And I don't know.
I mean, I'm not sure. how they do every, every star Wars show.
But, uh, ours is very mechanical.
It's very much like, uh, uh, how much to, to the filmmaking that started the whole thing.
You can feel it, you know?
And so we are interacting with props, with real pieces of of of yeah of uh, the stages is real, is built.
Uh, you, you have to wait till this build, you have to use it and then they bring it down.
You know, there's a whole, uh, process.
And there's a whole design behind things.
Things don't get decided later.
They don't tell you like, just turn buttons and pretend you're flying and then we'll figure it out.
No, there's a reason.
There's things on the right, things on the left.
If you move these forward, it has to be like this.
And also there's someone behind the design.
So there's someone defending the design and telling you and walking you through what you are about to use.
Therefore, It's like actually happening.
And you're in a platform that actually moves.
So you turn right and the thing moves right, left, down, up.
You know, if you're hit, it shakes.
Are they ever like your father where you're just like, oh, he's messing up my designer?
No.
Many times.
I'm sure that happened many times.
And sometimes you have screens in front of you, so you are looking at what's going to be there, you know somehow.
So putting together of the show takes a long time because there's a lot of work behind everything and uh, and and that again is because it it has to do with the vision.
The way tony writes is very special.
You'll you'll be interested in this, like he.
He doesn't write a scene where they go like okay, they're doing a podcast in a studio, and uh, and he sits down with the set designer and says okay, how big is the studio?
Okay, and they design a studio And a piece of paper, you know, and they go like OK, they'll have a table with four microphones.
Over there is going to be the computer.
There's three seats there.
So when he's writing the scene, he's describing a space that already exists and that is being designed for this.
Therefore, everything has a reason.
Everything has a purpose.
And things are already designed when he's writing.
And he's the master, I believe, of collaboration, because somehow in that moment it's not just his material.
It's also the production designer's material because his vision is already in the page.
So when you get to the place and you read a line and a direction, it makes sense.
You go like, oh.
Okay, I get it.
Now I get it.
But it informs.
It's a collaboration between because you're acting, then it's a collaboration between all this work that's happened before you even show up to set.
Definitely.
And you know one of the things that always because I'm old enough to remember what it used to be Science fiction used to be shiny and clean, meaning spaceships always were kind of shiny and Buck Rogers everything.
And people wore these immaculate spacesuits.
And that was what we knew as science fiction.
And if you watch 2001, that's how it is.
And then I want to say Blade Runner was kind of a revelation because, as we all know, in real life cars are rusty or dirty or banged up or dented.
And then in Star Wars, you saw that... things are kind of retrofitted.
They're kind of holding it together with tape.
You know, the Millennium Falcons got some problems.
Some of the robots or the droids are kind of dirty.
They've been banged around a little bit.
And I remember that being a real revelation.
And what you really see in Andor, and in Rogue One too, is also just this idea that these are machines that get used.
They have to be fixed.
They have to be repaired.
People are, there's dirt everywhere.
Things get fucked up.
And that informs the story a lot.
Do you know what I mean?
Like clearly it's, it's, and it's, it makes it to me more real.
It makes it very real.
And it's different than the science fiction I grew up with.
It's just so tactile, the world that you guys have created.
And, you know, you just feel like all exists for real.
How much of it is on location or at least exterior, right?
Cause the wind's blowing and it doesn't feel like a studio.
It's all Cleveland.
Yeah.
All of it.
And you don't have to do anything to Cleveland.
It just looks like, you know.
The first season we had in mind was it was going to be a shoot that we were going to travel around the world hoping to be in amazing locations.
And again be a homage to filmmaking, you know.
Allow the accident of the real location to be part of the result, you know, and the creative process to be influenced by what happens when you're out there and you can't control everything.
But then the COVID came and we had to adjust.
And we did a show that happened mostly on studio because we had to be there, you know.
And we started building things in the studio and they built Ferrix completely, like the whole town.
And it's a town like...
You can get lost in Ferrix.
I mean, Adrian talks about getting lost in Ferrix and it did happen.
Like you can, it's, it's, it's so wonderful.
And, but it's again, it's a design that that Luke Hall did next to Tony, and Tony understood the logic of that city perfectly and then started writing for the city.
And the city gave you everything.
