‘La Maquina’ exclusive: Watch Rosie Perez, the First Lady of Boxing, interview Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal about the Hulu series
It’s hard to imagine many actors having as much bona fides in the world of boxing as Rosie Perez. The Oscar-nominated star of “Do the Right Thing,” “White Men Can’t Jump,” “Fearless,” and “Birds of Prey,” has been a boxing fan for decades and is so aligned with the sport that famed broadcaster Al Bernstein once dubbed her the “First Lady of Boxing.”
“I grew up like the boxers,” she once told the New York Times. “I grew up hard knocks. But I learned to fight my way through life. You get knocked down, you get back up again. I think that’s why boxing resonated with me so much even as a little girl.”
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So it comes as little surprise that Perez jumped at the chance to sit down with actors Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal to discuss their new Hulu series “La Maquina.” The limited series focuses on Esteban “La Máquina” Osuna (Bernal) who is at a low point in his boxing career. Fortunately for him, his manager and best friend Andy Lujan (Luna) is determined to get him back on top. But when a nefarious organization rears its head, the stakes of this rematch become life or death. While struggling to mount a comeback, Esteban must also juggle his demons and protect his family, including his ex-wife Irasema (Eiza González), a journalist who finds herself on a collision course with the dark side of the boxing world.
The series is the first-ever Spanish-language original produced by Hulu. Marco Ramirez and Fernanda Coppel are the creators.
“It’s about the love of two friends who grew up together and built a whole empire… and we get to their lives when it’s time to say goodbye,” Luna told Perez in the interview, which can be seen in the exclusive video above.
“You’re talking about friendship, and you’re talking about business, and a lot of boxing movies usually just deal with the boxer,” Perez noted in the conversation. “But to see the behind-the-scenes of the boxing world is so intriguing to me. That’s what’s getting me excited here.”
When asked by Perez who came up with the idea for “La Maquina,” Bernal joked that it was a shared development the longtime friends and collaborators came up with while hungover.
Kidding aside, the actor added, “We wanted to tell a story where losing was winning your freedom. We wanted to play with that contradiction and explore that.”
All episodes of “La Maquina” are now streaming on Hulu. Watch the full interview with Perez above.
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