Benicio del Toro: ‘It’s easy to break the law, and it creates chaos’

Benicio del Toro was born in Puerto Rico in 1967 to lawyer parents, and moved to Pennsylvania when he was 12. In 2000 he played a police officer in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, for which he won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Bafta. He has also starred in The Usual Suspects, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Che. In his latest film, Sicario, he plays Alejandro, a former prosecutor turned CIA collaborator.

Sicario tackles many of the same topics as Traffic did in 2000: drug smuggling, the Mexico/US border, police corruption. Fifteen years on, what do you think has changed?
Not much. Maybe the violence in Mexico has gotten worse. Things have got out of hand there.

Why do you think so little has changed?
I know for a fact that the production and consumption of drugs has not diminished in the past 30 years. But here is the tricky thing, because you want to say – then legalise it. But the problem is that not every drug is the same, so it becomes complicated. I admire the people who have been fighting on the good side of this war – many of them have lost their lives. But I’m limited [in my knowledge]. I know perhaps more than your average Joe, but I’m not a scholar. I’m just an actor.

Where do you stand on decriminalisation?
I’m definitely pro – you can’t just put someone in jail because they’re carrying a joint. You ruin lives for nothing. You have Republican candidate Jeb Bush saying on live TV that he smoked marijuana, while for the same thing we’re sending kids who have less opportunities to jail. But not every drug is the same.

Would you say that some drugs should be legalised?
Yes, marijuana. It’s been legalised in some US states, and in some for medical purposes, so it’s a start. You can tax it and use that money for good things, to educate, to deal with addiction, to understand it better. But then again, I don’t think you can do the same with ecstasy: whatever damage it does to your brain is irreversible. The brain can’t fix itself afterwards, and that’s very dangerous.

The film suggests that the police and authorities sometimes act as if they are above the law, with the excuse that the end justifies the means. What are your views on this?
I believe in innocent until proven guilty: you have to follow the law. I’ve always felt that Gregory Peck represented that – he always played the guy who follows the law no matter what, and I think that’s the way to go. It’s easy to break the law, and it creates chaos. Because then, before you know it, everyone is breaking the law. Especially when you’re a powerful country like the US, you’ve got to set an example, and in history we know the US has not [always] followed the rules. But the story is not finished, so we can still make it right.

You have played a number of different roles in the drug world: policemen, drug users, drug lords. What was it about Alejandro’s character that was different?
I felt he represented the pain and frustration of the people who have been hurt while fighting in this war. I was compelled by the character, who is quite mysterious, and how you find out more and more about him. And the script felt different, it had an element of film noir. It tells a story of fighting fire with more fire, which is a desperate move, but it had a truth to it.

It was reported that the film-makers were under pressure to change Emily Blunt’s character to a man. How would this have affected the film?
This was early on. One of the producers had the story and went to someone who said, I can get you the money if the lead is a man. But once Emily Blunt had the role it wasn’t like they were going to substitute her. I would have been completely opposed to that. Part of the appeal for me was working with someone like her. We work very similarly: she’s not afraid of asking questions, of saying “I don’t understand”, and I’m like that too. And she’s a lot of fun, she can make fun of you, me, and herself.

Your character doesn’t say much in the film – many of the lines were cut during shooting. How did that process work?
When someone says “they cut the dialogue” it can sound a little insulting to the writer [Taylor Sheridan] or presumptuous on my part, but it’s not like that. For example, my character had a long monologue in which he explained his life story. But I’ve met people who’ve gone through traumatic experiences like Alejandro or even worse. They don’t open up like that. So I spoke to Denis [Villeneuve, the director], and he understood, so he took out the monologue and brought some of the lines to another character. It’s not like I went, “I just want to act with my eyes.”

Did you have any rituals to get into the role before shooting?
It’s always good to listen to music, to pump myself up. The albums we had on rotation in the car were Eric Clapton’s Backless, Steely Dan’s The Royal Scam, Beck’s new album [Morning Phase] and the Cars’ Candy-O.

Do you associate certain albums with certain films?
Yeah, and moments. Some albums I remember exactly where I was when I bought them. Especially a while back – now you order it on the internet, but when I was younger that was the fun of it, you’d mark your memory calendar like that.

Do you still buy CDs?
Yeah. I just bought the new Keith Richards – it’s kind of nice to buy it in London. So I’ll associate this part of Sicario with that album. It’s good, everyone in the car was like, “That sounded really good last night.”

You’ve said in the past that you love painting – do you still paint?
No, I don’t. I wish I did, and I’ll come back to it, but I’m really busy. I’d need to create room for it, and like anything else, you have to practise to improve. That’s a great feeling when you improve, but you have to put in time. But I draw sometimes.

What kind of things?
Still lifes. A bottle there, a piece of paper, the reflection of the bottle in the glass. I might sit down, be in a conversation, and start drawing the phone.

You’ve played lots of different roles – is there anything you haven’t done yet that you’d like to try, like a musical, or TV?
Well that’s an idea. I think there’s a lot of stuff I haven’t done when it comes to acting. I don’t think you can do them all, but there are some things I’d like to try. There’s this thing I’m involved in now [Cortes, an HBO series that’s currently in development] about the conquest of Mexico, the Aztecs and the Spanish meeting for the first time. Every time I jump into it it’s like a great meal.