Do we like Alejandro González Iñárritu?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Good on the record for migrants and nothing harmful found, held back by two allegations he hasn't answered in the sources we read.
Iñárritu is the Mexican director who broke out with Amores Perros about 25 years ago and went on to win Oscar glory with Birdman and The Revenant. His new film Digger is the first time he and Tom Cruise have teamed up, and by his account the idea first came to him right after The Revenant.
On the harm test he is clean as far as we can find. At a 2015 LACMA gala he said that people were proposing walls instead of bridges, and that xenophobic remarks aimed at Mexicans were “not a joke.” He suggested calling undocumented migrants “Undocumented Dreamers” and urged compassion.
We found nothing from him on LGBTQ+ or trans rights, climate or vaccines either way, and nothing harmful in his recent company: Digger is a Warner Bros. and Legendary studio film with Cruise, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller and Riz Ahmed. That is a gap, not a gold star.
The stain is a story told by someone else. In 2023 Spanish actor Rubén Ochandiano told a podcast that on a film shot from 2008, Iñárritu wanted him thrown off once he learned the actor was gay. Ochandiano also said Iñárritu was the most interesting director he had worked with and that he would work with him again. El Universal reported that Iñárritu had neither confirmed nor denied it.
A second claim came in March 2024, when actress María Rojo said that extras on Bardo were left in the sun for long hours and had reportedly filed a lawsuit. She had never worked with him herself. We found no detail on the case, no outcome and no reply from him, so treat it as unproven. A 2021 wave of social media complaints about conditions on the set was also recalled in the coverage.
He is also a man who lets rip when something bugs him. After joining El Colegio Nacional he called the FIFA decision to spread the World Cup over three countries greed, and said ticket prices were an insult to fans. When Bardo copped a bagging, he said a “racist undercurrent” among critics was why he was called pretentious. Where you land on that depends on whether you hear a fair point or a thin skin.