movies
Diego Luna Interview on Cannes Film ‘Ashes,’ Playing Michael Jackson
Diego Luna had both personal motivations and more universal ones that drove him to make Ashes, his fifth feature as director.
While Luna continues to tackle an array of high-profile fare in front of the camera — starring opposite Jennifer Lopez in last year’s Kiss of the Spider Woman, leading the Emmy-winning Star Wars series Andor and nabbing a role in Disney’s live-action Tangled — he continues to tell more intimate stories through his filmmaking work. Adapting Brenda Navarro’s novel Ceniza en la boca, his latest effort centers on Anna Díaz as Lucila, a 21-year-old woman leaving Mexico for Madrid in search of a better life as she reunites with her mother (Adriana Paz), who moved there years ago.
Ahead of Ashes premiering during the Special Screening section at Cannes, Luna tells The Hollywood Reporter about the film resonating with him not only because of the current polarizing debate over immigration but also due to his own family history. Additionally, he reflects on having directed the 2014 biographical feature Cesar Chavez in light of recently surfaced abuse claims against the labor leader who died in 1993.
What was it about the novel that drew you to this project?
It was a very powerful read for me. My son was 14 when I read it, and I thought it was a very interesting story to approach migration from an angle we don’t see much, particularly living in Mexico with that proximity to that huge border between such a powerful country [as the U.S.] and ours, and such a complicated scenario these days. For me, the book resonated profoundly because of the journey of this young woman. If you read it, you’ll understand that I took a piece of that book to make this story and decided to center everything on Lucila. Distance in crucial years for people where parents are not around — that is something really important for me. My mother died when I was 2 years old. I grew up with my father, and he dedicated his life to theater. In a way, what Spain represents in this film for me was theater. It was that thing that was keeping my father away from me.
How did you decide that Anna Díaz and Adriana Paz were the right fit as the mother-daughter duo?
With Adriana, I’ve known her from a long time. We played a couple together in a film called Rudo y Cursi that we did many years ago, and I know her strengths. With Anna, it was very interesting because as soon as the casting director in Mexico read the script, he said to me, “What about Anna? Did you see [her in the 2024 movie] La Cocina?” And I said, “Yes, I saw La Cocina! Obviously, I thought about her, but we should see a lot of actresses.” We saw hundreds of options of great actresses from Mexico. At the very end, I said to Anna, “Do you mind coming and working with me a good hour, and we’ll do a little scene together?” We had a session — Adriana, Anna, me, a few of the producers and the casting director — and everyone was sobbing. When they did that scene, I was like, “This is it. It’s them.”
Over a decade ago, you made a film about Cesar Chavez starring Michael Peña. The civil rights leader has been in the news with labor activist Dolores Huerta, whom Rosario Dawson portrayed in your movie, having accused him of sexual abuse. Have you thought about how you might approach the film differently today?
Completely. I was devastated and very confused and very worried and sad and conflicted with the whole thing because, most importantly, of what the movement means. It was very, very, very hard to understand and believe. I was shocked, and there’s very little you can say. I met so many people whose lives depend on what the movement achieved and what the community was able to do. It was horrendous and painful to read what we all read.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Y Tu Mamá También, which still delivers such impact. How has the process for independent filmmaking changed since then?
The cinema I still enjoy doing the most is that one that celebrates the perspective of someone and has a point of view with independent drive. That can be done small or big. It’s not about the size of the production; it’s about what actually drives the project. I get to work with people that make me feel that way. Basically, in every project I’ve done for the last 10 years, I have had that kind of feeling — no matter what it is, if it’s animation or a gigantic production or a very small one. I’m in search of those projects and trying to celebrate that cinema as much as possible. It’s urgent, and it’s needed, and there’s nothing more powerful for me as the audience, so I want to defend those spaces.
Your Star Wars series, Andor, is beloved as well, so you’ve found a balance between massive projects and smaller ones.
