Diego Luna has been thinking a lot about time lately. How it passes. And how it is spent.

His latest project, “La Máquina,” which premieres October 9 on Hulu and is the streamer’s first Spanish-language series, was initially conceived as more than a feature film project by Luna and his longtime friend and collaborator Gael García Bernal a decade ago. But as the years went by, the opportunity to turn this boxing story into an exciting episodic series became both obvious and exciting.

“I’m glad we took our time,” Luna tells the Times on a sunny September afternoon at Chateau Marmont. “Because I think the opportunity to talk about a boxer's career and the relationship between him and his manager at the end of his career is really powerful. In many ways it serves to reflect and draw parallels between what we as actors go through. In our careers. On our journey in this business.”

Esteban (García Bernal) knows that his days as a professional boxer – as “La Máquina” – are numbered. He cannot continue to chase the glory of years past. His body can't keep up. Neither can his mind.

This is clearly a problem for his manager Andy (Luna). And after Esteban loses an important fight against a famous newcomer, Andy insists on staging a comeback. The decision proves dangerous, as both men find themselves at the mercy of unseen forces eager to repay a debt they incurred years earlier that helped make “La Máquina” the celebrated and lucrative fighter they are make who he is. Or was.

Written by showrunner Marco Ramirez and directed by Gabriel Ripstein, the series depicts a world of sports corruption in Mexico. But at its core, La Máquina is about learning to let go, how to give up fighting the passage of time and instead embrace the changes you can still make in your life.

“I am able to do this because I can now talk about aging,” Luna explains. “Because I’m there. I have children. My son is 16. My daughter is 14. When I look at them I realize it's been a while since I've been here. When I talk about my career, I talk about things I did more than 25 years ago. It’s a long time.”

Looking backward while focusing on the possibilities of an impending future drives Luna. The “Y Tu Mamá También” and “Andor” actor has long seen his role as an artist as faithfully reflecting the world around him and the many colorful characters that inhabit it.

Read more:Diego Luna says it's 'difficult' to celebrate 'Andor's' Emmy nominations with writers' strike

Andy is a man as tragic as he is absurd. He is an insecure mama's boy who is desperately working to develop into a man who is wanted and respected.

“I think this character will make you laugh until you're like, 'Oh, wait a minute.' What's going on here?'” Luna says.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the first episode, where we witness Andy's early morning routine: we watch him put on his hairpiece and apply a spray tan. We watch as he fusses in front of the mirror and even injects his own lips – all while rocking out to Christian Castro's “No podrás.”

The montage is one of Luna's favorite moments in the series, “because we establish that there was a moment where he was there, but then he hid behind that mask. This is his process. I think it serves as a great metaphor for how wrong it is to let the popularity machine determine your success. Today we turn our privacy into a business. And this guy performs 24/7.”

Luna is almost unrecognizable in this role. For an actor who has long used his baby-faced looks to play everything from lecherous teenagers and troublemakers to drug addicts and football players, his portrayal of Andy marks a departure for the actor.

“If we had the opportunity to take control of the next project together, I would consider doing something completely different,” he says of the conception of the project with García Bernal. “I wanted to take a risk. I wanted to put myself in a very uncomfortable situation.”

He just had no idea how unpleasant it would be to play Andy.

“Every day was painful,” he says, laughing from time to time. “It was hours in the chair. These prostheses do not allow your skin to breathe. Essentially, you're suffocating yourself and your skin. I couldn't eat. And because of the lips I had to use a straw. So I had chills all day.”

Read more:Actor Diego Luna was a Hollywood golden boy. So why did he return to Mexico?

What helped was having a close friend as a scene partner. “It’s not often that the person in front of you actually understands it,” says Luna.

García Bernal calls from London and agrees. “In the beginning, when we started (working together), we thought it was something that would happen to everyone. And then we realized: No, it's actually pretty unique,” he says.

The two have known each other since childhood. Their mothers were friends and colleagues who raised both boys in the world of theater, which encourages play and imagination. “It’s very special because we put family first,” adds Luna.

But what they have remains indescribable. “I don't know what it is, and it's better not to know, but perhaps to surprise ourselves every time,” says García Bernal. “We both see what we do as an act of freedom. As an act of self-knowledge, an attempt to appeal to a kind of transcendence. And what’s nice is to see how that connects with another – the same meaning, but with a different poetry than mine.”

“La Máquina” continues Luna’s commitment to producing works that make audiences sit up and take notice. A subplot of the series revolves around Esteban's ex-wife Irasema (Eiza González). She is a reporter whose goal is to uncover the truth behind the many rigged games that have come to dominate the sport, a task that puts her and her family in danger.

“I was always worried about what was happening and what was going on,” Luna says. “I was always trying to figure out how to be useful and belong to something I could be proud of.”

These beliefs are reflected in the many projects Luna has produced throughout his career, and more recently under the banner of his and García Bernal's production company La Corriente del Golfo. This includes her most recent project, the documentary “State of Silence” by Santiago Maza, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June. Luna has been directing the film since 2019, when he was asked to support a project about the dangers journalists face in speaking truth to power in Mexico.

Maza, who worked on the actor's dinner table documentary Pan y Circo, has found a principled collaborator in Luna. Someone whose frenzied curiosity about the world is inspiring.

“I was impressed at the time with how well-informed he was,” Maza says over Zoom of their first meeting. “I think I understand why now. I know his habits: he's always reading the news or listening to the radio. I remember when we were talking about politics and other things, I was like, 'Man, this guy knows his stuff.'”

“State of Silence” was originally conceived as a series. Luna funded the pilot but couldn't find a network that could produce it. By 2022, Maza had adapted the project into a feature-length film, financed independently by Corriente del Golfo with help from the Ford Foundation and Luminate.

The documentary, recently acquired by Netflix, offers a harrowing and haunting portrait of the violence that awaits journalists in Mexico when reporting on everything from cartel shootings to local corruption. That it comes out in the same year as La Máquina speaks to the type of work Luna dedicates his time to.

“Diego and Gael know about it,” shares Maza. “They have done this throughout their careers – how to make entertainment that also nourishes us, informs us and raises awareness. These are two projects that, while they may not look too similar, help paint a portrait of contemporary Mexico.”

If there is one principle that guides Luna's career, it is the belief that the stories he tells matter and that the work requires him to invest in what she can say.

“You spend so much time thinking about it, convincing others about it, then implementing it, and then promoting it,” Luna says. “So it should matter.”

“I believe that certain stories can change your perception. “I think that’s something you remember every time you approach this job: you might be taking part in something that gives hope to others and that makes you proud,” he says. “Of course, in this search it can happen that something is missed. And you will miss it often. But it’s the search that counts.”

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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.