‘Still Get Offered Drug Dealers’: Diego Luna Opens Up About Hollywood Typecasting Before His Breakout Role in ‘Rogue One’

Before Star Wars came along, Diego Luna had a frustrating experience in Hollywood. He says most of the roles offered to him were just drug dealers. And not even different kinds. “I could be the nice drug dealer and not the vicious one, but still a drug dealer,” Luna shared at The Hollywood Reporter’s Drama Actor Roundtable.

The roundtable, which was filmed at Soho House in West Hollywood, brought together a group of TV actors, including Walton Goggins, Adam Scott, Eddie Redmayne, Jeffrey Wright, newcomer Cooper Koch, and Luna himself.

They all spoke honestly about the struggles they faced earlier in their careers, from bad advice to brutal casting experiences, and how they’ve learned to handle the pressure that comes with acting.

Luna explained that before his breakout in Rogue One, the industry didn’t seem to think he could do anything beyond stereotypical roles. “The system wasn’t even sending messages of, like, ‘Yes, you could find a way to be yourself and still work in those projects that you’re looking at and hoping to see yourself reflected in,’” he said. “But I do think that’s changed.”

He said that things shifted when audiences started to discover content directly, without a middleman gatekeeping. “There’s no guy with a cigar saying, ‘You! You’re gonna be a star, boy.’ People just click now, and suddenly it’s like, ‘S*it, they’re watching a Mexican show.’”

Even now, Luna says those same old roles still come his way. “Oh, I still get a lot of drug dealers,” he laughed, “It’s just I’m not looking for what they want me to play. I can look for the stuff I want to do.”

He also talked about how earlier in his career people used to tell him to change in order to fit in better. “Are you going to clean up your accent?” was a common question. But he says that kind of pressure doesn’t exist as much today.

“When I was 20, it was like, ‘Man, you’re great, and if you work with your accent, you’ll be doing what this person or that person is doing.’ And you go, ‘Why would I like to do that? This is what makes me unique.’”

Luna’s path to Star Wars came from an unexpected place. He said it was his performance in the 2001 film Y Tu Mamá También that opened the door.

He didn’t believe it at first. “It was my prejudice talking because I sat down and Gareth Edwards, the [Rogue One] director, said, ‘I want the tone of Y Tu Mamá También in the Star Wars film,’ and I just never thought one thing would get me close to the other.”

The roundtable wasn’t all serious though. There were plenty of jokes and laughs between the actors. Walton Goggins toasted the group with a quote: “To be rich in friends is to be poor in nothing.” Everyone clinked glasses in agreement.

They talked about anxiety before big roles, not sleeping before day one of filming, and struggling with self-doubt. Eddie Redmayne shared how he couldn’t sleep before his first day on The Theory of Everything and ended up in the bath at 4:30 in the morning. “The whole day was a blur,” he said.

Newcomer Cooper Koch, who stars in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, said he still feels nervous and sometimes overwhelmed, especially sitting next to all these established actors. Adam Scott reassured him: “You’re incredible, you’re here for a reason.”

As for Goggins, he said he’s leaning into the spotlight now more than ever. “I’m not walking into it, I’m f*ck*ng running straight at it,” he said, laughing.

But for Luna, the main takeaway is that things are finally shifting in the right direction — actors don’t need to change themselves to fit a mold. “Someone out there will be like, ‘Yeah, I connect with that,’” he said. And that’s how he landed a spot in a galaxy far, far away.

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