That independent drive was there. We were working on the project written by Tony Gilroy, and there was a very clear vision. That independent drive can happen in gigantic or very small productions. It’s about what’s propelling the project.
I have to ask you about Michael Jackson, given that you played a version of him in [Harmony Korine’s 2008 movie] Mister Lonely, and now the new hit biopic Michael has sparked debate about what it says or doesn’t say. How was the experience with your film?
I haven’t seen [Michael] just because of all the research I had to do and all the beautiful work I got to do with the amazing Harmony Korine on Mister Lonely. It was quite an experience, getting in the head of Harmony and trying to serve him and become a tool for his story to come across. I remember that as a wonderful journey. I learned a lot [from Korine]. His way is different than anybody else. It’s incredible. But I haven’t seen the [new] film. I’ll probably go by myself and watch it soon.
What excites you most about Ashes premiering soon?
I am very anxious to see it in that cinema in Cannes and find a first audience. The fear, the ignorance, the hate we are seeing around migration, this is the way to fight that — reflecting on it, telling stories, trying to get you close to understand the story of just one person who can’t live where they belong, and what does that mean? We don’t stop enough to think about that. That would make the experience and the world different these days.
Have you started considering future projects to direct?
As soon as I finished directing, I was like, “I need to write this other thing and this other thing.” Suddenly, directing allowed me to remember how much I like this process and also how much I’m ready to talk. As an actor, I’m always ready to be invited to help others tell their stories, but today, I have stories to tell, and I want to do it again.
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movies
Obama Relives Tan Suit Debacle In ‘Life, Larry & Pursuit of Unhappiness’
As Larry David‘s comedic trip through U.S. history comes to an end, he took credit for one of the nation’s more recent presidential scandals.
On Friday’s season finale of the HBO sketch comedy miniseries Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, President Barack Obama made a surprise appearance as himself in a sketch set in 2014, as David advised him to wear the now-infamous, outrage-inducing tan suit during his live press conference on military response to ISIS.
Following some banter on how the POTUS avoids stains, David accidentally spills juice on Obama’s suit jacket when he leaves the room. When the 44th president returns, the comedian recommends he wear the tan suit that Obama planned on taking it to Turin for NATO Summit, for “a daytime event, it’s outdoors, a little more casual.”
“First of all, it’s a gorgeous suit,” David declared. “And this is casual Friday!”
“It is a great suit,” admitted Obama, as David told him, “Oh boy, oh boy. I think this is the move. … Old lips won’t let you down. You’ll thank me!”
As Obama models the look, David gives him his signature, “Pretty good! Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.”
“You sure about this?” asks Obama, as David assures him, “Never been more sure about anything in my life. People are going to be talking about this for a long, long time.”
Obama’s cameo in the finale comes as David marks the United States Semiquencentennial with the seven-part sketch comedy limited series, which recounts major events in U.S. history through the comedian’s signature observational humor.
David’s longtime Curb Your Enthusiasm partner Jeff Schaffer, who serves as an executive producer on Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, previously told Deadline that Obama, who produced under his Higher Ground banner, reached out to his buddy David to ask if he’d be interested in making the show to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday.
“When you’re doing a show about American history, you want to do it warts and right now we have this orange saggy wart that we wish would go away,” said Schaffer. “But the nice thing about having President Obama produce this and be a part of it is that this country’s had a lot of fuck ups, we’ve seemed to have learned very little, but we’re still moving forward sometimes, and then we move back a little bit, but we always move forward again. While Larry’s pointing out a lot of the steps back, the President is telling us we can still step forward.”
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movies
Matthew McConaughey Performs “Quill” From ‘Rivals of Amziah King’ — Watch
Matthew McConaughey shows off his vocal skills (and some hidden banjo talents) with his latest role in The Rivals of Amziah King.
On Friday, Lakeshore Records released the single and music video for “Quill” from the original motion picture soundtrack, performed by the Oscar-winning and co-star Ben Hardesty, also featuring Miranda Zickler, Angelina LookingGlass and Andrea Pister.
