Diego Luna: Tequila Sundown

MEXICAN STAR, RISING Diego Luna heading to dinner with Martha Sosa.


By STRAWBERRY SAROYAN

LOS ANGELES - DIEGO LUNA walked into the bar at the Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel the other day looking like a young matador crossed with a hip-hop star. He hugged Rafael Inclán and Martha Sosa, his co-star and the producer of his new movie, "Nicotina."

"I've known him since he was this high," Ms. Sosa, 40, said, gesturing to single-digit height. While Mr. Inclán had not met the 24-year-old Mr. Luna until recently, their smiles showed a connection.

Mr. Luna, who first made an impression on American moviegoers playing a sexy adolescent in "Y Tu Mamá También," had flown from Mexico City, where he lives, for a whirlwind 48-hour visit to Los Angeles. He had arrived on Sunday for a series of interviews that continued through Monday. He was leaving the next morning. Unwinding, Mr. Luna and Ms. Sosa ordered tequila and Mr. Inclán, 63, had a glass of white wine, whose chill made little bubbles on the outside of the glass.

"Nicotina," which opened on Friday, is only one of Mr. Luna's current films. He stars with Maggie Gyllenhaal and John C. Reilly in "Criminal," which will open on Sept. 10. Though both are about lawbreakers, he plays different types. In "Nicotina," he is a lonely hacker who declares his love and is shattered irrevocably by a nearly silent encounter through a doorway with a girl, sending him deeper into the complications of a diamond heist. In "Criminal," a caper set in Los Angeles, a remake of the Argentine "Nueve Reinas" ("Nine Queens"), he plays a small-time bunco artist.

As the three friends sipped their drinks, Mr. Luna turned to Ms. Sosa, who was dressed in a silk dress and shawl. "You look beautiful," he said.

"I had to. I was having drinks with Diego Luna," she teased.

Their attention then turned to Mr. Inclán, who spoke English occasionally.

"If you go into the kitchen in any restaurant in L.A. and if there's a Mexican, ask, `Do you know Rafael Inclán?' " Mr. Luna said, making the point that his friend was a well-known movie star in Mexico.

After their drinks, they headed to Frida, a nearby Mexican restaurant. As they glided down Beverly Boulevard, Mr. Luna offered a pet theory: "The best Mexican food you can get is at the markets. It has to be a bit dirty to taste well. If it's too clean ——"

Ms. Sosa cut in, "Not dirty. . . ."

Mr. Luna then asserted, "The best tacos are the ones you eat standing up." They all nodded.

At the restaurant, they chose a table near the bar, where the chairs were stool-high.

"It's really close to eating a taco standing up," Mr. Luna said happily.

With tuna tostadas and rib-eye tacos on the table, Mr. Luna brought up his next film, which he was heading back to Mexico City to continue working on in the morning.

"It's a movie called — the translation would be `Only God Knows,' " he said, adding, "It's a love story between a Brazilian art teacher and a Mexican journalist."

Before long, Mr. Luna — who had been a bit rushed all evening — realized it was time for him to go. Ms. Sosa whipped out her camera. She wanted to get a shot of her two friends. They smiled, and Ms. Sosa smiled back at them. Then the movie stars — one old-style Mexican and the other as new-style Mexican as he could be — looked straight into the light.