Interview: ‘Babylon’ stars Margot Robbie and Diego Calva on their bond, the audaciousness of Damien Chazelle and hot chicken wings

Margot Robbie and Diego Calva are close. Not in a romantic way but in a way that two people who first meet and bond instantly and permanently are.

Babylon is Calva’s first Hollywood movie, first American movie, first English-language movie. And through this uncharted territory he has Robbie, practically a seasoned veteran now with two Academy Award nominations, several starring roles and experience with press tours and awards runs. For Calva, she’s his sherpa, his guide to navigating the world of Hollywood post-filming and she does with the protective vibe of a parent and the support of a friend.

Babylon is an original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva, with an ensemble cast that includes Emmy winner Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, Tobey Maguire and Li Jun Li. It’s a tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, as it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood and the transition from silent films to sound and the impact that had on several early careers.

I had met Robbie at the SFFILM Awards where she was receiving an acting honor the night before our morning interview at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco. She was in a chic beige blouse with a loose bow collar and high-waited black pants. Calva was in black pants and a black cardigan, relaxed and taking in the moment. We talked about his character, Manny Torres, working with director Damien Chazelle and a life imitates art moment where he was mistaken for a valet in Los Angeles that was as surprising as it was unsurprising. Robbie talked about her work as a producer, her connection to her character Nellie LaRoy and why she took the part. Oh and Hot Ones.

Later that evening, I moderated a conversation with Calva at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco for a special screening of the film and the audience response to him was overwhelming. A star was being born.

Margot Robbie: Hello, again.

Erik Anderson: Hello.

Diego Calva: Hello.

EA: Hello.

MR: Sparkles again, I love it. Good to see you again. [I’m wearing a black sequin bomber jacket. At the SFFILM Awards the night prior, I had met Robbie wearing a rhinestone seahorse pin]

EA: You know it. I saw Diego’s GQ spread. I was not coming in sweatpants.

MR: Yeah. [gestures to Calva] We’re in the presence of a movie star!

EA: I’m telling you.

MR: How was the rest of your night last night?

EA: It was good. I actually ducked out a little early because I live up in wine country.

MR: Wow. Do you?

EA: And instead of staying, I drove back home and I drove back this morning.

MR: I’m jealous.

EA: It was… You look lovely. You both do.

DC: Thank you.

MR: We’ve got the professionals.

EA: Diego, this is your first Hollywood film. What was your process with Damien in creating the flesh and blood version of your character Manny Torres?

DC: There was a lot of research. I worked with a clown. I worked with an acting coach. I worked with a dialect coach. I learned how to ride a horse. We did a lot of rehearsal. We watched a lot of movies. Damien is so specific. Sometimes he wanted me not to watch a whole movie, just a glaze of a character in one movie, or here and there. But also we rehearsed the whole movie in his backyard. We did it and he shot it and he edited it.

MR: On his iPhone.

DC: On his iPhone. We actually worked even… He’s so specific. For example, he realized that in his mind, my face is more poetic if I open my mouth just a little, but that rehearsal, I will just look, open your eyes wider, wider, open, more, there. We worked a lot.

EA: That’s such close, careful decision-making. I love that. Margot, what was your first thought when you read the script? Was it fear, opportunity, both?

MR: All of it all at once. Everything, every feeling. I’ve never felt so adamant and not even adamant. I was almost terrified that there was a chance I wouldn’t get to play Nellie and I couldn’t bear the thought of that. I was ready to do anything to get this role. I didn’t know if it was mine to begin with. And I’ve just never felt so sure in my bones that I had to play Nellie. It was the role of my lifetime and I had to be part of this film. It was also, now that I’m a little further along in my career to begin with, it was all about just get a job. And now I really care about being a part of movies that are going to stand the test of time and being a part of Hollywood history and the legacy of filmmaking in that way.

And this felt like a movie that was going to be a part of Hollywood history and hopefully be one of those bookmarks of cinema history. The way we go back and watch certain films decades later. I feel like that will happen for Babylon. And I wanted to be a part of that. I also thought, “How the hell is this going to get made? Who is going to pay for it? Surely not a studio. And also in the event I do get to play Nellie, how am I going to do the rattlesnake scene and the projectile vomiting at the Hearst party?” I just don’t even know where to begin with this character in some places.

EA: Diego, did you always want to be an actor? I know you went to school and you have done short films, but did you have a different avenue that you thought you might take versus where you are now?

DC: I’ve always been dramatic, but no. It wasn’t my dream. I wanted to be into the movies. Anything related to movies at first. I worked in so many different areas. I did catering, construction, sound department, I don’t know. You name it. AD, PA, a lot of things. And then I study in college, cinema direction and script writing. And one day we were shooting a short film of a friend and an actor didn’t show up and my friend, he was a director, he told me, “Diego, leave the boom there and just step inside and act.” And I loved it. And I started acting in a lot of short films in my school and one thing led to another and I’m here now.

