Diego Calva was asked to 'erase' his Mexican accent. He chose to embrace it instead

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Diego Calva jokes that his mother, Lorena, almost had a heart attack when Brad Pitt called her by her name at the 2023 Golden Globes.That night the Mexican actor was nominated for his performance as immigrant dreamer Manny Torres in “Babylon,” a 1920s-set dramedy about Hollywood mythmaking and excess.

Calva still cherishes that night.“My mom started chatting with [Quentin] Tarantino.We started talking with Salma Hayek.

Austin Butler asked her to dance with him.His mother passed away when he was in his 20s, so seeing me there with my mother at the Golden Globes stirred up some emotion in him, I imagine,” Calva tells me in Spanish while sitting at a Beverly Hills hotel.For the record:7:47 a.m.

May 12, 2026An earlier version of this story misstated the name of Diego Calva’s mother.It is Lorena, not Laura.Since that dazzling evening, Calva, 34, has capitalized on the spotlight that “Babylon,” directed by Oscar winner Damien Chazelle, put on his burgeoning career.

Calva had only starred in a few TV series and one film, the queer Mexican indie “I Promise You Anarchy,” before breaking into Hollywood with Chazelle’s film.“Everything that happened with ‘Babylon’ was like losing my virginity, ” he says.Back then, a career that combined substantial work abroad with continued roles in his native Mexico scarcely seemed possible; now, with two films premiering at this year’s Cannes Film Festival — Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Her Private Hell” and Jordan Firstman’s “Club Kid” — and a role in Prime Video’s Emmy contender “The Night Manager,” Calva’s promising path seems secure.

And his Golden Globes date is still soaking in every moment.“My mom sent me an article where it said the last Mexican actor to have two films simultaneously at the festival was the master Gael García Bernal,” he says excitedly.“Club Kid,” which plays like a qu...