B.L. When you first got the script for this and you started reading it knowing that one, you weren’t Cuban and two, you couldn’t dance, what were you thinking?

D.L. That’s exactly the kinds of roles I want to accept, the roles that are not like myself. I love trying to be somebody else for a couple of hours and this one was crazy because I had to learn how to dance. I had a few scenes in Spanish and I had to learn how to speak in Cuban. I had to enjoy dancing, but that was easy I have to say. Dancing really felt great, once you believe you can do it, it’s amazing.

B.L. You look like you enjoyed yourself.

D.L. I did.

B.L. How challenging was it to learn these dance steps?

D.L. It was really tough because I was not a good dancer, but we (co-star Romola Garai) did everything together. We started together and we started to see our progress together and we got excited together. That was good because we developed chemistry between us and we were proud of what we were doing.

B.L. So after all your preparation and hard work it started to feel natural?

D.L. We got to the point of really thinking that we were amazing dancers who were professionals. I’m sure I was a pain in the ass with the choreographer because I would give my advice like, "Oh no, that move is not going to work." In a way that was good because we owned the routines. It’s not like she did the routines and we had to imitate them. We learned how to do it and we created these things with her. I think you can tell that, we felt free when we were dancing.

B.L. Now, were you a fan of the original Dirty Dancing movie, or did you go out and rent it and watch it a hundred times, or did you choose not to watch it?

D.L. I saw it two weeks before we started shooting this movie. I was eight years old when Dirty Dancing came out, so it’s not really the kind of movie you’d look for if you are eight and you are a boy. You were looking for Star Wars or something like that! It was great, but I decided to do this movie because of the story we are telling and the script and the people who were involved with this movie. It’s not about the other movie and that made this one unique. It has its own soul, it could be called just Havana Nights and still be a good movie. It doesn’t need Dirty Dancing behind it.

B.L. I think you are on your way to becoming a real household name in North America. Are you ready for this attention and the Hollywood lifestyle?

D.L. Yeah, sure and I can always go back to Mexico and see my friends who will remind me that I am no one! They’ll remind me who I really am. I mean, I don’t know if I am ready, who knows? Let’s see what happens. I know that I am ready to do different kinds of movies and I am glad that I can still work out of Mexico because we just do a few movies every year. I’m glad I can work in the United States, I’m glad I can work in Spain, I’m glad I can travel with my work and show it all over the world, that’s great.