Playing Rogue One and Andor hero Cassian Andor wasn’t the first time Diego Luna fought droids, dodged gunfire from spaceships, and tried to help poverty-stricken migrants crushed under the boot of authoritarian rule. Years before he joined the Star Wars universe, Luna made his sci-fi debut in director Neill Blomkamp’s 2013 film Elysium as Julio, a pigtailed, scene-stealing best friend to main character Max, played by Matt Damon.
The movie was a follow-up to Blomkamp’s blockbuster Oscar-nominated feature-film debut District 9, and the hefty budget — $115 million — and lofty expectations made it the biggest part of Luna’s career to that point. Adding to the significance was that the movie was shot in his home country of Mexico, where he had grown up in the theater and starred in his breakout role, the 2001 Alfonso Cuarón film Y tu mamá también. Looking back on the production now for an episode of our series Role Call, which you can watch above, he remembers being inspired by Blomkamp’s unconventional camerawork — and appreciates the shared politics that permeate both Elysium and his later Star Wars work:
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“Neill was clearly making a point with Elysium. There are a lot of connections between those projects — and I think that’s probably why I’m in them. Not just because I’m looking for projects like that, but because those projects have room for people like me.”
