[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for La Máquina]

The Big Picture

‘La Máquina’ is Hulu’s first Spanish-language series, featuring a Mexican boxer and showcasing Mexico City.
The series was developed by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna over a period of more than a decade, with a focus on authenticity.
The lead actors’ long-time friendship and improvisation skills added a unique dynamic to the series production.

The six-episode drama series La Máquina follows Esteban Osuna (Gael García Bernal), a boxer on the downswing of his career whose manager and Botox addicted best friend, Andy Lujan (Diego Luna), is trying to make a star again. But Andy’s own dealings with the criminal underworld pull Esteban and his ex-wife Irasema (Eiza González) into a dark side of boxing that neither wants to be involved in. Even though Esteban knows the boxing rematch has potentially dangerous consequences, the aging Mexican fighter wants to go ahead with the fight at a time when accumulated neurological trauma is making it harder for him to determine what’s real.

La Máquina is the tale of a Mexican boxer that takes place in Mexico and marks Hulu’s first Spanish-language series. It is also the first time that showrunner Marco Ramirez wrote a script in Spanish. During this one-on-one interview with Collider, he talked about the importance of authenticity, joining a project that Bernal and Luna had already been developing for over a decade, wanting to make Mexico City a character in the series, being a fan of boxing stories, the experience of working with lead actors who have a longtime friendship, figuring out Luna’s look for his character, the biggest challenge of shooting this, and why he feels they concluded the story they were telling. He also talks about his curiosity about Daredevil: Born Again, after having worked on the previous Netflix series.

Related ‘La Máquina’ Review: Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna Reunite in Off-Kilter Boxing Drama While certain pacing issues hold the series back from true greatness, Bernal and Luna are once again a compelling duo.

Collider: This is an idea that Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal came up with a long time ago, and it took quite a while to get to this point. When and how did you come to that? How much had you been told about it then? What did you want to bring or add to it?

MARCO RAMIREZ: My understanding is that it started with a drunken conversation in Berlin between two buddies. They had this idea where one wanted to play a boxer and the other wanted to play his very larger than life manager. They immediately knew what these characters were and there was a kernel of an idea, and over many years, they would add to it and write stuff that had to do with these characters. Eventually, when it came to me through Gael and Diego, but also through Hulu, the conversation was basically, “We think we’re ready to make this into a TV show. Can you help us do that?” So, my job was coming in and trying to find a way to structure it in six episodes, so that we would have a story with a beginning, middle, and end that would not get too repetitive and that could also be produced because the spectacle of the boxing world is grand and can be very expensive. I loved their work so much and our meeting went well. I actually met them on my birthday. It was a nice little birthday present. It was unexpected. That was basically the beginning of it. Once I signed on, it was like, “Okay, we’re off to the races.” We had a specific production timeline where we knew they were gonna be available, so we wrote those scripts to get to that moment.

Somehow this is the first Spanish-language original series at Hulu. What does it mean to you to bring audiences that first series? Are you surprised that it’s the first?

RAMIREZ: I don’t know if it surprises me. What I do feel is that we are in a great magic moment in culture where it’s okay to watch shows with subtitles. Most people have seen at least one show now that was shot in another language. The TV landscape I grew up with was a little afraid of subtitles, so much so that they were often dubbed. I think it’s a testament to how great the talent of these actor/EPs we have in Diego and Gael are because Hulu seemingly said, “Yeah, sure, whatever you want, let’s do it. Let’s go for it.” They had the integrity to say, “We wanna shoot this and keep this organic and have this story of Mexican boxers take place in Mexico and we want them to speak Spanish because that only makes sense.” They had faith and convictions and their own ideas, and Hulu and Searchlight had the faith in them to say, “Yeah, of course. If that’s what you guys want, then let’s do it.” I’m just really grateful to have been invited to the dance a little bit. When you’re making a TV series, you’re often writing a scene that shoots tomorrow, or rewriting a scene that shoots tomorrow, or you lost the location, so you have to change a whole scene. It was the first time I’d ever opened Final Draft and started writing in Spanish. I had to change the language settings and had to learn how to do that.

‘La Máquina’s Showrunner Wanted to Capture the Frenzy and Humor of Mexico City

Shooting this in Mexico, how did you want to showcase the country and the culture? Were there things that you hadn’t seen in stories that are set in Mexico that you wanted to do with this?

RAMIREZ: We all felt that Mexico City could very easily be a character in this show. That’s what we wanted. It felt like escaping into its own other world. Mexico City is a fascinating place and it’s highly cinematic. You can point a camera in many directions and it looks great. There’s also the frenzy of Mexico City, and the general humor. There were just so many things that we knew we wanted to get. The sheer size of the spectacle of how big the city actually is, it’s enormous. There are theatrical gestures between the brain stuff and other elements in there, so we wanted to make sure that Mexico City felt a little bit heightened. There’s something about it that’s, and I wouldn’t say the word magic or haunted, an otherworldly presence around Mexico City that we wanted to get. So much of what makes TV, in my experience, different from other art forms is that you want to escape to it for a good period of time. We’re asking people to come visit Mexico City for six episodes. Part of the fun of watching The Sopranos is just saying, “I’m going to visit New Jersey for a little while.” This is hopefully gonna be that.

