The Big Picture

Gael García Bernal’s performance in Cassandro has been praised as a career-best and the film is already garnering nominations. Bernal learned wrestling skills and the performative aspect of lucha libre for the role. Bernal is “excited” about The Boys: Mexico.

When Cassandro premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, Gael García Bernal was praised for his performance as the titular luchador, with some even hailing it as a career-best for the Mexican actor. After a brief stint on the festival circuit, the press tour for the film’s September release date was cut short by the dual strike. Now, with both strikes coming to a satisfactory end, and awards season gearing up, Bernal is once again promoting the film, which is already garnering nominations from critics’ groups.

Set in the late 1980s, Cassandro delves into the true story of Saúl Armendáriz (Bernal), a gay wrestler from El Paso, who rises to international stardom after he creates the character “Cassandro,” the “Liberace of Lucha Libre” and competes as an exótico in Mexico. As he enters the world of Lucha Libre, Saúl meets Sabrina (Roberta Colindrez) and gains not only a trainer, but a friend who helps him find the courage to become who he truly is—in and out of the ring.

Speaking with Collider, Gael García Bernal spoke about what he learned about lucha libre and himself during his preparation for the role, what it has been like to bring this film to the widest audience possible, what he hopes changes for smaller films to get more support on release, and the experience of seeing movies in cinemas. Bernal also spoke about what wrestling skills he took from Cassandro on to his upcoming Hulu series La Máquina, where he stars as an aging boxer opposite Diego Luna, whom he has also teamed up with on the upcoming The Boys: Mexico series—though he was tight-lipped about the highly anticipated spin-off. Check out all of this and so much more in the video at the top of the article, or in the full transcript below.

Cassandro Release Date September 22, 2023 Director Roger Ross Williams Rating R Runtime 107 minutes Main Genre Drama Genres Drama , Biography , sport Writers David Teague , Roger Ross Williams

COLLIDER: This was my first true introduction to lucha libre, and I love when I get to learn something when I’m watching a movie. I’m curious, in your preparation for the role, was there anything that you learned that has really stuck with you?

GAEL GARCÍA BERNAL: Oh, many things. Many things. Fortunately, with all characters, there’s always a whole complexity of learning, of experiences that you learn immediately, and also some things that you learn in the long run that afterwards, in retrospect, you go, “Okay, this one kind of helped me with this or that.” Starting from the obvious, I guess, it gave me the chance to play with lucha libre, of course, which is a sport that I used to play as a game, of course, when I was a kid. I used to follow lucha libre a lot, and so it was fun to play those characters and to play in the ring and to learn, also, the tricks that I never knew how they did it, like certain things with the ropes and learning how to fall, and all those kinds of things. And those are very good skills to know in life. Knowing how to fall, especially. It’s a very good one.

Then, there were other things that are perhaps a bit more abstract and a bit more from a vivid experience of lucha libre, as well, which are like the performative aspect. It’s a sport that you have to perform a lot, and so in order to [do it], you have to always never forget about that. And in a way, I think all sports should always have that kind of quality, as well, because most sports, it’s only about winning, you know? They forget about giving a good show, and giving a good show is a quality that I think hypes the performance. It makes you better. And also, at the same time, there is an immediate satisfaction. That’s what they mean when they say it’s not important to win, it’s important to compete. There’s this comedian that says, “It’s not only about winning, it’s not only about competing, it’s about making the other one lose.” [Laughs]

That is very true.

BERNAL: I mean, politicians actually might go a long way with that.

Something you mentioned there was talking about the physicality of this role and it is a very physical role. You’re in the ring, you’re getting tossed around. How much of that was you and how much of that was a stunt performer? It seems like a lot of it is you getting thrown around!

BERNAL: Of course, of course. A lot of it was me. [Laughs] I worked in the film with a stunt team that I’ve been working with since a long, long time ago, since Amores Perros. That was what was nice about this movie is that we did it with our film family. Everyone on the set I had worked with several times already, and so we know each other, we know what’s happening, we know how to take care of each other. So, this stunt team was incredible because they were able to be the interlocutors between the wrestling world, the lucha libre world, and the film. We worked together with [AAA] [Worldwide], which is one of the biggest organizations of lucha libre in the world, and they were really kind. They were really generous and very, very, very supportive. It was Chessman and Texano Jr., my tutors of lucha libre. So, the stunt team was the one that kind of put things together. They coordinate that.

At the beginning when I saw it, I was like, “It’s impossible that I’m gonna be able to do that,” and they were like, “No, you can! You can do that. I’m sure you can do that.” So we trained, and I ended up doing most of the tricks except a couple. You can actually tell which ones they are because they are really, really dangerous. [Laughs] Maybe in the frenetic sort of hubris, I would have stood up and said, “Yeah, I’m gonna go for it,” but that’s how careers are ended.

Gael García Bernal on the Journey from Wrestling to Boxing

Did you take any of the skills that you learned here into your boxing series, La Máquina?

