NEXT BIG THING

DIEGO CALVA HAS HOLLYWOOD IN HIS SIGHTS…

As a rising Mexican star making his American movie debut, art imitated life for Diego Calva when he was cast as one of the co-leads in Babylon, Damien Chazelle’s crazed love letter to the golden age of Hollywood, alongside Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie. “Manny is a new kid,” Calva tells Teasers. “And me, too. So it was like metafiction.”

How does Manny fit into Damien Chazelle’s vision of a debaucherous early 20th-century Hollywood?

Manny just wants to work in movies. Movies, for him, are the most important, so he’s going to find any way to work on it. He doesn’t care if he has to bring the coffee to someone, or clean after the party. He just wants to be involved.

Did the parallels between yourself and Manny feed into your performance?

Of course. The first day on set, for me, Diego, was my first day on a Hollywood set with Damien. In the story, it was also the first day for my character on a Hollywood set. Talking to you right now is something that Manny could be doing at some moment. It’s new for him, and it’s new for me.

How did you process the fact you are starring alongside two of the biggest actors on the planet?

At first, of course, it’s overwhelming. But Damien did something very special for me – a lot of rehearsing first, to get to know each other. So the day we started shooting we already knew each other. And I always had Damien there. If I got nervous I could go, “Help, Damien!”

Was the scale something you got used to?

It was amazing, but as my character is growing during the film, he starts to feel familiarised. At the beginning, a Hollywood set, a big Hollywood party, is something incredible. He’s overwhelmed – the same with me. But the second month, my character and me, we got used to it. And the other part that was amazing is Damien tried to do everything for real. When there’s a scene with 100 dancers here and 20 musicians there and an elephant somewhere, it was hard not to be completely there.