It’s a crisp December afternoon in north London, and Diego Calva is thinking back to the night his mum threw shapes with Leonardo DiCaprio at the 2023 Golden Globes. The 33-year-old Mexican actor – wearing a white T-shirt, silver chain, hooped earrings – was up for Best Actor (Musical/Comedy) for Babylon, Damien Chazelle’s sprawling epic about Hollywood’s transition from silent films to talkies. He was the sole newcomer in the category, alongside Daniel Craig, Adam Driver, Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes. What stuck with him, though, was how surreal it was to see his mother not only “dancing with Leonardo” but also “sharing a conversation with Quentin Tarantino”.
He pauses. “She’s been having a great time, and I hope she feels the same way that I do – like I want to be awake more than sleep, you know?” That last bit isn’t a throwaway. It’s a callback to something he said upon Babylon’s release: that for the first time in his life, he preferred his waking life to the blank expanse of night. Before Hollywood, there had been darker days. Depression lingered. Now, sitting in a film studio promoting The Night Manager, he fizzes with enthusiasm, his hazel eyes gleaming. When he speaks, his accent is lilting and mellifluous, each word given its own rhythm and weight.
