Benicio Del Toro leads the charge for 'Che'
In films as varied as "The Usual Suspects," "Basquiat," "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas," "Traffic" and "Things We Lost in The Fire," Benicio Del Toro seems drawn to play the eccentric outsider.
Now in director Steven Soderbergh's "Che" -- which opens for a one-week run on Friday in Los Angeles and New York -- Del Toro plays 1950s and '60s revolutionary leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Following Guevara from Mexico to Cuba to New York to Bolivia, the film -- which will screen as a single 4-hour unit during its short run, and be broken into two separate films for the wider release in January -- has a broad sweep, but also an eye for the specific, becoming perhaps the ultimate expression of Del Toro's physical, enigmatic screen presence.
The project began with the 41-year-old Del Toro, who took an interest in Guevara's book "The Bolivian Diary" and pursued the idea with producer Laura Bickford. This was just before his turn in the 2000 film "Traffic" (Bickford produced and Soderbergh directed), which earned Del Toro an Academy Award for supporting actor.
Del Toro's work in "Che" appears to be a rare and a truly fortuitous match of actor and role.
"It certainly seemed that way to me immediately," said Soderbergh of the way in which Del Toro suited the part. "I had the same sensation I had when I was working with Julia Roberts on 'Erin Brockovich,' the right person in the right role at the right time."
Despite the film's controversial reception following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival -- Variety called it "defiantly nondramatic" and "a commercial impossibility" -- Del Toro, who also has a producing credit on the film, was awarded the best actor prize. Sean Penn, who led the festival jury, later called Del Toro's work "one of the first tour de force performances in film history that doesn't rely on the close-up."
Keeping it true
Del Toro's tall, broad frame is frequently shot by Soderbergh in a full-body shot, so that the actor works with his shoulders and hips as much as his eyes, while allowing other actors equal visual weight within the frame.
"When Che wrote he was very honest; that's one of the first things that really moved me," said Del Toro. "My first attraction toward Che was a book of letters he wrote to his family. There was an honesty in that, where he could be very self-critical, but also with a witty nod.
