photo by steed media service

Benicio Del Toro has a look. It's a combination of worst-hangover-of-my-life scruffiness and too-hip-to-care chic, that the Academy Award-winning actor has fashioned into something of a trademark. Since his breakthrough performance in 1995's cult classic The Usual Suspects, Del Toro has carved a niche for himself in a series of roles portraying conflicted, tortured souls. Why does he gravitate to darker personalities on-screen? "They pay better," he jokingly says. "I guess I understand them . or at least I think I do. If the story has a journey, there [are] going to be complexities in the character; if the story has conflict, the characters are going to have conflict."

In the new film, Things We Lost In the Fire, Del Toro stars opposite fellow Academy Award winner Halle Berry, as recovering heroin addict (and former attorney), Jerry Sunborne. "I hadn't seen Susanne Biers' movies, but the script took me in," he explains. "I [liked] the themes of the movie and after I saw her movies, I [decided] this is someone I'd really like to work with. Then I heard Halle Berry jumped in and that was it for me."

"When you see the film, it seems like you're peeking into someone's life," continues Del Toro. "There was a freedom of exploring," he says. "There was one scene where we [were] deciding whether Jerry [Del Toro] should try and kiss Audrey [Berry]. It was not scripted and Susanne came over and said, 'Maybe you should try and kiss her.' I said, 'don't mind if I do!'" - todd williams

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