Gave you alleys, big streets uh stores food, you know, the restaurants, the hotel the the, the place where, where you would need to hide are, do exist, and they're the size for you to actually play that scene there.
You don't have to, like you know, you can shoot in order and allow things to actually happen.
Um, that's how we we did the first season.
Then we went to scotland for for a bit, when we were allowed to travel, yeah and uh, to the mountains, And it was beautiful.
And again, you can't control everything.
There's a scene where we are supposed to be in the top of the mountain seeing where we're going to hit the next day to do the big robbery, you know, and we get to the mountain.
There's just a.
You can get in cars to one point and then we had to walk and we get with all the equipment to the top of the mountain and there's a huge cloud.
Yeah.
Not moving.
And we go like, oh, God.
And it signifies those sins.
You know, you have a sin with Nemec talking about how how much fear he has for what's coming.
And I need ads because, yes, I'm scared, too.
We can't even see where we're going.
This is crazy, you know, but the scene just becomes that scene.
There's no telling the cloud.
Hey, this is Lucas.
Lucasfilm, I mean, come on.
Move along, cloud.
Yeah, exactly.
Kathleen Kennedy sent a note.
No, it's not.
And the beauty of this is that it brings all the attention to where it has to be.
Everyone is, you know, like focus on, okay, how do we tell the story?
How do we tell the story?
Because also we know the story by that point.
There is no, there is a secrecy, you know, out of the bubble.
But for us, we are all very much invested in the same story that Tony Gilroy wants to tell you know.
That's great.
I'm just sad this is the last season.
Well, sad, but relieved, no?
Yes, I'm very relieved for you.
No, no, but not in terms of like, oh, I want to be at home.
No, it's just like it's not easy to get something right.
So when it happens, it's nice that you keep it that big.
Let me put it this way.
I think TV has brought great things, you know.
It's a great place for young talents to find their voices.
It's wonderful.
It's taking all the risks cinema stopped taking, you know, which is great, but there's one thing i i don't like, which is things start without knowing where they're gonna end.
Yeah, you want everyone's talking about the next season and probably there's another one, and there's an anxiety of like, how much more can we achieve?
Yeah, and it's nice to start something knowing where it ends.
Therefore, you throw everything in, you know, you put everything there and if you succeed, you celebrate, and if you don't, you learn and you try again.
But, but knowing the ending of the the, the story allowed us to work this tough and in detail, in all those layers that you can bring in.
But I remember we sat down in the first season half the way of the shoot in Scotland, Tony and I, and he was like we can't do five seasons of this.
It takes two years and a half of our lives.
I'm going to be 60 years old pretending I'm the guy I was.
You know, in 2016, impossible.
So how do we do this?
And he came up with the idea of doing these four blocks, because our goal was let's tell the story of the five years before Rogue One and then finish this story the moment Rogue One starts right.
That was the goal.
So he came up with this idea of like, in the second season, move through four years of the life of these characters and get to the point that we promised at the beginning.
And that was such a relief, because then suddenly we understood that it was possible that we had to aim for another three and a half years of work.
But we were gonna make it, you know, Which is great, because that's what Rogue One does is.
It goes right up to the end, before Star Wars too.
So they all just connect so seamlessly.
It's a prequel.
Rogue One is a prequel.
Then we did a prequel.
And it's, yeah.
So this is the prequel of the prequel, right?
A repeatquel.
Yeah.
Exactly.
We got very technical.
Suddenly everyone's like, oh, no.
I do think, and this is like... And I appreciate that little tangent, by the way.
Thank you.
Yeah, no, it wasn't little at all.
And...
And you're fired.
You're fired.
I understand.
So you'll now work with, you'll go with Diego.
Really?
Yeah.
He's now, you live with him now.
Okay.
I do think, people talk.
I don't need a lot.
It's not just work, you live with him.
People, I like that Diego has no say in it either.
Conan said so.
And there's bunk beds.
You're in Mexico City in bunk beds.
Good night, Matthew.
Just one more thing about Cassidy.
Go to sleep!
You know, it does.
People talk about this a lot and it can almost sound like a cliche, but it's so powerful that when you said you didn't see yourself in any of the Star Wars, in the Star Wars world when you were growing up and it seemed like an impossibility to you that someone like you, coming from Mexico City, could be in that world,
Think of how powerful that is to millions of people kids who are seeing you in this franchise.
And what's fascinating is that your role has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you grew up in Mexico.
