The journey of my character was interesting for me: Benicio Del Toro on Sicario 2
Actor Benicio Del Toro talks about his latest film 'Sicario: Day of the Soldado' , a sequel to acclaimed film 'Sicario':
With the character of Aljandre seems to be more than retribution stake in this film, more personal and emotional involvement it seems?
Yes! In this new chapter of Sicario: Day of the Soldado, my character is rehabilitated in some ways….Not innocent but he has rehabilitated through the actions because he kidnaps a young girl in order to create this war between cartels. So one of the things they need to do is kidnap the daughter of the leader of the drug cartel who is a 15-year old innocent girl. So by doing that he is basically re-enacting what happened with his daughter who was about the same age as Isabela before she was killed. My character puts this young girl through the experience of terror of being kidnapped and I think that mirrors his actions. Start to work in his head and I think there a moment comes in which he gets the orders to kill the girl and he takes the stance and says no… It’s a right moral stance and I think he is rehabilitated like he is got a conscious. He is not innocent but rehabilitated! So that journey of my character was interesting for me in the middle of this thriller… you know the roller coaster!
It’s not often that you get to create characters like you and Josh did in the first film! How has the relationship evolved, it has changed from collaborative, symbiotic to kind of confrontational in this one?
Yes in front of the camera, basically it’s in the writing! It’s in Taylor Sheridan’s writing!
Its still a mess at the border and this is not a documentary… it’s a fictional film. How closely do you think it reflects the current situation?
I don’t know how closely but all I know is that “Truth is stranger than fiction” but the fact of the matter is I have been doing movies that take place in this world… world of the drug war from different countries but many from the border between Mexico and USA. I think these movie writers, film makers & story tellers used this war and drugs as a setting to explore many aspects of human conditions like greed, revenges and the fight between good and evil, morality… so when you are putting these in stories to exist in this war on drugs have created some kind of genre. So these writers and film makers are using what’s in the news and what is happening currently in order to like create this stories that explore many things about human condition. That’s how I see it! But what we can say is a I did a movie in 2001 called “traffick” and Sicario: Day of Soldado in 2018 not much has changed in real world! The violence made in some places may have gotten worse.
'Sicario: Day of Soldado' is now playing in cinemas.