Set in the backwoods of Oklahoma, The Rivals of Amziah King follows the musically gifted Amaziah King (McConaughey) and his bluegrass-playing band of misfits while overseeing the premier honey-making operation in town. When Amaziah’s estranged foster daughter unexpectedly returns, he leaps at the chance to reconnect and create a family business. But the honey game is ruthless, and Amaziah’s rivals threaten to destroy everything he has built.
Premiering Aug. 14 in theaters, the Andrew Patterson-written-and-directed drama also stars Angelina LookingGlass, Cole Sprouse, Jake Horowitz, Tony Revolori and Kurt Russell.
Producers are David Heyman, Teddy Schwarzman, Jeffrey Clifford, Michael Heimler, James Montague and Will Greenfield.
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movies
Jane Schoenbrun On Tackling “Toxic Soup” Of Slasher Genre In ‘Camp Miasma’
With their latest directorial outing, Jane Schoenbrun used subtle pieces of nostalgia to deconstruct the slasher genre.
The Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma writer/director explained to Deadline that they wanted to create “a mindset where you can really enjoy something scary,” noting the frequent symbolism of candy and junk food as providing an atmosphere “that’s actually safe” while diving into a horror movie or exploring sexuality after trauma.
“There is this idea that if it gets too real, you can turn it off, that you’re exploring something dangerous, doing it in a way that’s actually safe,” said Schoenbrun, who is non-binary. “Which in my experience of coming into my sexual identity post-transition, kind of required some gummy candy on hand. What I mean by that is, even if we’re going to be exploring scary and vulnerable and potentially embarrassing, triggering parts of ourselves, we trust each other well enough to know that at any moment, we can be like, ‘Let’s stop, we gotta just eat some fucking gummies.’”
In Schoenbrun’s latest film, Hannah Einbinder stars as queer director Kris, who is tapped to helm a new installment of the long-running Camp Miasma horror franchise. While courting Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson), the actress who played the “final girl” in the original film, to reprise her role, the pair spirals into a psychosexual frenzy as the slasher’s killer, Little Death (Jack Haven), comes to life.
Acknowledging the problematic trans representation of horror films like Psycho (1960), Sleepaway Camp (1983), The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995), Schoenbrun admitted the genre has been “catnip to me since I was 10 years old,” and they jumped at the chance to direct their own.

“So many slashers do have this sense of humor, and even if they’re not overtly meta like the Scream movies are, they’re so aware of their own tropes and the sort of rituals … And I just loved that from a young age and loved all of the little rituals within it, and so, getting to make my own is just like play and joy,” they explained.
“But it also felt like the perfect way to talk about sex and to talk about my experience as a trans person post-transition, learning how to come into a sexual identity that I could feel comfortable within, because so many of these movies are obviously deeply engaged in gender and sexual roles, and these movies have so much to say for better or for worse about deviants,” said Schoenbrun. “It is there in the DNA of the slasher genre that these movies are talking about fear and desire, gender and sexuality, normativity and deviance. And that’s all swimming in the toxic soup of the genre, so I wanted to remake it in my own language.”
Read on about Jane Schoenbrun’s love letter to the slasher genre with Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, now playing in theaters.
DEADLINE: It was really fun to see the slasher genre through your eyes. Tell me about finding inspiration in that genre and “final girls.”
