Benicio del Toro Shares Unique Experience Working with Non-Actors in 'One Battle After Another'
Benicio del Toro Shares Unique Experience Working with Non-Actors in 'One Battle After Another'
Will SayreTue, February 24, 2026 at 5:53 AM UTC
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(Getty Images)
Sean Penn may have just scooped the BAFTA Film Award for Best Supporting Actor, but many fans' favorite performance in One Battle After Another goes to fellow Oscar-winner Benicio del Toro.
Both renowned performers are Academy Award-nominated for their standout turns in director Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film, which actually has a whopping 13 nods going into next month's ceremony.
In the meantime, del Toro, 59, opened up in a new interview about his unique first day on set of the acclaimed film, which involved a scene in El Paso, Texas alongside lead actor Leonardo DiCaprio — and a few Spanish-speaking storeowners.
Anderson, 55, put DiCaprio, 51, and Del Toro in charge of communicating with the non-actors, as del Toro told The Hollywood Reporter.
"There’s real money from the store. And I’m taking money out of there [for the scene]," del Toro tells the magazine in a cover-story article published on Monday, Feb. 23. "And the lady is sitting right next to me. She’s looking at me like this [widening her eyes]. And then I give it back when Paul called ‘cut.’ But that was her money, not prop money."
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The Usual Suspects star continued, "Suddenly there’s this connection between the non-actors and Leo and myself. And Leo and I, we talked a little bit about it. We were in charge here. This was our show. These non-actors were looking to us to know what to do. And so for Leo and I, our heads instantly pointed in the same direction — it was a bonding moment."
Check out another memorable scene between del Toro and DiCaprio below:
Also during his THR interview, del Toro spoke candidly about grief, having lost his mother when he was a child. Fausta Genoveva Sánchez Rivera died of hepatitis when he was just 9 years old.
“I’m still dealing with it,” he said. “I had my mother for nine years. What is crazy about losing a parent at that age is that there hasn’t been one day in my life that I haven’t thought about her.”
This story was originally published by Parade on Feb 24, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
