Diego Boneta on mentor Tom Cruise, Mexico, Luis Miguel series

When it came to his Hollywood aspirations, Diego Boneta was admittedly the “black sheep” of his family. The Mexican-born performer, who grew up with engineers as parents and currently has two siblings studying at Duke University, opened up to the New York Times in a new interview about his decade-long career, which has seen go from opening stadiums for Hilary Duff to now playing the title role in the upcoming mini-series Luis Miguel, the Series.

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VIEW GALLERY Diego, who shared the screen with Tom Cruise, revealed that the action star is his mentor Photo: Lester Cohen/WireImage

In the feature, the 27-year-old admitted that he looks to his 2012 Rock of Ages co-star Tom Cruise as a mentor and source of inspiration for his career ambitions. “One of the best pieces of advice he gave me is, ‘Set your goal and work backward,’” Diego revealed. “If you want to be a big action star, you have to learn how to ride motorcycles, fly planes and learn to do your own stunts.”

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The film star would like to make history one day joining the ranks of Chris Hemsworth and Robert Downey Jr. as a Marvel star. Diego shared, “A short-term goal that I have, and I know this may sound cheesy, is being the first Latin Marvel superhero, whose character isn’t necessarily Latin.”

VIEW GALLERY The actor is set to play Luis Miguel in the upcoming Netflix Latinoamérica and Telemundo series Photo: Getty Images

The former Mexican teen idol was born in Mexico City, but moved away at age 16. Despite leaving, he still feels connected to his roots. “I don’t consider myself 50-50,” the Scream Queens actor said. “I’m 100 percent Mexican and 100 percent American.”

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A post shared by Diego Boneta (@diego) on Mar 18, 2018 at 6:44pm PDT

Diego is set to portray Grammy award-winning multi-platinum recording artist Luis Miguel in the Telemundo bio-musical series airing April 22. “Right now in the papers, you just read the negative stuff about Mexico,” he said of the country’s drug violence. “It really upsets me, because that’s not everything Mexico is.”

“That’s actually one of my favorite things about the show,” the Hollywood star added. “It’s the first big Latin show that doesn’t have anything to do with narcos. It’s a success story of the biggest Latin singer of all time.”