On the occasion of the release of “Babylon” by Damien Chazelle, a grandiose fresco on the birth of talkies in the 1920s, a small focus on Diego Calva, the revelation of the film.
Released this week, Damien Chazelle’s highly anticipated Babylon has an impressive cast led by Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie. This cast also includes other lesser-known, but no less notable, actors.
Among them, the Mexican Diego Calva plays Manny Torres, a young man who seeks to find a place in Hollywood.
Once his secondary education was completed, Diego Calva studied at the Cinematographic Training Center in Mexico City and obtained a diploma in directing.
After doing a few odd jobs in technical positions on set, he starred in the short film Ficción (2013). Two years later, he appeared in Te Prometo Anarquía, where he played one of the two heroes.
This drama by Julio Hernández Cordón centers on two homosexual skateboarders (camped by Diego Calva and Eduardo Eliseo Martinez) who have to face the mafia in Mexico City.
The film won several awards and allowed each of the two young actors to receive the Best Actor Award at the Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana.
2022 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved. Brad Pitt and Diego Calva in “Babylon”
Building on this success, the native of Mexico takes part in the Netflix series The Detained, which takes place in a Mexican prison. It follows a former marine (Ignacio Serricchio) posing as a prisoner in order to infiltrate a gang suspected of having kidnapped the daughter of an American judge…
He continues on the small screen with Les Envolées and Narcos: Mexico, which focuses on drug trafficking. In the cinema, his roles are gaining importance as evidenced by his performances in the drama ColOZio, the adventure film Tigres and the thriller Los hermosos vencidos.
In the latter, the actor portrays a character forced to flee with a woman (Tania Lopez) after the discovery of a corpse by the police in the trunk of a car. The film enjoyed solid critical success in Latin America.
In 2022, his career took a major turn when he was chosen by Damien Chazelle to play in his new film, Babylon. The latter traces the rise and fall of different characters during the creation of Hollywood in the Los Angeles of all the excesses of the 20’s. For the occasion, Diego Calva gives the answer to big names like Brad Pitt or Margot Robbie.
More specifically, the Mexican actor plays Manny Torres, a young dreamer trying to break into the world of cinema. Damien Chazelle wanted a newcomer for Hollywood audiences.
He therefore used professional portraits from the books of actors: “I looked at a bunch of photos, and Diego had the face of a poet. I saw a poetic, dreamy look in his eyes”says the filmmaker.
Moreover, the character of Manny Torres was inspired in Damien Chazelle by several personalities who really existed. And especially Rene Cardona, a Cuban immigrant in 1920s Hollywood, who rose through the ranks to become the youngest studio executive in the city of Los Angeles. He then played an important role in the golden age of Mexican cinema.