Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Interview with Diego Luna

After chatting with Diego Luna about his role as Cassian Andor in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, I was impressed. Not only because he good looking and speaks in a nice Latin accent, it’s also because Diego is passionate about his work and his family. I can’t wait to see him in the movie!

Here’s what Diego Luna had to say…

*Imagine him saying it in his nice Latin accent for a much better read

About His Character

“…My character is called Cassian Andor, and he’s a captain, an intelligence officer for the rebellion. A pretty damned good rebellious captain, you know? He’s in charge of the most important mission for the rebellion, and he has to make sure this thing works together. But he’s a spy, so he’s quite a mysterious man. He has a lot of information he would like to forget, you know? He doesn’t like war, but he believes in the cause and would do anything for the cause. He’s ready to sacrifice everything, and he’s a true hero. He’s the kind of heroes we could be, right? He doesn’t have special powers; he’s no Jedi. He’s just a man with conviction, and that knows that working together as a team makes you stronger. So that’s Cassian.”

On being a part of Star Wars & what he feels the film’s message is

“…When Gareth sat down with me, and he started talking about the film, and about the theme, and about the rebellion, and about the moment in the history of Star Wars when this happens, I suddenly was listening to speech.
I would join just as a fan, just as part of the crew, or whatever, you know? He could’ve said, like, “Oh, I want you to, to be a Storm Trooper and just wear that outfit and be miserable for quite a long time until, ’til Felicity’s character kills you,” I would’ve said, “yeah, let’s do it.” I’m, I’m glad he didn’t say that, but it I would’ve said yes because this film has a lovely message behind it’s about people getting involved and taking control of their reality, you know?

And of shaping the reality. And we need that in this world that is going crazy now. And we also need to live different as a society and understand the diversity, culture and racial diversity- it just makes us stronger and richer. There’s a great thing there for us to find so let’s live different as a society…”

Training for his role

“I did. I went to the gym, a place I didn’t like before…They put you on a whole program they were even taking care of my sleep. The schedule was necessary because I’ve never worked seven months in a film this intense.

What it was like on set

Every day we were doing something crazy- running, jumping, and climbing. They were hardcore scenes. Gareth likes things to happen. He doesn’t like pretending. He goes, like, “we’re gonna do this, so you’re gonna be running, and there’s gonna be explosions, and these guys are gonna be shooting from this angle,” and you have to make it work. And he gave us military training for two weeks.”

On how his kids are a part of this journey with him

“…You know what I do? with the stuff I do, I bring them, I bring my kids to see how we’re doing it so they can see it more from the perspective I see it, you know, and get less affected by the story…I grew up in theater, so I used to witness things I should probably had not witness, [LAUGHS], but because I was watching from the dressing rooms or from the inside of the theater, I always saw the actor coming out and he was alive…I understood that the representation of these fiction, that it has to look real but doesn’t mean it’s real. I invited my kids to witness this process because my son is huge fan of Star Wars, he knows the world of Star Wars better than I do.

Bonding with his son over Star Wars

“He’s eight years old, but he has seen everything. I didn’t want it to stop him because everyone’s going to be talking about it. I want him to feel part of this, you know? He’s so excited about this movie.

I like telling this story because it’s true. This film is important for me as an actor for many reasons, but one is because it connects me with the kid I was, you know? At seven years old I saw the, A New Hope. I saw it because I wanted to belong to the world of my cousins. All of my cousins were playing something I didn’t get. I wanted to be part of that universe and to be able to be part of that gang. It also connects me with my kids as a parent. And as a fan, it connects me with my son, you know?

I share the excitement, with him. When we were watching The Force Awakens, we were there holding hands and enjoying the moment. I wasn’t the dad there. It was two pals watching a film, and that was very sweet…So this is special…”