Related Diego Luna Embraced the Freedom and Prosthetics of His ‘La Máquina’ Character Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal also talk about how their friendship has lasted because they’ve never been forced to work together.

What did you know about Mexican boxing culture at the start of this, and how much more do you know about it now?

RAMIREZ: I’ve been a fan of boxing for many years, and specifically, I’m a fan of boxing stories. I’m a fan of fiction written in the world of boxing, from short fiction to longer fiction. Obviously, there’s a great cinematic history of boxing stories. There’s boxing, there’s the technique, and there’s the spectacle, but the narrative of boxers has been something that has drawn me for many, many years. I’m from a Cuban family, and Cuba has its own rich boxing history, as does Mexico. Mexico has a really deep pool of great boxing history that intertwines with the sociopolitical, and it goes over many, many decades. Gael and Diego are very well versed in this. They were born and raised in a time when Mexico was really particularly obsessed with its boxing culture and its boxing stars. So, I know a lot more now than I did when I first started, but I did know just how important a Mexican boxing figure could be in Mexico. It’s even bigger than our biggest superstar might be here. The comp in the States would be difficult to find. It would be somebody who represents your culture on a national stage, in a way that feels both very contemporary, but also very ancient. Diego has actually made a documentary about one of the most famous Mexican boxers. He loves the culture so much. I got to really understand the profound impact that these figures have had on their lives.

Much of Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna’s ‘La Máquina’ Improv Ended Up on the Cutting Room Floor
Image via Hulu

What was it like to work with two lead actors who have known each other as long as they have, they’re working on camera together, and their production company is also behind it? What was it like for you to collaborate with them and watch that happening in front of you?

RAMIREZ: It was super unique, and one that I’m aware I’ll probably never have again. It was being given access to two of the best improvisers in the world, who have maybe ever improvised and who improvise with each other this well, feels like being the coach of a team with two star players on it who know how to play off of each other and with each other very well. They play off of each other in Spanish and they finish each other’s sentences. They can make the most dire, awful circumstances really funny, or make the most funny circumstances really dramatic. It was an absolute pleasure and a gift. We have so many takes that ended up on the cutting room floor of them improvising. Maybe someday we’ll release a super long extra version of it. It was a gift.

How did you figure out Diego Luna’s look for this? You want to have it read on camera, but you also don’t want it to be a full on caricature, so what was it like to fine tune that?

RAMIREZ: There were camera tests and all the stuff that you would go through. What he really wanted, from the very beginning, was to have the character be really funny to look at, but not funny enough that you’re laughing at how he looks. He really wanted there to be a human side to this character who has clearly done a lot of things to his body. When you first encounter this person, you’re like, “Okay, well, about 2% of you is still there.” But his performance really shines through, and you can see the human being there, and you can see the trauma of it all and the issues and the body image stuff all coming through. Once he put on the prosthetics and the fake butt that came along with it, because he wanted this guy to have an augmented butt, it almost sounded like he was talking about a clowning exercise. I’ve spent more time with the character than I have with Diego.

Related Before ‘La Máquina,’ Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal Broke Out in This Oscar-Nominated Movie The actors also have one of the longest-standing friendships in Hollywood.

What was the most challenging aspect of shooting this and why?

RAMIREZ: The production team in Mexico was absolutely first class. There were people who had worked on some of my favorite movies in the last 10 years, and I felt really lucky to have all of them. Gabriel [Ripstein], the director, was able to map out all six episodes and see it all, so we shot it all at once. Having such a specific timeline window because Gael and Diego and Eiza [González] all needed to go shoot other things. We knew we had like to hit that window because that’s when they were available, so we had to make it happen. And then, the stuff in the big arenas was challenging. We would have to walk 15 minutes to get to lunch or the bathroom. We were shooting in these giant arenas. We rented out the whole thing. It was just massive. It felt like we were doing the half-time show at the Super Bowl.

’La Máquina’s Showrunner Feels That the Story They Were Telling Reached Its Final Conclusion
Image via Hulu

Do you want to do more episodes of this, or is this story complete?

RAMIREZ: From where I’m standing right now, the story that we put together feels like it reaches a conclusion at the end of episode six, much like any boxing story ends up reaching a conclusion. You either win or you lose, and this is a very natural ending to the story. So, I do think we reach a really final conclusion at the end of episode six, but who knows? Being asked to play in the playground with this team again? Yes, of course, I would do that.

I previously spoke to you about The Defenders, when you were working on that show. As someone who was involved with that and the Netflix Daredevil series, what’s it like to see that world come back with Daredevil: Born Again? Are you curious about how they’ll be continuing with those characters?

RAMIREZ: Oh, of course. Very curious. I love Charlie [Cox] very, very much. I’m very excited to see Charlie back.

La Máquina Release Date October 8, 2024 Cast Gael García Bernal , Diego Luna , Eiza Gonzalez , Lucía Méndez , Raúl Briones , Christopher Evangelou , Juan Carlos Huguenin , Andrés Delgado , Luis Gnecco , Jorge Perugorría , Karina Gidi , Sandra Quiróz , David Diamante , Dariam Coco Seasons 1 Expand

La Máquina is available to stream on Hulu. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Hulu