#andy lujan

Frustrated boxer and his gorgeous manager

I just finished watching ‘La Maquina’ today.

‘La Maquina’is amazing!!

Diego’s acting goes beyond the surface, and I can really feel all the layers of his character’s life.

Watching ‘La Maquina’, I totally forgot he is Diego and got completely drawn into Andy.

Even though I felt his prosthetic makeup was a bit strange at first, I ended up loving Andy more and more.

Still, I miss Diego’s real face, so I drew this painting for myself. Sorry, Andy :(

That lifelong friendship is felt onscreen through their interactions as Esteban and Andy, but not necessarily in the way you’d expect. Because really, Andy and Esteban probably spend about 80% of their scenes together arguing. And they come by it honestly–after a 20-year working relationship complicated by money and strained by addiction issues and lies, both are also dealing with a lot of personal stuff when a gigantic bomb is dropped into their laps. As the Otras Personas extort Esteban into throwing his final fight, Andy is genuinely regretful but also doesn’t want to be blamed too directly, and Esteban is thrown completely off-kilter by this stunning, devastating revelation. It’s a lot to put on a friendship, and theirs wasn’t on the most solid ground to begin with.

So they argue. They fight over why Andy made such a reckless deal in the first place and why he never told Esteban about it, they fight over the best way to handle their dilemma, and they fight over how to keep from further antagonizing the Otras Personas. Their friendship is at the breaking point, and people looking at them from the outside don’t know why they put up with each other. Nearly everyone tells Esteban he needs to fire Andy, and Andy’s mom is insistent that keeping Esteban as a client is holding Andy back.

But that’s where García Bernal and Luna’s real-life friendship comes in. Despite all the shouting and accusations, despite the moments when Esteban itches to get Andy in the ring so he can clock him, you’re still able to feel the love between them. Just like in Y tu mamá también and their other onscreen collaborations, their characters’ relationship is different than their own, but they lend that feeling of history. The sense that these two characters go as far back together as one can go. The sense that they’ve been through it all together, and no matter how much their lives change, on some level they’re still just those two boys from Jalisco.

Andy and Esteban’s arguments cut deeply, in large part because of how much they care for each other. Andy feels sick that his dumb decisions from ages ago are now endangering everyone he loves, even as he tries to wriggle away from direct accusations. Esteban is hurt and despondent, wondering how much of his career was a lie while also thinking how this could ruin his future legacy. When Andy first tells him the news, Esteban can’t bear the realization that Andy fixed fights for him in the past because he didn’t believe Esteban could win. When Esteban accuses Andy of taking a cut from the Otras Personas, Andy sounds so genuinely affronted that his friend would think so little of him, asking, “Don’t you know me, asshole?” When Irasema and Andy are arguing over Esteban’s relapse, she tosses out the line, “My ex is Mexico’s favorite junkie,” and Andy instantly snaps back, “Don’t call him that!”