ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
Actor Gael Garcia Bernal landed a starring role on a Mexican TV show when he was just 13 years old. It was the beginning of a career that would go on to include iconic movies like "Y Tu Mama Tambien," "The Motorcycle Diaries," and "Coco." Now he and his longtime collaborator Diego Luna, are starring in and producing Hulu's first Spanish language series "La Maquina." Garcia Bernal plays an aging boxer. He told my colleague Rachel Martin that "La Maquina" grew out of a previous project.
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GAEL GARCIA BERNAL: And I was feeling very frustrated because I was preparing for a boxing role, and I started to train boxing a lot. And I started to love it, and the film never came about.
RACHEL MARTIN: And you had all this pent up skill and talent...
GARCIA BERNAL: Yes and...
MARTIN: ...That you had just discovered as a boxer.
GARCIA BERNAL: And these abs that were amazing...
MARTIN: (Laughter).
GARCIA BERNAL: ...And just kind of like - yeah, exactly. You know it (ph).
MARTIN: You're like, I can't let these go to waste.
GARCIA BERNAL: Exactly, let's do something now, now, now.
SCHMITZ: Garcia Bernal joined Rachel Martin for Wild Card, the show where well-known guests answer big questions about their life pulled from a deck of cards.
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MARTIN: One, two, or three, Gael?
GARCIA BERNAL: Let's do the - yeah, the first one I thought of. Like, the one that is on my left, that is on your right - exactly the one, yes.
MARTIN: Oh, OK. I like the specificity. What's a place where you feel like the best version of yourself?
GARCIA BERNAL: OK, OK. So I grew up in the theater with my parents. Like, it felt like when I was a kid, theater and life were very intertwined. I realized when growing up a little bit that I was born into something special, into a world that is very unique. There was a big moment in my adolescence that I didn't want to be an actor. I was completely...
MARTIN: Oh, is that right?
GARCIA BERNAL: ...Yes - and absolutely reluctant to do it because that's where I was born in a way. That's the place that I was sort of - yeah, it was handy for me, you know?
MARTIN: Yeah.
GARCIA BERNAL: So I wanted the challenge of something else, and I had other curiosities with archaeology or sociology or anthropology, philosophy. I studied philosophy in the Mexican UNAM, in the National Autonomous University. And so I tried my best to not become an actor, and it was impossible to escape it. I would say it's the place where I feel the safest. And for me, it is the acting. It isn't being on stage.
MARTIN: Right. It's not pretending to be other people, actually. Yeah.
GARCIA BERNAL: It is the smell of the place. It is like a temple kind of thing. It is the place where I know that everything will be OK. So I think I'm the best version of myself because first of all, I don't know who I am.
MARTIN: Ah, woah.
GARCIA BERNAL: So I guess the best of myself kind of - not shines through, but kind of, like, is incredibly - that's what we see in an actor when we look at their performances.
MARTIN: Yeah.
GARCIA BERNAL: We know they are someone else.
MARTIN: I'd never thought about it that way, though, that it can seem counterintuitive to say, I am the truest best version of myself when I am acting. That seems like a major contradiction.
GARCIA BERNAL: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I think it took me a while to come to terms and also to come at peace with that because I was reluctant about that. I saw acting as something else, you know, when I was young. This is a - quite an existential journey to interpret, you know, someone and to be - and therapeutical (ph) as well and cathartic and - yeah.
MARTIN: Yeah.
GARCIA BERNAL: You can sublimate so many things.
MARTIN: Right. OK, three more cards.
GARCIA BERNAL: Yes. OK, cool.
MARTIN: One, two, three.
GARCIA BERNAL: The center one.
MARTIN: Two - was there a bedrock truth in your life that you found out wasn't true?
GARCIA BERNAL: (Laughter) Yes. OK, it's going to sound a little bit superficial. But it was...
MARTIN: I'll take it.
GARCIA BERNAL: OK. I was - growing up in the acting, you know, in the theater world with actors, you know, I used to think actors are the most intelligent people in the planet. Like, it's incredible. Like, they are just - they are incredible because they know everything. They talk about - the way they say it, the way they talk about things, it just makes sense, you know? It just - it's fun. They're funny. They're ridiculous. They laugh about themselves. They kind of (vocalizing). And I was like, this is amazing. This is incredible. Like, actors are just incredible. And then I realized that the job of being an actor is talking about what you don't know with absolute certainty. And...
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GARCIA BERNAL: I was like, OK, OK. I realized it was just - yeah.
MARTIN: Yeah, yeah.
GARCIA BERNAL: It was a complete facade, you know? Like, it was nothing there. And then the - yeah, like, the work, you know, in theater school and then working, I was like, actors are really, like - there's really intelligent actors. There's some...
MARTIN: Sure, sure. Like anyone, yes.
GARCIA BERNAL: ...Really, really intelligent actors, but there's some that are other type of intelligent, you know?
MARTIN: That's right. Other types.
GARCIA BERNAL: Yes, other types of intelligence.
MARTIN: That was very generous, Gael. OK. I like that.
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MARTIN: OK, Gael, last question - one, two or three.
GARCIA BERNAL: One.
MARTIN: One - do you think that there is a part of people that lives on after they die?
GARCIA BERNAL: Yes, I do. If I don't enjoy - not believe but, like, enjoy - or dwell on the mystery of things, then I think I wouldn't be an actor because if I had the certainty and I wouldn't have, like - and I would be like, I'm only about facts, then I would read the phone book. That would be my wonderful kind of, like, joy of reading the phone book. That is real. It's super real. So I love the mystery and the poetic behind all of it - but not as a believer, but mostly, like, that kind of enjoyment or curiosity. Nothing ends. Everything transforms. And that's a law of physics. So it's...
MARTIN: Right.
GARCIA BERNAL: And it is - I can feel it. I mean, there's so many examples I can say. Some of them are incredibly personal, but I can - I want to say, like - yeah, I mean, I guess, OK, OK, now coming out. Like, OK, fine, I'll say it. My little daughter was born. When we knew that my daughter was - that we were pregnant, my father passed away. Like, it was like - yeah.
MARTIN: Yeah.
GARCIA BERNAL: So it was that kind of, like, tag team. Yeah.
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MARTIN: Gael Garcia Bernal's new show is "La Maquina," and it's out on Hulu now. Gael, thank you for talking with me. It's been such a pleasure.
GARCIA BERNAL: Thank you. Thank you for this conversation, and it's nice to feel so, you know, open about, you know, being able to talk about all of this.
MARTIN: Yeah, I appreciate it. Good luck with everything.
SCHMITZ: To hear a longer version of that conversation, follow NPR's Wild Card podcast. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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