'Babylon' breakout Diego Calva loves 'crazy' movie sets, A-lister lessons and Tobey Maguire

Like his character in "Babylon," Diego Calva arrives ready in Hollywood willing to do anything, including deal with elephant poo.

In director Damien Chazelle’s 1920s spectacular (in theaters now), Manny Torres (Calva) is hired as an assistant by silent-film megastar Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) and forms a bond with aspiring actress Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie). But before all that happens, Manny's transporting a huge animal to a star-studded soiree when the thing lets loose with a fecal explosion.

Liquidy faux elephant dung? Not that bad, apparently. “It was something fake that looked horrible,” Calva recalls. “But I just have to say, it smelled good.”

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Diego Calva arrives as a movie star to watch in ‘Babylon’

The Mexican actor, who played a drug lord on Netflix’s “Narcos: Mexico,” has already earned a Golden Globe nomination for his “Babylon” performance. Here’s what new fans need to know about the newcomer to Hollywood:

• Calva shares his character’s love for the movie business and can do more than just act.

• He learned lessons from his A-list co-stars, Robbie and Pitt.

• The "Babylon" star was a huge fan of Tobey Maguire – and now he’s sharing scenes with Spider-Man.

For the Mexican actor, being in ‘Babylon’ was a ‘Twilight Zone’ situation

Calva’s first day on a Hollywood movie set was also Manny’s, in a busy scene filled with hundreds of extras. It just got bigger and better from there as Calva later filmed the wild “Babylon” shindig for two weeks, surrounded by musicians, dancers, balloons, wild chickens and much more. “I felt like I was living in a loop, like a ‘Twilight Zone’ situation,” Calva says, laughing. “It was so crazy. I've never been surrounded by so many naked people before.”

But immediately, Calva connected with Manny’s need to be part of the movie business: “We don't care if we have to bring the coffee. He doesn't care if he have to clean elephant (poop). We just want to be part of this party.”

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From the start, Calva was a man of many filmmaking talents

Before he went to college, the Mexico City native would help his older friends with their short films. “I was doing boom operator, and an actor didn't show up, so the director asked me like: ‘Diego, would you do it, please? I don't have anyone else.’ And it was so much fun,” Calva says. He did acting jobs “for free all the time” while working in construction, the art department and even catering.

So by the time he started studying at the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica, Calva understood the “symbiotic relationship” between all these filmmaking elements. “Acting has given me more sense of how to build a character, for example,” Calva says. “It turns out I’m not that bad at it. And it's allowed me to keep learning and to keep surrounding myself with all these geniuses.”

He learned from ‘fearless’ Margot Robbie, gracious Brad Pitt

While being around Chazelle was a directing “master class,” Calva says he had his best – and most challenging – acting experiences in “Babylon” alongside Robbie. “She's always going do the unexpected. She's a fearless actress, just full-on energy. When you're so tired, she can play it 100 times more.”

Their co-star Pitt helped Calva when he was having a “very bad time” and got “stuck” in a scene while struggling with his lines. “If you are afraid, you are not curious, and if you're not curious as an actor, you don't have anything. You're like a rabbit,” Calva says. Pitt came up to him, asked him if he was cool and told to Calva trust his instincts and just have fun. “When you need it and someone can give you that kind of love and advice, and that someone is Brad Pitt, come on.”

But sharing scenes with Tobey Maguire was kind of a big deal

Manny’s Hollywood journey features a number of colorful characters, including a creepy crime boss played by Maguire. He was the first screen star Calva was a fan of after watching “Spider-Man” three times when he was 9 years old. “I think I lived being Tobey Maguire for like a month," Calva says.

Making “Babylon,” he met Maguire on set well before they did their scenes together, so he was able to properly have a fan freak-out and still be professional. “I always have to play it cool,” Calva says. “But inside, I was like, ‘Mama, I'm here with Spider-Man having a beer!' "

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Babylon': Diego Calva gets advice from Brad Pitt, loves Tobey Maguire