Benicio Del Toro is one of the actors nominated at this year's Golden Globe Awards, and the Puerto Rican star is hoping to take home his second award. The actor is nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture for the incredible One Battle After Another, where he plays Sensei, a cool, calm, karate instructor and activist for undocumented immigrants.
The actor won his first Globe in the same category for Traffic in 2001. It's all going down on Sunday, January 11, at 5 PM PT. As one of the few Latino nominees, the Oscar award winner is someone you should know. Here are 5 interesting things you might not know about the actor.
1. Casting agents suggested he quit acting
In a 2003 interview with The Mercury, Del Toro shared a nightmare audition story. After reading for a guest spot on a TV show, his manager called him and said the casting directors called him and said he showed up drunk to the audition. "I hadn’t touched a single drop of alcohol," he said. "They said, ‘He’s the worst actor we’ve ever seen!’"
“When you’re a kid, and you’re just starting out, you’re vulnerable. I joked about it at the time, but I started to have my doubts. I actually went out and got drunk. But then I thought ‘Well, it can’t get any worse than this, ' he continued.
2. His mom died when he was 9
Del Toro's parents were attorneys, and he never had dreams of becoming an actor. His mom died of hepatitis when he was 9. "That's a big blow for a kid, and that was a big blow for me. In retrospect, you can see the blow; when you're a kid, you don't see the blow. You just react. And I reacted by going out with kids and being with the wrong crowd."
He said his godmother recognized that he had potential and moved him to a prep school in Pennsylvania. "Being there, I found myself alone, and I found myself with the potential of allowing new things to be done, exploring new things, and really take some control," he said. He was still a bit of a prankster, but that move allowed him to make friends and explore ideas.
3. He used his tuition money to pursue acting
After prep school, Del Toro had a new outlook, and he had the idea to take an elective acting class while studying at UCSD. Then everything changed. He found Stella Adler and used his tuition to pursue life as an actor in LA, per The Mercury.
When his dad found out, he didn't speak to him for years until he saw him in the 1989 James Bond film, “License to Kill.” “My Dad wrote me a letter telling me that I was the best actor he’d ever seen,” recalled Del Toro. “Then, he called me up and said, ‘Oh, boy, you’re right. You’re going to be a movie star!’ Of course, then I didn’t work again for another year.”
4. He got stopped by TSA because of an explosive script
Del Toro was recently flying from Boston to LA with the script for Wes Anderson's 2025, Phoenician Scheme, in his carry-on, which mentioned airplanes and bombs. "For some reason, I have my computer in there, and I didn't take it out, so the TSA people, they just said, 'Hey, we need to check your bag,'" he said on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
"I take my scripts, and I make the headings bigger so I can get to them really quickly," Del Toro continued. "And the opening scene is: 'Interior: Airplane. Bomb.' The second scene is: 'Interior: Cockpit. Eject the pilot.' And the third scene is: 'Crash.'"
Needless to say, some red flags. "He's reading, and I go, 'It's a film script! It's a film script!' And he looks at me and he [holds his index finger in the air] and he closes the thing, and he walks out, and five TSA guys come over." Thankfully, one of the higher-ups likely recognized him and let him go.
5. He gained 45 pounds for his role as Dr. Gonzo
Actors who have to drop or gain weight for a role know how hard a task it can be. The Puerto Rican gained 45 for his role as Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing. He did so by eating donuts daily. Something he says he will not do again, "for anything. "It took about three months to take it off. It's not healthy," plus, it got bad reviews, despite becoming a cult classic.
"What I did there was just really hard work, and it just got thrown in the garbage can, in a way," he said in 2000, per TV Guide. "It got really bad reviews — unfairly so, I think. That was a little bit of a depressing time, right there."