Gael García Bernal believes that nothing ends – it just changes

A note from Wildcard Hosted by Rachel Martin: I have had many jobs in my life. I was a typist for an insurance company. An English teacher in Japan. I drove a bar cart around a golf course. I worked at a whitewater rafting company and an art gallery. What I’m saying is that it took me more than a minute to figure out what my thing was. You know, honestly I’m still kind of figuring this out. And I am a grown woman.

Other people receive this gift early in their lives. A door opens. You go through it and that’s it. They have found their place, their purpose, their thing. I’m pretty sure Gael García Bernal felt the same way. His father was a film director and his mother was an actress. So Gael was thrust into the business at a very young age. At the age of 13 he starred in a Mexican telenovela. Then came theater school in London and a role in the film Amores Perros, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. And that changed everything.

Next came his iconic role in Y tu mamá tambiénalong with his lifelong friend Diego Luna. There had never been a coming-of-age film like this before. It challenged all norms surrounding masculinity and sexual exploration. And in this film we see the beginning of a long career for Gael García Bernal, a career full of surprising, magical roles that upend audiences’ expectations.

Just like in his new limited series on Hulu La Máquina. With each new film or show, he seems to be just as hungry as he was when he first started his career. Acting came early for him and stuck. And we’re very lucky that it was.

This Wild Card interview has been edited for length and clarity. Host Rachel Martin asks guests randomly selected questions from a deck of cards. Tap play above to listen to the full podcast or read an excerpt below.

Question 1: What place makes you feel like the best version of yourself?

Gael Garcia Bernal: I grew up in the theater with my parents. When I was a child, I felt that theater and life were closely intertwined. The stage was just a step away. As I grew up, in some ways I realized that I was born into something special – a world that is very unique. And the older I got, the more I became aware of the difference. There was the outside and there was the inside. There was my home and there was the world. And there was a big moment in my youth when I… not wants to be an actor.

Rachel Martin: Oh, is that right?

Garcia Bernal: I had no desire to do it at all because, in a sense, I was born there. This was the place that was convenient for me. So I wanted the challenge of something different. And I was also interested in other subjects such as archeology, sociology, anthropology or philosophy, and I studied philosophy at the Mexican National Autonomous University. And so I tried my best not to become an actor. And it was impossible to escape him. For me it’s not acting, it’s not being on stage. It’s the smell of the place. It’s like a kind of temple. It’s the place where I know everything will be okay. There’s this moment of incredible tension and excitement before you go on stage, you know, before you perform. And once you get there, everything is amazing. Everything is just incredible. That’s why I think I’m the best version of myself because, first of all, I don’t know who I am. So I think the best of me somehow doesn’t shine through, but that’s what we see in an actor when we look at their performances. We know he is someone else.

Martin: However, I had never thought about it in such a way that it can seem counterintuitive to say that I am the truest and best version of myself when acting. That seems like a big contradiction.

Garcia Bernal: Yes. I think it took me a while to come to terms with it and find peace because I was afraid of it. When I was young, I saw acting as something different and started thinking, ‘Oh, this is quite an existential journey – interpreting someone.’ And also therapeutic and cathartic, and you can sublimate so many things.”

Question 2: What surprised you about getting older?

Garcia Bernal: Now I know how to do it better, but my body doesn’t respond the way it used to, right? For example with football – I play a lot of football and I just gave up because it hurts now. And I get hurt. But I think I’m playing better than ever because now I know where to go [go and] what position you should be in.

Martin: It’s so cruel.

Garcia Bernal: Yes, it’s that cruel. So cruel.

Question 3: Have your feelings about death changed over time?

Garcia Bernal: Oh, yes, yes. It has changed a lot. Definitely. I guess the first time for me, and it must have been the case for many, many people, is becoming a father, right? For example, someone said to me the other day, “Does anyone remember the name of your grandfather’s grandfather?” And I said, “No. I don’t think anyone remembers that I know.” Wow, it’s crazy how all these things we’re going to build and all these structures we’re fighting for or trying to achieve…

So you see that transcendence is something different, right? And with a baby there is definitely transcendence, right? There is something that is there and will continue and will live on and reproduce and be something else that you will just admire.

But it’s also similar to what we do in movies. I mean my approach to filmmaking – and it might sound a bit pretentious – but it’s like I’m trying to make something that hopefully has some transcendence to it. You really want these films to somehow transcend and hopefully be seen many, many years from now, because that’s where we were at that point.

Martin: What does this transcendence mean to you? For example, if you were able to convey something that would live on after your death. What is this thing?

Garcia Bernal: Well, fortunately, many of the things I took part in helped reinforce the dimensions of many of the discussions and conversations that needed to take place in my time. These films were sedatives or catalysts for something or accompanied certain themes – very interesting concepts on “What is democracy?” I recommend this film for example NO by Pablo Larrain. We did it in Chile a few years ago and it’s about the moment they overthrew Pinochet, the dictator, and it’s incredible the anthropological game that’s being played there, because it’s a project about democracy. What is democracy, right? And I love doing that. That’s why I want all of these projects to have a transcendence that I can also understand and feel, but that when I’m no longer here, they’ll be perceived as, “Oh, these guys did their best.” These guys were really trying to do something.”

Question 4: Do you believe that there is a part of human beings that lives on after death?

Garcia Bernal: Yes, I do. If I don’t enjoy it – don’t believe it – but enjoy it or engage in the mystery of things, then I don’t think I would be an actor. Because if I had certainty and said, “I’m just interested in the facts,” then I would read the phone book. That would give me wonderful joy, so to speak, when I read the telephone book. This is real. It’s super real.

I love the mystery and poetry behind it – but not as a believer. Mostly like this kind of pleasure or curiosity. Nothing ends. Everything changes. And that is a law of physics. And I can feel it.

I mean, I can give so many examples, some of them incredibly personal. But when we knew my daughter was pregnant, my father died. So it was kind of a tag team (laughs). Yes.

Copyright 2024 NPR