On the eve of Luis Miguel’s 51st birthday Sunday, Netflix aired the first episode of the highly awaited second season of Luis Miguel: The Series. The premiere comes almost three years after season 1 aired on April 22, 2018.
“We didn’t want to rush it,” Diego Boneta, who stars as Luis Miguel and executive produced the series, tells Billboard. “Something that I feel has always been part of the show is the quality and storytelling, and we were not going to compromise that. I’m happy that it’s finally coming out. I’m so proud of the work we did, given the pandemic, given everything.”
Luis Miguel: The Series highlights El Sol de Mexico’s childhood, musical career, and the whereabouts of his missing mother, Marcela Basteri. But Boneta assures season two is much more than that.
“It’s about what happens to Luis Miguel after he finds out what happens to his mom and how that shaped him and affects him while he’s juggling being the biggest Latin artist in the world,” he explains.
As for becoming Luis Miguel, one of the most challenging roles of his career, Boneta says spending time with the Latin crooner helped him a lot for his performance. “Being able to spend time with him, I was a sponge and absorbed everything,” he says.
New episodes of Luis Miguel: The Series will air every Sunday on Netflix. Below, read a Q&A with Diego Boneta.
The second season of Luis Miguel: The Series comes almost three years after season 1. We know that a pandemic hit and it was a factor, but what took so long?
None of us expected the success of season 1, to be totally honest with you, and after it stopped airing we all realized the responsibility we had for season 2. Season 1 was based on a book; season 2 wasn’t. So there was this process that took a while. The writers had to investigate Luis Miguel and other key people in his life to be able to get all the information and almost write our own little book to base the second season on. We didn’t want to rush it. Something that I feel has always been part of the show is the quality and storytelling, and we were not going to compromise that. That was the main reason. And obviously, COVID hit and shooting during COVID was surreal. This was a more challenging season.
Can you give an example of the challenges you faced in season 2?
There were prosthetics involved. I ended up playing Luis Miguel in two different timelines: one in the ’90s, one in the early 2000s. We were able to get Bill Corso, who’s an amazing multi-Oscar-winning makeup artist, to create the character along with a Mexican makeup team who helped apply it on a daily basis. This took from four hours to six hours just to apply. So all those things are a factor because we just wanted to give it our all. I’m happy that it’s finally coming out. I’m so proud of the work we did, given the pandemic, given everything.
Your role as Luis Miguel is impeccable. How did you become Luis Miguel? Did you study his mannerisms onstage? Did you watch a lot of his videos? Did you hang out with him?
All of the above! For season 1, they brought me in a year before we started shooting so I had a couple of months to dive in and just watch videos after videos of him onstage and doing interviews. This was before I knew the timeline we were going to be telling on season 1 so I did a full-on Luis Miguel investigation. I also went to Madrid with my acting coach Juan Carlos Corazza, he really helped me for both seasons, especially for season 2, to create two different characters — young and old Luis Miguel — and have it feel that way.
I also met up with Luis Miguel on different occasions where we would just hang out and talk for many hours, and that was amazing for me. We both knew how special and weird it was for us to be talking to one another given the fact that biopics are normally done once a person passes away. It was great, we got to know one another. Being able to spend time with him, I was a sponge and absorbed everything. He shared some very personal things that really, really helped me with my performance. With the combination of all of the above and the team around it, the director, the writers, I always felt like everyone was in it to give it their all and they were passionate about this and so am I. I’m one of the executive producers; it’s the first one I ever executive produced. It was an amazing learning experience and now, a lot of us, it was the same team. So we were able to better a formula that had worked for season 1.
What would you say has been your biggest challenge becoming Luis Miguel?
How demanding it is for me. Acting-wise, I had to play two roles. As a producer, being involved in the whole process of development of scripts and notes, and just being really, really involved and then as a singer as well. I had to sing Luis Miguel songs in the original key, and there’s only one Luis Miguel. I tried to sound as much or get as close to him as I could, and that’s another huge part of it that not a lot of people know about it. You can hear it but you can’t see it. Kiko Cibrian, who’s the original producer and songwriter of a lot of these hits, is the producer of both soundtracks, so imagine how crazy it must be for him to have to reproduce and re-record “Suave,” which is a song he wrote and produced in 1992 and now he’s doing it with me from scratch? Everything you hear in the series is not the same masters, they’re different. Everything is re-recorded for the show. So that’s another huge side of things. Something that I think it’s super important to touch upon is everything I had to learn to basically sound like Luis Miguel.
Besides you spending time with Luis Miguel, how much involvement did he actually have in the series?
He was involved in both. Throughout season 2, more than me talking to him, it was important for the writers to talk to him for all of that investigation work I mentioned. We needed to gather all of the information from him first.
This might come off as a big spoiler for fans, but will we finally know the whereabouts of Luis Miguel’s mom Marcela Basteri in season 2?
People will know sooner than they think what happened to his mom. This isn’t a season about “Where’s Marcela? What happened to his mom?” No. This is a season about what happens to Luis Miguel after he finds out what happens to his mom and how that shaped him and affects him while he’s juggling being the biggest Latin artist in the world.