JANE SCHOENBRUN: I mean, it was the easiest thing in the world because it’s just one of those genres that has been catnip to me since I was 10 years old. I just raided the horror section of the video store as a kid from an age when I really shouldn’t have been doing that, like in 5th grade, I watched in the span of about one week, every Nightmare on Elm Street movie. I think that I was always drawn to movies and really anything entertainment where it felt forbidden in some way, like the thing on the tape, how is that even allowed? And that’s the thing that I love about a lot of my favorite slashers. Don’t get me wrong, I love like brutal ones, like I love Texas Chainsaw, that’s a nasty movie at its core, and that’s what’s so special about it. But so many slashers do have this sense of humor, and even if they’re not overtly meta like the Scream movies are, they’re so aware of their own tropes and the sort of rituals of, OK, what’s the most outrageous way that like these like dumb kids can get killed? But watching it, it’s not about fear a lot of the time, it’s about joy and celebration. And I just loved that from a young age and loved all of the little rituals within it, and so, getting to make my own is just like play and joy. But it also felt like the perfect way to talk about sex and to talk about my experience as a trans person post-transition, learning how to come into a sexual identity that I could feel comfortable within, because so many of these movies are obviously deeply engaged in gender and sexual roles, and these movies have so much to say for better or for worse about deviants, whether that be Norman Bates or Buffalo Bill or Sleepway Camp or Jason, Michael Myers, Leatherface in drag. It is there in the DNA of the slasher genre that these movies are talking about fear and desire, gender and sexuality, normativity and deviance. And that’s all swimming in the toxic soup of the genre, so I wanted to remake it in my own language.

DEADLINE: I’m curious about the symbolism of all the processed junk food and the chandelier of wrappers.
SCHOENBRUN: The junk food in the movie, I forget when it found its way in there. It’s like so much of the movie is about, like I said, ritual, about being in a mindset where you can really enjoy something scary, whether that be Kris [Hannah Einbinder] in bed, with, you know, with Raisinets and the popcorn, watching a schlocky horror movie, or the two characters learning how to be present and enjoy sex after a lot of trauma. There is this idea that if it gets too real, you can turn it off, that you’re exploring something dangerous, doing it in a way that’s actually safe. Which in my experience of coming into my sexual identity post-transition, kind of required some gummy candy on hand. What I mean by that is, even if we’re going to be exploring scary and vulnerable and potentially embarrassing, triggering parts of ourselves, we trust each other well enough to know that at any moment, we can be like, “Let’s stop, we gotta just eat some fucking gummies.”
DEADLINE: And one thing I really love—I just feel like it’s a theme in your work—is how it depicts the way media and entertainment influence us. Why does that inspire you?
SCHOENBRUN: I think it comes from a fascination and sensitivity to the complex relationship between what we think of as fiction and what we think of as reality, which we tend to, as a society, think of as pointing in one direction. Like, reality dictates fiction, not vice-versa, but when you actually look at the way the world works, it’s like one echoes off the other. And I think a complicated, sometimes terrifying and sometimes beautiful way, where the fiction, the cultural norms, the things we grow up looking at on our screens, the roles that we’re told people play, they kind of inspire us to create reality. There’s something liberating when you start thinking in that way. I think it’s a way of thinking that we as a culture, could do a lot more of. To think about the idea of fiction inspiring reality just as much as reality is inspiring fiction, is a potential path to liberating us from this hellscape that they’re telling us is the only way the world can be.

DEADLINE: And I know you have the Secretary reading. Tell me what it’s been like prepping for that and why you all chose that movie.
SCHOENBRUN: I mean, that was such a huge influence on on Miasma. There just aren’t that many fun and funny movies about deviant sex. And just the way that movie is like feather light while talking about really raw and taboo things, it is just really inspiring to me. And the dynamic between those two main characters is definitely one that had a lot of influence on on Kris and Billy’s [Gillian Anderson] relationship in Miasma. And it’s already to me a very queer movie in its way, but having Gillian reading the James Spader part and Hannah reading the Maggie Gyllenhaal part, I think it’s just gonna be like a very unique joy. Honestly, we’ve been prepping a little bit, but I think it’s just gonna be about getting up there and feeling the chemistry of it all, and just letting these folks who we have all gotten to know each other really, really well, but we haven’t actually done anything wacky and creative like that in a while, like as a reunion, it’s gonna be a real blast, I think.
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