- You know, he says,
"You know, it's the best experience
I've ever had in the film."
And I could also say that and come up to terms with that.
Our life became 10 times bigger by making that movie.
My name is Gael García Bernal,
and this is the timeline of my career.
[saxophone instrumental music]
[speaking Spanish]
- No, I'm not.
[laughs]
[speaking Spanish]
That was my first experience
before I had done theater with my parents.
But my first,
audio visual [chuckles] like work experience
was "El Abuelo Y Yo", which was a soap opera
that was done here in Mexico
and I was
12 years old, I think.
I had a lot of fun doing it,
but doing that, I decided that
this is not the type of actor I want to be.
But also the way that the soap operas
were made back in those days,
it was a dynamic that I didn't enjoy.
[laughing]
[speaking Spanish]
[laughing]
"Y Tu Mamá También", I got involved in that movie
because Alfonso Cuarón saw me in "Amores Perros".
Yeah, it was on my last year of acting school.
It was the second script I read in my life
or a third script, you know, I read in my life.
So, it was wonderful to have such a laugh
you know, reading it.
And then when doing the casting for the other character,
they called Diego Luna,
who's a friend of mine since we were born.
And we had the greatest privilege of all,
which is to work with a lot of rigor
and a lot of responsibility
with one of your best friends, you know,
and it was wonderful.
We were involved a lot in the decision-making
or they made us believe
that we were involved in the decision making of the film.
We changed a lot the syntaxes
of how the dialogues were written and everything, you know,
through improvisation and everything.
And we would establish them.
And therefore, when we arrived to the set,
we had a good ownership of what the characters were
and what they were going
and what they're going through and everything.
And we got the chance to learn a lot
from Alfonso Cuarón, the director.
And apart from becoming really good friends,
he became a kind of, a mentor for me.
And even more than a mentor, you know,
he became a point of reference in everything I did.
It was a very, very like
one of the greatest films and experiences
that obviously you only can live once, you know.
And we experienced it in a very early age
and it gave us so much.
[laughing]
[motorcycle engine starts] [speaking Spanish]
It was the last type of movie
that was shot before cellphones with cameras existed.
And that says a lot.
[speaking Spanish]
It was shot in a very difficult time in Argentina
when there was a big economic crisis.
But we were able to pull through
and to prepare a lot with, oh man, with a lot of help
of people that knew Ernesto Guevara.
And that allowed us to discover
what the premise of this movie was,
especially through the voice of Alberto Granado,
who was Ernesto Guevara's companion in this journey.
One day when we were in Cuba visiting him
before shooting the film.
He called us over to talk to us
and gave us perhaps the best pointer
than anyone can give you,
which was, "Don't try to imitate our voices.
Don't try to
give a voice to our voice.
No, tell your journey as well of this film."
And the way you understood that,
is that the film was gonna be shot,
at the same time,
we were gonna interpret Ernesto Guevara's
and Alberto Granado's journey.
But as well, we were gonna document our experience
of our journey as well.
And that was gonna be equally as important
as that interpretation.
Making it Walter Salles said,
"You know, guys, we will never experience this again."
And Rodrigo de la Serna says it now,
"You know, it's the best experience
I've ever had in the film."
And I could also say that
and come up to terms with that,
thinking that there is not gonna be
a greater experience than that one
because all of a sudden our home became bigger, you know,
our life became 10 times bigger
by making that movie.
[speaking Spanish]
[sniffs]
This film has a story within a story,
within a story, within a story
and the character that I get to play had many layers to it
and have many personalities to it as well.
So, it was wonderful to be able to play
these kind of different personalities
and these different rhythms
and these different musicality for the character
and as well, it was challenging to do an accent
from Spain in the seventies, you know,
from a certain area, you know.
And I have very clear images of what,
you know, of certain points, you know,
especially when my character is singing,
"Quizas, Quizas, Quizas".
It is a very,
I dunno is a very iconic kind of a moment, I guess,
for me definitely in my life, it was.
♪ Quizas, Quizas, Quizas ♪
My name is Elvis.
My mother told me about.
- You know, you're making a mistake.
This is my family and that is my house.
- As soon as I read the script,
I was so, so, so, so incredibly interested in doing it.
It had to do with an issue that I enjoy a lot talking about,
which is otherness, foreignness, you know,
in a sense, you know, [speaking Spanish].
It was one of the most alone experiences of making a film,
that one, compared to all the others,
because in a way I needed it.
I needed to be on my own, you know,
just there in Austin, we were shooting it.
And then I had a lot of moments
to be with myself, to read,
to investigate, to try out things.
I made songs for the character, you know.
I made these things that one does as an actor, you know,
to kind of build a character,
things that can help you.
I wouldn't say lonely, but in an alone way, you know.
- [Guy] You gotta find a way out.
- Go back to work, yeah.
- Oh no, to, to work?
No, no, no. It's only a dream.
We don't have to work in dreams.
No, nothing is for real.
I actually met Michel Gondry in a party.
He called me to talk about this film
and I loved, you know, everything that had to do
with this film from the beginning,
because he's a director
that puts all the elements there at play.
And then we have to solve in a way the bustle.
One moment that I remember really well
is my character was surprised
in Charlotte Gainsbourg's apartment.
And so she came into the door and I had to hide
and there was no place to hide.
How do we solve this?
Because in the script there were other, I don't know,
there were, it was a little bit more of a puzzle
that kind of, we couldn't work out and didn't make sense.
And I remember just having the simples
of jumping into the bed, you know.
- What are you doing?
- As if, I could mimitized myself
with the bed sheets or something.
When I did it, it was like, "Whoa! This is it?"
"Yeah, that's the way that one hides
when there's no place to hide,
you just do this, you know."
