Benicio del Toro Shares Unique Experience Working with NonActors in &x27;One Battle After Another&x27; Will SayreTue, February 24, 2026 at 5:53 AM UTC 0 (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 Oscarwinner Benicio del Toro. Both renowned performers are Academy Awardnominated 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.
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
0
(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"
Source: Entertainment
Published: 2026-02-24T09:09:18Z on Source: PRIME TIME
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