EA: That’s really fascinating because each of your characters and then a little bit cross with your real life and real experience are so intertwined. Can you each talk a little bit about how unique that was of an experience? Because you guys are… It’s about you two.

MR: We had a lot of art imitating life moments on this set. And a lot of… Even the fact that we were a film crew filming a film crew filming a film on a number of occasions is so meta and so bizarre and surreal and wonderful and magical. And conveying that moment where you capture movie magic to an audience and experiencing the movie magic ourselves at the same time was a gift I’ll remember until my dying days. But I think Nellie and I, at first I thought I had nothing in common with Nellie, and then upon reflection, now that the movie’s done, I look back and I’m like, “Okay, we have some things in common,” but thankfully we’re not similar in a lot of ways too.

She’s quite a destructive person. I don’t think I am. But she definitely has that hunger and that absolute no where is… Her happiest place on earth is on a film set. And that’s how I feel. Nowhere makes me happier than that and she has this insatiable hunger and I really try to downplay that and play it cool. But I was hungry for this role. I’m hungry for more films. Always I have this appetite to do more, be more, work with more people, see more, experience more. I don’t know how to slow down in that way.

DC: Love it.

EA: Diego, did you find similarities that made it easier or maybe more difficult?

DC: Even today. Since I was cast in Babylon and since I was reading the script in the first moment, I think Manuel and I, the first thing that I relate with him is that we just wanted to be there. Like Margot was saying, we just wanted to be in a movie set. No matter how or even why, we just love movies. And we didn’t have an opportunity. One day we were in Mexico City just working in anything related to movies, but just working. And the next day you’re with Damien Chazelle and Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt. And I think with to Manny and to me, everything was so fast. From one day to another, the life change.

And yes, I hope in 10 years I’m not going to be that related to Manny in the second half of the movie. But for now he’s my best friend. And we have a lot in common and I still have Manny moments. Moments when I think, “This is such a Manuel moment.” I remember the first time I went to Soho House for example. Standing right there waiting for them and somebody threw the keys to me, “Hey, valet. Park my car.” And I was like, “Whoa.”

EA: Wow.

MR: No.

DC: And then 10 minutes after I met Emma Stone. I was like, “This is such a Manuel moment.”

EA: Oh my God.

MR: That is incredible.

DC: But that kind of moment.

MR: I’m friends with Aza. You know how you met her and she said you guys were at this awards thing and someone came up. She was so angry, she’s like, “You would’ve punched them if you were there.” Someone went up and asked you to get them a drink. And she was like, “He’s not a waiter, he’s an actor.”

DC: But that’s a Manuel moment. You’re talking with one of the most famous actors right now in Mexico, literally sharing stories on the next moment is like, “Hey, you boy. Give me a drink.” It’s like, “What the fuck?”

MR: When I saw she was like, “You would’ve punched him in the face.” I was like, “Oh, I’m so glad I wasn’t there.” I would’ve been so pissed.

EA: That’s wild. But it feels almost typical too.

MR: Still Hollywood, isn’t it?

DC: Yeah.

EA: I was thinking of the moment in the movie when Manny tells somebody that he’s from Spain instead of Mexico. And there was something about that that was so very realistic, but so very sad in the moment of how we tell these little lies to get by.

MR: Those tiny compromises that are destructing as you especially… Not to speak on behalf of your character. But I feel like he makes these constant compromise. He has to keep compromising a little bit more and it’s just eating away at his soul and at his integrity until you get to a moment like the blackface scene that you do with Jovan and you’re just like, “That is such a massive compromise that your soul will never be fully intact after making a compromise like that.” Brilliant arc for your character though.

EA: Yeah, very much. Margot, something I’m absolutely loving with your career is your work as a producer. Maid, Dollface, Promising Young Woman and obviously Barbie. A big part of Babylon is where movies change, where morals change, and as things change, who gets to make movies? You mentioned legacy before. What do you want your part to be in the next phase of Hollywood to be?

MR: That’s a great question.

DC: I love it.

MR: It’s the same as I feel about the movies I act in. I want to make movies that stand the test of time. Of course, I want a movie that we make to do well on the weekend that it comes out. But I feel like a lot of importance is placed on that. Obviously financially, everyone is like, “What does it make at the box office?” Of course that matters but a lot of importance is placed on that when talking about if a film was successful or not. But to me, a film is successful if people are watching it 10, 20, 30 years later. And the films that I think are the most impressive films are the ones… I watched Dr. Strangelove all the time. It’s one of my favorites. And I’m just a huge Peter Sellers fan. The fact that you can watch Dr. Strangelove and be like, “This is so relevant right now.”

