Benicio del Toro, head schemer of Wes Anderson‘s latest picture The Phoenician Scheme, appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast to chat about his remarkable career.
The Puerto Rico-born star can boast about a diverse array of characters across his near 40-year career. He’s conquered dramas like Che, 21 Grams, The Usual Suspects, Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian, and his Oscar-winning turn in Traffic; explosion-heavy pictures like Sicario and its sequel; whacked-out parts in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Inherent Vice; and, with this new one, an outright comedy.
But even with this abundance of evident talent, it’s a family’s job to worry. In fact, del Toro admitted that he was pressured to find a back-up plan in case performing didn’t work out, and this lasted longer than you might think.
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“After I won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, I remember my godmother, maybe three days later, was like, ‘You’d be a great lawyer. You could do law school at night. You could be a great lawyer,'” he said.
The Oscar-winning pictureTraffic was released in 2000, a full 13 years after del Toro appeared on an episode of Miami Vice, 12 years after his feature film debut in Big Top Pee-wee (yeah, that’s right), and 11 years after playing Robert Davi’s henchman in the James Bond film Licence to Kill. (Incidentally, one of his first gigs was as a background performer in Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita” video, directed by Mary Lambert.)
Del Toro continued, “I don’t come from a family of theater people or movie people, so they were very nervous with me. I come from a family of professionals, not in the movie world or the theater world, so they were very concerned.” Del Toro’s parents were, in fact, both lawyers, and his great-grandfather was a noted politician.
The celebrated actor gets it, though.
“I’m a father now,” he said. “My daughter, if she wants to be a lawyer, great. [If] the next day she wants to be a designer, great. But I do know that if she wants to be an actress, you just have to let her be.”
Courtesy of TPS Productions/Focus Features
While Hollywood is a tough racket, even with a father’s connections, del Toro doesn’t seem worried if his daughter goes this route.
“I think there’s more opportunity now than when I was going out for auditions for an actor,” he noted. “I think that now there’s more. There’s all these TV series, a lot of stories being told as we speak.”
Incidentally, del Toro’s daughter, age 14, is also the daughter of Kimberly Stewart, making her one of Rod Stewart’s granddaughters.
Has Benicio del Toro seen Rod Stewart’s electric train set? We can only hope so.
Maximum Film / Alamy Stock Photo
For many of us, our first significant encounter with del Toro was in The Usual Suspects, director Bryan Singer’s twisty crime drama that won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Kevin Spacey, and a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Christopher McQuarrie, later to direct many Mission: Impossible movies. The character’s “wait, what did he say?” manner of speaking was a real roll of the dice, especially for a relative unknown, but del Toro said everyone was on board with his take.
“My character died on page 38 or 39. It was, like, I had five scenes. So they trusted me to create that character and give whatever to it,” del Toro shared.
He added, “The cast was very encouraging too, with what I was doing. I remember when I finished my last day of shooting, I felt like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know if this is gonna work,’ you know?”
Here’s del Toro doing… whatever the hell it is he’s doing in The Usual Suspects. (Note: don’t watch this without headphones at work.)
For more of Benicio del Toro on Happy Sad Confused, check out the link below.