Golden moment in the twilight zone
Babylon star Diego Calva talks to Brian Truitt about ‘crazy’ movie sets and A-lister lessons.
Like his character in Babylon, Diego Calva arrives ready in Hollywood willing to do anything, including deal with elephant poo.
In director Damien Chazelle’s 1920s spectacular, Manny Torres (Calva) is hired as an assistant by silent-film mega-star Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) and forms a bond with aspiring actress Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie). But before all that happens, Manny is transporting a huge animal to a star-studded soire´ e when the thing lets loose with a faecal explosion.
Liquidy faux elephant dung? Not that bad, apparently. ‘‘It was something fake that looked horrible,’’ Calva recalls. ‘‘But I just have to say, it smelled good.’’
The Mexican actor, who played a drug lord on Netflix’s Narcos: Mexico, has already earned a Golden Globe nomination for his Babylon performance.
Here’s what new fans need to know about the newcomer to Hollywood:
● Calva shares his character’s love for the movie business and can do more than just act.
● He learned lessons from his A-list co-stars, Robbie and Pitt.
● The Babylon star was a huge fan of Tobey Maguire – and now he’s sharing scenes with Spider-Man.
Calva’s first day on a Hollywood movie set was also Manny’s, in a busy scene filled with hundreds of extras. It just got bigger and better from there as Calva later filmed the wild Babylon shindig for two weeks, surrounded by musicians, dancers, balloons, wild chickens and much more.
‘‘I felt like I was living in a loop, like a ‘Twilight Zone’ situation,’’ Calva says, laughing. ‘‘It was so crazy. I’ve never been surrounded by so many naked people before.’’
But immediately, Calva connected with Manny’s need to
be part of the movie business: ‘‘We don’t care if we have to bring the coffee. He doesn’t care if he has to clean elephant [poop]. We just want to be part of this party.’’
Before he went to college, the Mexico City native would help his older friends with their short films. ‘‘I was doing boom operator, and an actor didn’t show up, so the director asked me like, ‘Diego, would you do it, please? I don’t have anyone else.’ And it was so much fun,’’ Calva remembers. He did acting jobs ‘‘for free all the time’’ while working in construction, the art department and even catering.
So by the time he started studying at the Centro de Capacitacio´ n Cinematogra´ fica, Calva understood the ‘‘symbiotic relationship’’ between all these
film-making elements. ‘‘Acting has given me more sense of how to build a character, for example,’’ Calva says. ‘‘It turns out I’m not that bad at it. And it’s allowed me to keep learning and to keep surrounding myself with all these geniuses.’’
While being around Chazelle was a directing ‘‘masterclass’’, Calva says he had his best – and most challenging – acting experiences in Babylon alongside Robbie. ‘‘She’s always going to do the unexpected. She’s a fearless actress, just full-on energy. When you’re so tired, she can play it 100 times more.’’
Their co-star Pitt helped Calva when he was having a ‘‘very bad time’’ and got ‘‘stuck’’ in a scene while struggling with his lines. ‘‘If you are afraid, you are not curious, and if you’re not
curious as an actor, you don’t have anything. You’re like a rabbit,’’ Calva says. Pitt came up to him, asked him if he was cool and told Calva to trust his instincts and just have fun. ‘‘When you need it and someone can give you that kind of love and advice, and that someone is Brad Pitt, come on.’’
Manny’s Hollywood journey features a number of colourful characters, including a creepy crime boss played by Maguire. He was the first screen star
Calva was a fan of after watching Spider-Man three times when he was 9 years old. ‘‘I think I lived being Tobey Maguire for like a month,’’ Calva says.
Making Babylon, he met Maguire on set well before they
did their scenes together, so he was able to properly have a fan freak-out and still be professional.
‘‘I always have to play it cool,’’ Calva says. ‘‘But inside, I was like, ‘Mama, I’m here with Spider-Man having a beer!’’’
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After advance previews in select cinemas, Babylon is now screening nationwide.