I want to be a part of films that always feel relevant decades later. As far as producing and having this opportunity, I feel like we’re riding a slip stream right now. I feel like there was a similar slip stream in late 60s with Easy Rider and stuff like that and just how culture shifted and suddenly all these old white dudes were like, “Shit. Maybe we don’t know what audience wants. Maybe we should listen to this crazy idea that this renegade, Dennis Hopper wants.” Whatever and then they all jumped in and people started doubting whether they were the right people to tell a certain story so they started listening to other people and asking for their input. And then you get this incredible decade of film like the seventies. And I feel like right now we’re in that moment where with the Me Too movement, people stop and they’re like, “Maybe we should ask some women how they feel about this story. Maybe we’re not the best person to give our point of view on it.”

Which is so wonderful because then suddenly all these women get to jump in and be like, “Yeah, I have a lot of opinions on this story or this character, let me help you tell it.” And now I think we’re already seeing, I worked with three incredible writer directors this year, female writer directors this year on the producing side who I’m like, “Would we have made three movies with female writer directors before Me Too Movement?” I don’t think so. In one year? I don’t think so. I feel like we’ve got this great slip stream where everyone’s like, “We want to hear your point of view.” And I think that that extends to a lot of other underrepresented voices in the industry. But I think that’s a wonderful thing. And as much as I think there’s obviously still so much work on the industry… It’s far from perfect. I don’t think it’s ever going to be perfect, but I do see this wonderful opportunity right now and I think the knock on effect of that is going to be a great era of filmmaking.

EA: Diego, I know you’re just on this cusp right now, but what do you want your future here to look like? Who do you want to work with?

DC: I want to keep working with Margot.

MR: Me too.

DC: I would love to work with Damien, but I want to go back too. I think that this thing called fame or success or everything in my country, because it’s not like the Me Too Movement, but I think a lot of filmmakers from my country are coming back now.

They have to be migrants for a long time, won a lot of postcards and then they’re coming back to Mexico a decade or two decades after. I think we don’t have to do that anymore. The industry countries growing a lot and I just don’t want to spend 20 years before I go back to Mexico and use this thing called fame because I think that if my name in three years could support someone to make a very good movie in Mexico… Financially sometimes your name costs. I just want to go back to Mexico and keep doing movies.

EA: If that happens then you can go back to your I Promise You Anarchy director Julio Hernández Cordón. Great movie, by the way.

DC: I love that you saw it.

EA: I just watched it this last weekend.

MR: That’s amazing.

DC: It’s cool.

EA: Fabulous. It’s wonderful.

DC: Thank you.

EA: Diego, Have you seen the YouTube series Hot Ones?

(Robbie laughs, she knows what’s coming)

DC: No. [to Robbie] You know what it is?

MR: Yes.

EA: It’s a show where actors go on and they eat chicken wings that get hotter and hotter each time. And Margot was on it a couple of years ago and she did pretty good.

MR: I have a baby mouth.

EA: I believe the exact quotes were “I have the tolerance of a four-year-old” and “I think I might die.”

(Robbie bursts out laughing)

EA: Diego, what’s your spice tolerance? What’s your heat tolerance for food?

DC: I’m Mexican!

MR: You should do the Hot Ones.

DC: I have to cook the chicken wings to make it hot. Here in America, you don’t have hot.

MR: You just wait until you do Hot Ones because number eight Da Bomb is going to literally blow your head off.

EA: And the Widow Maker.

DC: I’m just going to say chili anero. Okay? That’s my quote. chili anero. That’s the most spicy chili on earth.

Margot Robbie: Really? And you can eat it?

DC: People die. Literally.

MR: I thought I was going to die on Hot Ones. Honestly.

EA: I think you could end that show.

DC: Let’s go.

EA: Do it.

DC: I have to talk to Megan [Calva and Robbie’s rep] put me there.

MR: I’ll tell you, Megan put me on that show. I didn’t look at my schedule question and I was like, “What’s this Hot Ones interview?” She was like, “You know Hot Ones.” And she explained to me and I was like, “I can’t eat spicy food.” She was like, “But you are such an adventurous person, you do skydiving.” And I was like, “Skydiving and spicy food are not the same thing. What?” And she was like, “Would you like to pull out now?” And I was like, “Oh my God. And I had to do a whole thing in Hollywood Boulevard right after with thousands of people live.

DC: Sweating.

MR: Full body sweat. My lips look like I’d just gotten tons of filler. They’re blown up. I was so rosy in the cheeks and I was dying. I couldn’t catch my breath. It was very funny.

EA: Awesome. Thank you both.

DC: Thank you, Erik. See you tonight.

MR: Thank you, Erik. You’re in good hands, Diego.

Paramount Pictures will release Babylon only in theaters on December 23.

Photo: Scott Garfield/Paramount Pictures