Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna are such close friends that they know 'what the other is thinking'

Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna’s scene-stealing chemistry is undeniable. The actors and friends, who go way back — even further than their steamy performances in the 2001 film Y Tu Mamá También — have been told their onscreen bromance is like magic.

The pair are back at it again, this time co-creating and starring in the upcoming Hulu series La Máquina, about an aging boxer in Mexico who wants to make a comeback after a devastating loss. Bernal and Luna have known each other since childhood in Mexico City, and it shows.

That long-standing friendship plays out onscreen in the show, which premieres Oct. 9. In the streamer’s first Spanish-language original series, Bernal plays the burdened boxer Esteban “La Máquina” (“The Machine”) Osuna, while Luna plays his best friend and looks-obsessed manager, Andy Lujan. (Luna’s prosthetics are almost their own character.)

“Everything that we include from our friendship there, it just surfaces in the work that we do,” Bernal told Yahoo Entertainment.

The Golden Globe winner added that he and Luna are hitting the “sweet spot in terms of our combination of the personal relationship and our work relationship, because that's how it manifests, in an unspoken sort of, unspoken rigor, unspoken fun as well.”

Gael Garcí­a Bernal and Diego Luna star as an aging boxer and his manager, respectively, in La Máquina. (Cristian Salvatierra/Hulu)

La Máquina’s showrunner, Marco Ramirez, agrees.

“Anytime they're onscreen together, it kind of transcends anything I could have ever planned or written because their chemistry is so human,” he told Yahoo Entertainment.

“They start doing their own things with lines and improvising and extending,” Ramirez said. “And the director, Gabriel [Ripstein], was very good about saying, ‘This is magic. All this preparation has led us to this magic six-minute moment.’”

Luna told Yahoo Entertainment that they know “what the other is thinking or about to do.”

That “doesn't mean we don't surprise each other,” he added.

“The communication is unique because I don't have it with any other actor,” Luna explained, “and it makes every opportunity we have to act together very special.”

La Máquina is a project that’s been more than 15 years in the making for the stars and executive producers, who also have their own production company in Mexico. The series marks the duo’s first onscreen reteaming since 2012 and their first series together.

Bernal explained that Luna had just finished the 2007 documentary J.C. Chávez, about Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez, and that he had been training as a boxer when they talked about moving forward with a creative project about “our best sport.”

“We're in this world, like we know this world a little bit, we've touched it, let's do something with it,” he recalled discussing with Luna at the time, noting Mexico’s “rich culture of boxing.”

While Luna says that this is a very Mexican story, the pair and their team took steps to make the show more universal. Bernal’s “La Máquina” is not only staring down the end of his career, but he’s also living with a friendly yet failed marriage with journalist ex-wife Irasema (Eiza González), who is also the mother of their young children. Luna’s Andy struggles with maternal boundaries while also trying to become a father himself.

The pair also wanted to tackle aging — an arguably fitting subject for lifelong friends.

“We're using boxing as a tool to talk about other stuff more universal that matters a lot today, which is how to age, how to say goodbye, how to learn to let go and how to receive what's to come with excitement and not with the feeling of losing something,” Luna said. “That comes with age, basically.”

Luna also admitted that he and Bernal are “talking about what matters to us” in La Máquina, and it was important to team up on a project from the beginning that was so personally meaningful.

“We are reflecting on stuff that is important in our lives,” he said. “We are reflecting on a context we share, and it's a beautiful tool to be able to actually put together a project that allows us to say something together.”

La Máquina starts streaming Oct. 9 on Hulu.