"Babel" actor Gael Garcia Bernal embraces his Mexican identity, saying it has a liberating effect on his expanding career.

"I feel completely free to be whatever," he told the Los Angeles Times. "Actually, if I was an actor from the United States, it would be incredibly hard, because I would be pigeonholed immediately."

Garcia Bernal, 28, said in Mexico any perceived faux pas by a celebrity can draw criticism.

"That's something that in Mexico they pick up a lot on — 'Oh, he didn't give me an autograph, he's lost it.' And it's funny because it's so ephemeral and so trivial," he said.

His legions of fans can look forward to seeing him next year in Hector Babenco's "El Pasado" (The Past), which chronicles a married couple's difficult breakup. He is also set to star in a film by Carlos Cuarón.

The actor has directed his first film, "Deficit," which he describes as a "generational allegory" focusing on young, upper-class Mexicans coping with the country's ongoing socio-economic upheavals.