You just go like, okay, here I am, okay [chuckles].
My only regret is that I didn't learn properly
to speak French back then.
I understand it but I don't, I'm not, you know,
I need a few drinks on top to,
to be able to speak it like supposedly thoroughly, you know.
Let's begin Our Silent Symphony.
[orchestra instrumental music]
That was then I received an email
saying that there was a series
that was gonna happen in Amazon.
That was something that was, you know, was like,
"How does that exist?
What is that?" you know.
Isn't Amazon something, you know,
that sells, you know, I mean.
And they were,
"No, they're starting to do their streaming"
And I was like, "Oh, that was weird."
And that was not long ago.
And back in the day,
it seemed like something very odd already for me, you know.
I was like, "Wow, this is weird, but excellent."
- Maestro, I don't know if I can do this.
- This is not about you.
It's not even about me.
I think Rodrigo is the person I would like to be.
He's a character I missed, you know,
I missed, I missed him, I missed playing him.
What was nice is the thing, this kind of genius
that at the same time was very obnoxious
and very kind of bothering.
But then all of a sudden he became really wonderful and fun
and just wanted to hang out with him all the time.
So, I missed him, I missed, I miss Rodrigo.
I wish I could be like him in my day-to-day life.
The most amazing opportunity of anyone's life,
I think is to conduct an orchestra.
I'm doing something that people have been preparing
since they were born, you know.
And I'm just doing it out of this instinct.
So, I always had to come up to the podium
and say sorry to begin with.
To all the musicians and tell them
sorry for what you're about to see.
But they played along literally.
And what was interesting is that
by the fourth season of "Mozart in the Jungle",
I already felt with a lot of confidence
to just, you know, learn a piece, prepare it
and go there and be there,
and that was wonderful.
That was incredible.
That was one of the most, yeah
profound experiences I've ever had.
- [Actor 1] What do I have in common with you.
- So, can you tell me why just a journalist
meet up with this American spy and the evil unrest?
- He's not a spy [sobs].
- He's not a spy?
- No, it's a show.
- It's a show?
- A comedy show. It's stupid, its-
- It's very stupid, yes.
- He was like, "Jon Stewart's gonna direct the film.
This is what the film is gonna be about."
And I read the book immediately by Maziar Bahari.
Even though it was incredibly crude and terrible
what was happening.
It had a lot of comedic elements.
Man, it was such a joy to work with him
and loved, you know, working with him
and playing around with him, you know,
and the energy that he gave us, you know, to keep on going.
He actually is one of those people,
those comedians that, you know,
we expect them to be funny,
but in real life, which is horrible that,
you know, society kind of imposes
that now you have, you make us laugh,
you have to make us laugh all the time.
But now actually he surpasses all the expectations
because he's incredibly funny in real life
and incredibly energetic and intelligent
and loving and very good at what he does.
It was wonderful to help him
in his first experience as well
directing a movie, which is another type
of [speaking Spanish].
And he was, he manage really well.
I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[guitar strums]
♪ Well everyone knows Juanita ♪
♪ Her eyes each a different color ♪
I was approached by Lee Unkrich to play this part
with already the film, more than halfway done.
I had the opportunity to see already
some sketches and kind of like the world that was,
that had been built.
I was very surprised as well,
by the very thorough investigation
that Pixar had done to make this film.
They were, you know, incredibly
conscious and respectful and loving
with the concept of the Day of the Dead.
And they also understood something very important
about the Day of the Dead
is that you have to make it your own.
You have to give a point of view to make it.
It was very nice to portray our Mexican cultural.
So, you know, in different parts of the world
and for people to connect with that.
♪ Remember me ♪
♪ Though I have to say goodbye ♪
♪ Remember me ♪
I love singing,
but I'm not that professional about it.
And I would never want
to be a kind of a singer by choice, you know,
because it's not something I think I'm good at.
♪ For even if I'm far away ♪
♪ I hold you in my heart ♪
For a character, I can do it [laughs].
If you're there for a character,
I don't care, you know, to play it.
And I've asked a lot of singers what they do
and most singers tell me,
"Yeah, we sing through a character also, you know."
But obviously they train their voices
and it's another kind of approach.
And the mine is a very kind of, yeah,
a completely lyrical approach.
We can all sing, you know, in that sense.
♪ The thought ♪
- Those are the worst.
- There children present.
- Who would leave this.
- From the hotel, they're so rusted.
- what's happening?
- Found stuff from the hotel in the sand.
- It was right at the beginning
of the understanding of the uncertainty [chuckles]
you know, of the pandemic.
I think what helped us was the fact that we were shooting it
in a kind of, a classical style of how films were made.
You took your time to the film, you know, no rush.
We had a lot of time to prepare,
to put things together, to organize,
to kind of, you know, prepare mentally, physically
for something like this.
We had to consider certain things
that normally you wouldn't consider in the film.
The whole film spans within
24 hours.
The sun comes out in one direction
and the sun sets in the other direction.
Well, we were,
the way we were shooting is that in the mornings
we would shoot what happens in the mornings in the film.
And in the afternoons,
we would shoot what happens in the afternoon.
And that conditioned a lot the way we did the film,
but those are great limitations, man.
It's just, it spikes your creativity
and gives it like, I don't know,
it's the origin of an interesting experiment.
I think the film is a strong alchemy
of different limitations
that put together into the storyline.
We created something that hopefully resonate very strongly.
I always thought the life of an actor
is something that I, that really appeals to me.
And I think one of the main reasons
is the fact that you can exercise your freedom, having fun.
And I wanna inspire other people
to be able to do so in their lives as well,
to promote and to, you know,
provoke this search for freedom.
Those are the things that I enjoy about being an actor.