Diego Boneta Explains Why ‘New Order’ Is His First Mexican Film (Despite Being Mexican)
For “New Order” star Diego Boneta, Michel Franco’s TIFF entry is a first for many reasons. Mainly, it’s his first Mexican film — previously, he had been told by the Mexican film industry that he wasn’t “Mexican enough” to star in Mexican films.
“This is a special one for me because it’s my first Mexican movie,” Boneta told TheWrap’s Beatrice Verhoeven. “Being from Mexico, and having moved here almost 14 years ago, my career didn’t take the conventional path of doing Mexican films and then going to the States. It was quite the opposite — my first film was in the U.S. with ‘Rock of Ages.’ The Mexican film industry said that I didn’t look Mexican enough to be in a Mexican film until Michel came along.”
He also said that Franco had called him to tell him that he wrote a part specifically for Boneta in his new film, which was also something that a filmmaker had never done before.
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“I was blown away by how impactful the script is not only in Mexico… being such a Mexican theme and having such an international angle to it was what I was very, very drawn to,” he said.
“New Order” (original title: “Nuevo Orden”) is an extremely timely film that opens with a wedding when an uprising takes place in Mexico, showcasing the crime and corruption in the country. Boneta stars alongside Naian Gonzalez Norvind, Monica Del Carmen and Fernando Cuautle. Franco wrote, directed, produced and edited the film that won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.
“It’s been a long process. I started writing this six years ago and I’ve been thinking about it and it was ambitious from scratch trying to make a movie about a big scale problem from lots of different angles,” Franco explained. “Throughout the writing of the script, I kept seeing different conflicts in different places — from the Yellow Vests to Chile, Hong Kong and recently, of course, Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter — the movie was completely post-produced — but that was a confirmation of how much I needed to make this movie, how important it is to reach audiences worldwide, and as you said it’s timely and I’m glad we made it.”
Also Read: 'New Order' Film Review: A Political Horror Moment Gets Its Political Horror Movie
Norvind was attracted to the script because of how Franco sets up his stories.
“Michel has a way of ending but also beginning his films in a very.. it takes you by surprise,” she explained. “I realized that it was probably going to be the biggest challenge of my career, and that’s what I wanted to work with.”
Watch the video above.
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