1.
I trained as a theatre actor and you had a bare stage and you had to pretend, one prop and you are in the middle of 8th Ave. and traffic is just going by.
Benicio Del Toro
2.
I won and I get to scream and jump a little. But I got to go back to work tomorrow.
Benicio Del Toro
3.
I've played drug dealers, all my life. I've made a career of killing people and playing all kinds of killers. The violence and drugs is portrayed in exaggeration. This is fiction. That is how I looked at it. And, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Just open a newspaper.
Benicio Del Toro
4.
You deal with failure - strike, strike, strike - all the time. Acting is like that. You have to have a very thick skin in a way - your hair is too dark, you're too ugly for the part, your audition wasn't good.
Benicio Del Toro
5.
I don't see the world completely in black and white. Sometimes I do.
Benicio Del Toro
6.
I've always played the guy with the gun and the knife. That's how many actors start out, playing the bad guy.
Benicio Del Toro
7.
To me the thing with 'Grease' was that it was the first movie that as a kid I wanted to get up and do what they were doing.
Benicio Del Toro
8.
Before I was even in high school, I had dark circles under my eyes. Rumor was that I was a junkie. I have dark circles under my eyes, deal with it.
Benicio Del Toro
9.
To be honest with you, I'd rather not be working. When you work, there are all sorts of deadlines and pressures. I like to do one thing and take my time to do the other one.
Benicio Del Toro
10.
I've had people ask me: 'How can you make a movie about a murderer? A terrorist?' What they don't understand is that I'm in support of everyone who appears on screen. I have to be. I take the position of everyone who's on screen. I'm not judging them one way or another.
Benicio Del Toro
11.
The very first things that I did, even in theater, were bad guys. They are meaty roles for the most part. With the bad guy you have more freedom to experiment and go further out than with a good guy.
Benicio Del Toro
12.
It depends, because sometimes an action role can be very demanding, and sometimes a dialogue-driven character can be very demanding, and vice versa. It depends.
Benicio Del Toro
13.
You might get some serial killers who are born with a chip missing, but for the most part I don't think anyone is born bad.
Benicio Del Toro
14.
I'm a fan myself, so when a fan does something that might be strange, I understand it.
Benicio Del Toro
15.
I've liked most of the films that I've been in and those are the kinds of films I like to see.
Benicio Del Toro
16.
Before I was ever in high school, I had dark circles under my eyes.
Benicio Del Toro
17.
I don't think I could be a foot soldier. I don't know if I could take orders too good. I'm a little lazy.
Benicio Del Toro
18.
I'm not Jack Nicholson. I'm not Brando. But I do mumble.
Benicio Del Toro
19.
You have to kill to survive. People have been doing it forever. I eat meat, and I eat fish. If I were on a deserted island I would need that to survive.
Benicio Del Toro
20.
When some people get parts, they feel they can now relax, but for me it was always the opposite. Sometimes before I do a movie or before I act out a scene, I may not sleep well the night before. If I don't know what the scene is about, I might get all worked up.
Benicio Del Toro
21.
When I was a little kid, I was the first kid in my neighborhood to have a pet alligator.
Benicio Del Toro
22.
There's a lot of Latinos right now, a lot of filmmakers and writers that are Latin too.
Benicio Del Toro
23.
Regarding green screen, green screen is really like doing some stage work. You have to make believe that there is a window, make believe that something is there that is really not there and convince the audience. It's part of acting.
Benicio Del Toro
24.
There's something about the Oscar that gives you sort of stripes where you feel you can dare to walk into a studio like Universal and say, "Hey guys, how about an idea of me playing the wolf man?"
Benicio Del Toro
25.
It really is a pleasure to work with someone who you admire. Whatever you do in front of the camera, and I don't know what it is, but actors have this thing that you recognize someone that makes you better. When you do that, it's a great feeling.
Benicio Del Toro
26.
When you start to become a movie star it's easy to believe that you are Superman. That can fool you. That's why I prefer not to pay much attention to fame.
Benicio Del Toro
27.
License to Kill' is not one of the great Bond movies.
Benicio Del Toro
28.
My goal as an actor has always been to reach a level where I can find a lot of interesting work, and I think I'm at that point now. The Oscar has given me a lot of recognition.
Benicio Del Toro
29.
I mean I like most of the films that I've seen that I've been in. Those are the kind of films that I like to see. Am I getting better at making choices? Well, I think I might be getting better at reading scripts. Does that make any sense?
Benicio Del Toro
30.
Hopefully, I can play both sides of the fence. That's probably what winning the Oscar gives me, the chance to do something with a studio and do other things that I really want to do.
Benicio Del Toro
31.
When you do a movie the clock is ticking. It's like a sport.
Benicio Del Toro
32.
My grandfather was a lawyer, my dad was a lawyer, my mum was a lawyer, I got an uncle who's a lawyer, I got cousins that are lawyers.
Benicio Del Toro
33.
I used to play basketball and I was pretty competitive, but I was never a bad loser. I never got angry. For me it was always about doing my best and devoting myself to a challenge.
Benicio Del Toro
34.
I think that the Oscar gives you some kind of guts or something, it gives you the illusion that you can do it. It's good for business.
Benicio Del Toro
35.
Well when I was a kid, I asked Santa Claus for some toys. Santa Claus wrote me a letter that he lost his bag. He said he'd get back to me next year.
Benicio Del Toro
36.
Am I getting better at making choices? Well, I think I might be getting better at reading scripts.
Benicio Del Toro
37.
I've done a lot of movies, and you really never know. You do a movie and you think that it's great, and then you see it and it doesn't work.
Benicio Del Toro
38.
I guess I rooted for the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Benicio Del Toro
39.
I get more choices of things, projects, which is a blessing and a curse. I can only do one at a time. Sometimes you don't know which way to go.
Benicio Del Toro
40.
I'm not saying I'm a writer, but I've been in movies for a long time, and I think I could write a script for a movie.
Benicio Del Toro
41.
Villains used to always die in the end. Even the monsters. Frankenstein, Dracula - you'd kill them with a stake. Now the nightmare guy comes back.
Benicio Del Toro
42.
Some roles have been with me forever
Benicio Del Toro
43.
I think having a vision can make someone an influential man. I'm not talking about acting or anything like that, I'm talking about people I admire, whether it's a writer or a musician or a sports figure or a politician, whatever.
Benicio Del Toro
44.
It's funny, but when I arrived in California to start college I was much more interested in becoming a surfer and cruise along in life from one beach to the next. I didn't plan out any huge career for myself.
Benicio Del Toro