Diego Luna Says “Profound Bond” With Gael García Bernal Sparked Hulu’s ‘La Máquina’

After 44 years, Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal‘s friendship continues to spark creativity.

While discussing Hulu‘s La Máquina, which premieres Oct. 9, Luna opened up about his “profound bond” with his co-star Bernal and how it contributed to their work in the boxing drama series that was more than a decade in the making.

“It would be easy to tell you, ‘It’s a daily decision to work on our friendship,'” Luna told The New York Times. “But it’s simply something neither of us can give up. I don’t want to, but even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be able to. That’s what’s badass about it. Friendships can sometimes be very intense. Sometimes you need space. Sometimes you confront each other. And all of that has happened to our friendship, and yet we are still here. Because ours is a profound bond of which we’ve lost control. Even if we tried to avoid each other, life would say, ‘No chance, dude.’ And that’s because this bond was forged by the love that our mothers had for each other. In a way, we inherited their friendship.”

When asked what their relationship would be like if they weren’t collaborators, Luna said, “I think we would be more like friends in that case. We are now closer to brothers.”

Bernal added of Luna, “Diego is one of the few people who can make me change my mind. Talking about my ideas with him helps me see them from a different angle. Always for the better.”

In La Máquina, Hulu’s first original Spanish-language production, Bernal plays the titular aging boxer whose manager (Luna) secures him one last shot at a title. Bernal and Luna also serve as executive producers on the series.

The lifelong friends first appeared onscreen together in the 1992 series El abuelo y yo, going on to appear in such films as Y tu mamá también (2001), Drama/Mex (2006), Miss Bala (2011), Casa de mi Padre (2012), Cesar Chavez (2014) and Salt and Fire (2016).

Bernal and Luna are also set to executive producer and potentially star in Prime Video‘s The Boys: Mexico, from Blue Beetle scribe Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer.