Diego Luna is an accomplished actor with films and shows such as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Andor, Y Tu Mama Tambien and Narcos: Mexico. His latest project, Kiss of the Spider Woman, is directed by Bill Condon (Chicago, Gods and Monsters) and stars Jennifer Lopez and rising star Tonatiuh. Based on the stage musical by Terrence McNally, John Kander and Fred Ebb, the film follows Luna as Valentín, a political prisoner who shares a cell with Molina, a window dresser.

The prison guards would torture Valentín, and with the help of Molina, both prisoners cope by imagining themselves in a Hollywood musical featuring Lopez as movie star Ingrid Luna.

“I have many movies I escaped to,” Luna tells Nerd Reactor. “I do have them, and it depends on my mood on what I’m trying to escape from, I guess. One movie I constantly go to is Bicycle Thieves. It’s a movie I go to a lot, but there are so many, man. I make movies because I love movies. I would say when I’m down – when I need to smile, I play The Big Lebowski.

“But it’s a difficult question because it depends, and the greatest film probably is the one you haven’t seen. Because it’s the one that might connect with that precise moment. There’s a beautiful thing about film that you cannot control. It’s what’s going on in your life when you find a movie. I don’t know. I’m planning on going to see the Paul Thomas Anderson film tonight. So, probably that will be the movie. I always go to the cinema hoping that it happens.”

Luna’s Cassian Andor in Star Wars and Valentín in Kiss of the Spider Woman are both fighters in an oppressed setting. The actor talks about how he finds the humanity in these characters.

“I think when you’re in situations like this one, it shows who you are,” Luna said. “I like that angle you found on Andor and on Valentín, which is probably something I’m fascinated by. How they react to a moment. I don’t know how I would react. I don’t know if I would be able to take what Valentín takes. I don’t know if I would open up like Valentin does in that cell to someone new in my life, the way he does. And that’s what makes it special for me to perform. It is what makes us different, a chance to bring something good out of the worst moments.”

About Kiss of the Spider Woman

Dreamgirls and Beauty and the Beast director Bill Condon returns to the movie musical in this dazzling Technicolor-hued fantasy. Valentín (Diego Luna), a political prisoner, shares a cell with Molina (Tonatiuh), a window dresser convicted of public indecency. The two form an unlikely bond as Molina recounts the plot of a Hollywood musical starring his favorite silver screen diva, Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez). Based on the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical hit.

The film is based on the 1976 novel Kiss of the Spider Woman by Argentinian writer Manuel Puig and the Broadway musical of the same name by playwright Terrence McNally (Master Class, Ragtime) and composer/lyricist team John Kander and Fred Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago).

Kiss of the Spider Woman releases in theaters on October 10, 2025.