It’s
immediately apparent that Benicio Del Toro is not supposed to be awake at 10
a.m. on Saturday mornings. He crawls into the room looking like an unholy hybrid
between an unkempt version of Wolverine and Marlon Brando at his charismatic
tough-guy best.
“Could I have another espresso, please?”
A publicist promptly runs off to fetch his upper of choice. Upon receiving it,
he offers a, “Thank you,” then looks around with mischievous, beady eyes – the
type that imply: Wouldn’t you like to know?…
We’re here on this auspicious October morning to discuss Benicio’s new film
21 Grams, in which he co-stars with Sean Penn and Naomi Watts, as Jack
Jordan, a born-again ex-con who accidentally runs over a family with his
pick-up. Not exactly light material to begin with, but between sips of heavily
sugared espresso, Del Toro was as accommodating as could be expected.
“Alejandro (Gonzalez Inarritu, director) called me up,” he began, exerting a
maximum effort through his artificially wakened state. “He called me up and
wanted to tell me a little about the story he was working on. Immediately, I was
very excited to hear it. The fact that Sean was already involved made it really
exciting to see the potential of what was going on. Naomi Watts was coming in to
do the female in the story. That was a good phone call to get. When you get a
good filmmaker calling you up to talk to you. They’re few and far between. But
they’re good ones to get.”
Benicio continued, “I might look like I’m in some privileged situation – and I
am, I guess – but still I don’t really get to pick what I want to do. I wish I
could. I wish I could say, Okay, now I’m the guy who gets the girl. I wanna play
a comedy. I wanna play this and that. You pick the best project that comes your
way. I think I am drawn to stories like 21 Grams – a little bit deeper. I
can’t deny that this is the kind of movie that I like. I like when you really
try to pretend that it’s real.”
21 Grams’ script, which rapidly switches time and plot, gave him an
initial jolt, as he explained: “It was written like that, so it was a confusing
script to read.” He then elaborated, “Which gave you the feeling that you were
reading something good.”
“It was shot pretty much in order. As much as you can. But I think it does help
the movie. It keeps you – I think if this movie were completely linear it would
be a little heavy to take. Maybe not. But I think the fact that the story is
told like that, I think it brings the audience into the film more. I felt
engaged by it when I saw it. The first 25 minutes I didn’t really know what was
going on. Oh, that’s that. Okay, that’s that. I think if you don’t know the
story it might draw you right in. I think it helps the story. It makes
it…bubbly.”
The screenplay by Guillermo Arriaga was originally written in Spanish, with
Mexico City as its setting. It was subsequently translated to English where
Alejandro and the actors were able to modify it to fit the American suburbs.
“Sometimes I would take or add a thing. Simplify it. A little bit. There was a
little bit of simplifying like – I said this, but I can do it without a line.
Or, this is what I would say. I don’t know if this is really street slang.
Things like that. But pretty much everything was there. There’d be one or two
things you might want to add. Just tweaking things.”
Aside from tweaking the character and the script to better suit his instincts,
Benicio also did a bit of research on his character. He explored Jack’s belief
in religion, which he considered ‘sophomoric,’ then focused on his psychological
state. Without divulging much about his process, he stated, “I read a lot of
stuff about what I thought my character was all about. I read a lot about a
thing called ‘survival guilt.’ Which is what he’s having. That would be a term
that a doctor would give this guy. Sometimes the best thing to do is to just
simplify everything. What is a guy really going through? The religion thing? Or
a bad depression. He can get suicidal. He can have hallucinations. It’s a
disease.”
As for Jack’s criminal past, Benicio admits, part cryptic, partly boasting,
“I’ve been in jail before. Many times.”
While his life was fortunate enough to straighten into a successful acting
career, he soberly suggests about Jack, “I don’t think my guy’s gonna get better
at the end. I don’t think he’s gonna walk in and go, Okay, now it’s all good.
But there’s two things I do in the movie: one is I drive the guy to the
hospital, which I never did with the other people; then I try to get myself in
by saying, I did it, I shot him. They go, No, and let me go. At the end you see
me coming home. Am I fixed? I don’t think so. It’s a little first step.”
As the espresso started kicking in, the prior Oscar-winner gave a thought as to
his nomination chances for 21 Grams: “M-hmm. Damn right. I expect it. Not
only that, I expect to win.”
Copyright 2003 Jamie Stuart
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