BERNAL: Into my life! [Laughs] Into La Máquina, no because it’s boxing and it’s so, so different. And boxing I had done before quite a lot and it’s completely different. It’s absolutely very, very different, but there is a little familiarity of being in the ring that helped me, I guess, to stand in the ring. You know what? Actually, thinking about it, maybe the wrestling training is so hard, it hurts so much, and boxing training also hurts. But there is something more dangerous with boxing, all the time. There is danger all the time. With wrestling there is a way that you can actually do things and actually hit yourself and stuff, but it’s not dangerous. It’s gonna hurt but it’s not gonna be bad, you know? So maybe it did help me prepare to sustain the pain eventually. But it’s a whole different thing, as well, shooting a film because, man, the hours. It just takes forever, and you have to do the whole thing over and over again, and that’s something that even the wrestlers were very tired of.

I can imagine. Going back to Cassandro, in addition to starring, you’re also an executive producer on it, and I’m curious for you, what was the process like, the experience like ensuring that this film was seen by the widest audience possible?

BERNAL: What we wanted to hit it on was, especially, lucha libre and the amazing story of Cassandro, of Saúl. Those two elements already, combined with a little bit of makeup, it’s fantastic for many people to find it appealing from the beginning. Definitely knowing lucha libre is something that kind of helps, but also, for the people that don’t know it, it might seem from far away very kind of like an exotic thing, but it’s very easy to get into it. It sparks a curiosity from the beginning. And then, I guess, just the participation of everyone in the film – everyone started to come together. That’s the thing, yes, I want the film to be seen a lot, but mainly, first and foremost, I want it to be a good movie. That’s the most important thing. So, it’s starting from there and then, yeah, sometimes having a little eye of like, “Okay, let’s do this, let’s do that.” But unfortunately, the film came out during the strike, so it was very complicated to sort of nurture it with all its might, you know?

Yes, the strike was very difficult. I’m also in SAG-AFTRA and that was a very difficult couple of months for the film industry. I watch a lot of smaller films that aren’t necessarily like the big-budget blockbusters that everyone’s talking about, and I know you have produced a lot of films over the years. I’m curious, what do you hope changes in the industry to help ensure that these films have as much success as possible?

BERNAL: Well, that’s the question everyone asks themselves in the in-between, whenever we get a chance to talk about it. And actually, that’s the thing, we need to get more chances to talk about it and to share the experiences, as well, because everything has changed so much, so quickly, and it’s changing rapidly. There was a moment where it was natural that films came out in cinemas, and then they came out in whatever other format, but it was after the cinemas. Then they started to go straight onto the platforms and stuff, and so it lost the chance to sort of… It’s like in sports when they do a league that restricts players from playing in other areas, those kinds of sponsorship, weird sort of restrictions. I don’t know, stupid things, really.

So, all of a sudden having to see the films only on one platform, it kind of loses a sense of mystery in many ways. I’m not saying it diminishes the experience of watching it there, but it just loses a natural pathway, as well, for the film to grow and to have a conversation and to open up certain things. And I must say that for me — I don’t know if it’s for many people, maybe some people are more disciplined than I am — when I watch films online there is always something that can distract me, always something that can take me away from the film. And what I love about going to the cinema is that you’re there and that’s it. You’re in this room, you’re escaping a little bit, also, and in a way, there’s very few things that can distract you – maybe somebody that’s eating popcorn right beside you a lot, maybe that’s distracting, but at the same time, it falls in the nature of watching a film. Sometimes when we’re watching online, you can hear, like in Mexico and where I live in Mexico City, you can hear some street vendors outside, and I would listen to their dialogue instead of watching the film and I would get distracted, you know? So it’s like, “Ah, man.”

So anyway, I’m just mentioning that detail because as intimate as that can be, I think that that is where the ramifications of what we would like the films to do, you know? Like I would love the films to have all the worlds possible in order for them to be seen and to be enjoyed by many people that actually like to go to the cinema.

That’s what’s beautiful about the cinema-going experience is it’s communal. You’re sharing a moment that can’t be replicated anywhere else with all of these strangers watching the same film at the same time, and there’s something innately beautiful about that.

BERNAL: Yeah! It’s super nice, but it’s important not to say that that’s the only way that you can watch films because you can watch films any way you want, but it really is like, “Okay, that’s a very heightened experience here.”

Gael García Bernal Is “Excited” for ‘The Boys: Mexico’ — and That’s All He Can Say

Definitely. As we wrap up, I did want to talk about one of your other upcoming projects. I’m a big fan of your work and I’m also a big fan of Diego Luna’s career, as well, so imagine my surprise last week when that news dropped about The Boys: Mexico. I’m very excited for that. How excited are you about bringing that absolutely insane franchise to Mexico?

BERNAL: I’m very excited, also, but at the same time, I’m excited because I cannot talk about it.

[Laughs] Exactly.

BERNAL: So, I know many secrets! [Laughs] I know many secrets that many people don’t know!

I’m assuming you’re a fan of the series. Are there any characters from The Boys series that you’re like, “Oh god, I would love to play something like that?” Are you a fan of that?

BERNAL: I can’t say anything.

You can’t say, that’s fine. I had to try!

BERNAL: [Laughs] Exactly.

But I am very excited. That was the biggest news for me as a fan of all three elements of it!

Cassandro is streaming now on Prime Video in the U.S. Check out the trailer below:

Watch on Prime Video