Diego Calva had the kind of American film debut that, on paper, sounds too good to be true: a lead role in a massive production helmed by Oscar winner Damien Chazelle, playing opposite A-listers Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie. And even as that film faltered at the box office and drew divisive reviews, Calva’s mesmerizing introduction of a performance was undeniable, leading to a Golden Globe nomination and mountains of speculation as to what he’d do next. The Mexico City native faced a familiar predicament for those suddenly thrust into the Hollywood spotlight: to seize the moment, or take a breather.

Calva initially struggled with this, mulling over his future as an actor, but four years out from the Babylon breakout, he sounds energized by the road he’s taken. Indeed, this is shaping up to easily be the biggest year of Calva’s career since his 2022 explosion. Already, he’s made for a seductively complex adversary in the second season of The Night Manager — including anchoring the sexiest scene of 2026 so far — and he’s about to head to Cannes with meaty supporting parts in two anticipated films: Club Kid, as a kind-hearted love interest to director and star Jordan Firstman’s in-over-his-head protagonist, and Her Private Hell, the first film from Drive’s Nicolas Winding Refn in a full decade. 

In his first conversation about the films, Calva teases what to expect from both as he gears up for Cannes — and reflects on the trajectory from Babylon to hitting the Croisette for the first time, and why it might lead to a move to Los Angeles.

You’re in two movies premiering at Cannes. What’s the feeling? 

Actually amazing. I remember when I was a kid going to Blockbuster and renting any Cannes movie I found. Just to see the Cannes logo or insignia, that was enough to pick the movie. It’s how I was introduced to [David] Cronenberg movies and to Korean cinema, stuff like that. This is a dream. My inner kid is pretty happy.

Let’s start with Club Kid. How did this come your way? 

We have a friend in common, Olmo Schnabel — he’s Julian Schnabel’s son — and he was the one who put me in contact with Jordan. It was an instant match. We had a lot of things in common, music-wise and in fashion and especially movies. I checked out Jordan’s work. I’d already watched Rotting in the Sun, which I loved so much. It was a no brainer.

What kinds of movies did you guys talk about?

We talked a lot about Mysterious Skin, about weird coming of age movies. Mysterious Skin is the most beautiful coming of age movie ever made. We also talked about weird stuff like Clueless and comedy. And I got really attracted to the idea of acting with the director. It was my first time acting with someone that is directing [me]…. He was able to switch his mindset when he was acting with me. Then he’d take a pause to direct, to give me some notes, and he always went to his team and asked, “What do you think about the take?” He was always close with the DP, but then forgot about the camera. It was cool to see him changing his mindset every 20 minutes on set.

You mentioned bonding over coming-of-age films. These guys are in their 30s, but was that your way into this story? 

I really liked the idea of a coming-of-age for a 30-something-year-old guy, because that’s my age, literally (Laughs). And I’m really attracted to failure in a way. Characters that are in the middle of a crisis or they are used to failing. Jordan’s character’s life is about to change in a very important and radical way, but at the same time it’s impossible for him to stop being that way and he has to change everything. I thought that was funny. It’s pretty wild at the same time, like the movies I like, but the core of the movie is something really sweet. It talks about family, talks about love, talks about changing your life. It is a movie that talks about my age — a 30-something years-old adolescent.

The two of you are telling a love story here, and it’s very intimate and sweet, as you say. How did you develop that chemistry together? 

First of all, as a director, Jordan gives you room to play, which is amazing. When we were finding Oscar, we talked about our personal lives, and we talked a lot about my childhood in Mexico City and how I used to be a skateboarder and rough stuff that happened when I was a teenager. We kind of found that Oscar would be someone that  had a situation during his childhood, something that attracts him to try to help other children. In those conversations before getting on set, when I was actually shooting [Her Private Hell] in Copenhagen, we got really personal. Jordan told me all these real life stories that influenced him to write the script. So the moment I went to New York to start the shooting, we’d already built the relationship. 

I need a really safe place to be able to get that intimate. I need to be curious and to be able to play, to have fun with my work. Jordan gave me that. All this intimacy, the script is really wild, but it’s tender. There’s no explicit sex because it was not needed, but there’s something really sweet about the way they look at each other. We really thought about those first looks, those first interactions…where, in this moment of their lives, they’re really important for each other. We talked about those kinds of people: the people that maybe don’t stay, but change or help us through something.

Filming a Nicolas Winding Refn movie while talking through your Club Kid romance from afar must have been interesting. 

I remember being in my hotel in Copenhagen, when I got on my first Zoom with Jordan — like a two-hour Zoom. I remember it perfectly because it was a Denmark, Copenhagen, summer, and I wanted to be outside taking in the sun and enjoying the afternoon. And I ended up talking for hours with Jordan.

This is Nicolas’ first film in quite some time. Were you a fan going in? 

Yes. I was in Madrid at the time and I just got a call from my agent: “Nicholas is going to direct a film, he wants to talk to you.” I’d weirdly just finished watching Copenhagen Cowboy on Netflix with my father, so that was pretty weird, just finishing his show and right away getting his call — kind of destiny. He told me, “You have to read the script. Where are you?” “I’m in Madrid.” “Okay. My assistant is going to take a flight tomorrow. She will be in Madrid around the afternoon tomorrow. She’ll give you the script. You have two hours.” It was like, “If you affect this mission, this message will destroy itself,” from Mission Impossible (Laughs). Literally: His assistant flew to Madrid, gave me the script, and in two hours I read it and I gave it back.