You know what I mean?
It has nothing to do with that.
You're just a great actor.
The more that happens in different cultures, I can't prove it, but I feel like it's the...
It's the answer to a lot of our problems.
I agree with you.
I think it's.
If I think about the reference.
I grew up, you know watching, following and hoping.
One day I could like be like them, compared to the ones that my kids are growing up with.
It feels much better.
A diverse, interesting reach today, you know, and things are are changing and and getting there uh, and i always, like i, i always want to bring it back to where i think um, everything started happening, which is uh, it's because of the audience, is because the audience started to have a voice, you know, and and now all these tools that we have the, the They're terrible and dangerous in many ways, but they are also very useful.
And one very useful thing they do is that you can send messages.
You click or you buy a ticket and you're sending a message.
And the industry has to listen because they want you to keep clicking.
And if you ignore, if you decide not to click, not to buy the ticket, you're also sending a message.
So it's audiences who are somehow reshaping what the industry is talking about.
What voices are there?
What stories get to be made?
It's still a process.
We're not there yet.
But the idea I grew up like watching those films where every decision in the movie business was made behind the desk and someone was like this is what they want to see.
Big cigar.
You know, big cigar.
Here's what we're going to do, see?
Exactly.
You got it right.
And today it's not like that.
Today it's people at home, you know, clicking or not clicking, paying attention or not paying attention.
So if we, as audience, act with responsibility, the responsibility that this you know tool brings or gives you, we are having something to say on this industry that somehow, for a long time, it didn't seem to talk to us, you know, and now it is.
So I think it's cool.
I think I'm part of something big.
I see many people coming from where I come from, having an opportunity.
You were just talking about how cool it was to travel with Javier in Spain.
I mean, it is happening.
It is happening somehow.
And again, I think we can be really proud because it's a moment where you can You can be yourself.
I grew up with people telling me, are you going to work on your accent?
Are you going to clean your accent?
And I was like, clean your what?
I mean, why do you think it's dirty?
What's wrong with my accent?
My accent is mine.
It might not be yours.
But, you know, but when I was 20, that was the thing is like, OK, you're doing great.
What if you start working on your accent and you start sounding like these other people and you can start doing what they can do?
And today is a moment where that is changing, I think.
I mean, I'm here because I bring what I am, you know, and that's what got me here.
I might not be there and not there, but I'm here because of this.
You're exactly where you're supposed to be and where you should be.
Yeah.
And that's kind of like a cool idea and message.
Yes.
And also things are happening where sometimes you can do something in another context that not even thinking of traveling and that can resonate with someone here or in Europe or in, you know, Japan or whatever.
And so there's also like a respect and a search for a specificity that today is really cool in the movie making, you know.
Well, I'm very proud to call you a friend.
I'm honored.
It was one of the great honors of my life that you came on my show in Mexico City and blessed our kooky project there.
Just delighted, delighted to have you here.
And I love what you represent.
You're an artist and you're a really good guy and just a pleasure.
Absolute pleasure to have you here.
Thank you so much.
Please come back and let's have an adventure together.
I'll take you to Scotland.
Scotland, so much water.
It's incredible.
That is not what the tourist bureau says.
Scotland, so much water.
But also, I think... So green, man.
It is beautiful.
And also I accept your invitation to return to Mexico City and appear on a telenovela with you and live with you.
I think that was mentioned at some point.
That was mentioned.
I get to live with her.
No, no, I'm living with... Triple bunk bed.
Yeah, triple bunk bed.
You should come too.
I'm out.
You're going to ask a lot of.
You're going to wake us up at night to ask him questions about Andor.
And that bullshit is not happening.
And I'm going to ask you... And I'm going to wake you up to correct you on your accent.
Yes.
It's Spanish.
Very, very important.
No, thank you so much.
Yeah, yeah.
This was so much fun.
And come back soon, Diego.
I will.
And thank you for everything.
Seriously.
Great to have you here.
Oh, man.
Thank you.
Thank you all.
Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend with Conan O'Brien, Sonam Ovsessian, and Matt Gourley.
Produced by me, Matt Gourley.
Executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and Nick Liao.
Theme song by The White Stripes.
Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino.
Take it away, Jimmy.
Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair.
And our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples.
Engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns.
Additional production support by Mars Melnick.
Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Brit Kahn.
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