He has a unique way of working. What can you tell me about the process?

It was pretty cool working with someone that free. Nick writes the script in a way to try to explain his vision to others, but he finds the movie during the making. My character was written as there for three, four scenes — I ended up staying in Copenhagen for longer. I actually went back to Madrid and back to Copenhagen because Nick was writing more stuff for my character. He changes everything during the shooting, which is pretty confusing at some moments, but with a genius like that, you have to give and surrender. 

The other thing is that everything was about music. Nick is a rock and roll fan and he directs you with music. We were listening to Iggy Pop and Suicide and The Cure and The Marvelettes during the shooting. For every sequence, he chooses a song and we listen to that song on repeat for the whole day. You get into some kind of trance…. He was not looking for something like a performance. He looks to the essence of the person. It was pretty fun to work with someone like that, where it is not about words. He [couldn’t] care less about my accent or the way I pronounce words — which was amazing for me. (Laughs.) 

Your main co-star here is Sophie Thatcher, the lead of the movie. How did you get on?

Again, we share a lot of music tastes. Sophie is a punk-rock queen. She’s something between Helena Bonham Carter and Kim Gordon, with a little bit of Patti Smith. My character is always with her, and we became friends right away because of the music. Then she has this look, this inner something in her expression, where you can see that she’s a deep person. There’s some sadness mixed with true joy. I don’t know how you say it — timeless, I will say. It’s like a Cure song. I was really, really looking forward to working with her. 

You were also terrific in The Night Manager, which aired in the winter. It’s a big year for you — probably your biggest since your breakout in Babylon from 2022, right? Does it feel that way to you? 

The other big year for me was 1992, when I was born. (Laughs) I feel pretty honored. But also I feel that I’m learning how to navigate all these situations because I’ve been making the right decisions with my team. I’m finding people that I really like to work with, people that I share visions with — not only music-wise, but politically, the way we see the world. I find myself less afraid of committing a mistake in my career. I feel less pressure and more intrigued, more curious, because it’s different to feel pressure than to feel curiosity. It’s different to be afraid and to be worried. I’m still afraid of course, of everything, but I just have the sense that I’m working with the right people.

Did you feel that pressure or that uncertainty after Babylon? I imagine there was a lot of noise around that time.

Yeah, this idea of being a one-hit wonder was a big thing. The other was that I never fully dedicated myself to acting. Even after Narcos, the Netflix show I did in Mexico, I wanted to write and to paint and to keep trying to do music or directing — that was the goal. It still is in a way, to be a director or to direct some movies. But Babylon was going to college. I started to call myself an actor, but it was hard to navigate a new industry. I kind of knew the Mexican industry, but then I was thrown to the American industry and to the European industry and everything was just too fast at some moments. I was really concerned about my decisions and not knowing how to swim in this beautiful sea called Hollywood. But I’m learning at least, and finally I’m having a good time.

It’s interesting, as an actor for hire, to have found a way to keep working with people who you feel very aligned with. Is there a secret to achieving that?

It’s important to have good communication with your team. I go back home all the time to the people that don’t care. My friends don’t care if I was nominated for a Golden Globe any more than if I’m eating a cold slice of pizza. They don’t care. (Laughs.) That was very important, going back to Mexico after Babylon, keeping myself grounded. Now I might be ready to come to L.A. and live here, but it was the right decision at the moment.

So you’re thinking about making the move?

Yeah, I think I want to give it a try. Los Angeles is a toxic girlfriend, I just have to come back and see her. It’s easier to talk bad about Los Angeles when I’m not in Los Angeles. When I’m in New York, I feel like I love New York and I want to live there and I kind of don’t see myself in Los Angeles. But when I arrive to Los Angeles, I just kind of have an easy, quiet life. I’m a Mexican city rat, and the city is so huge and so beautiful that sometimes when I’m in Los Angeles, I feel like an adult. This might be my coming of age, having a quiet life in California — who knows? 

So who else is on your dream director list right now?

I would love to do a movie with Almodóvar. When I was a teenager and I got my heart broken for the first time, I remember just getting obsessed with Almodóvar, the way he portrays love and passion and betrayal. He can be political too. 

I can say a lot. I would love to act for Scorsese, why not? Why not? For Lynne Ramsay and Andrea Arnold. I love her movies. A Mexican Director named Natalia Beristáin. I can keep going and going and going and going. Something cool that I’ve found is that you can try to materialize or to put yourself in any situation you can want to work with someone. But wishing for one thing, for me, is too much. Of course, if Tarantino or Scorsese read this interview and say, “Oh wow, why not?” It will be amazing. But for now, wishing is too much.

You do get to go to Cannes for the first time the same year as Almodóvar has a new movie there, at least. 

I know it. Believe me. I’m trying to get at least an autograph. I’m still a movie fan. I enter any room here in Hollywood and I’m the guy that wants the selfie and to ask for everyone. It’s pretty cool to still have the sense that it might be the last time.

I imagine you’ll want to see other movies at Cannes while you’re there for the premieres — 

— If [my publicist] is listening to this conversation, I hope she will help me to find the most amount of tickets to watch movies that we can.

It may be tough for you, though, to find the time. 

But I’m Mexican. It’s hard to stop me.