#benicioedit

Licence to Kill (1989, John Glen)

Benicio del Toro in China Moon (1994) 

Benicio del Toro in Licence to Kill (1989)

How much do you think prejudice has affected your careers? History will inform everything, really. I mean, If you read the history of the United States, you know that there’s prejudice, and it’s evolving. It's changing. But I have definitely felt it.

When I started going on auditions they asked me to change my name. I’m sure if my name was John Smith they wouldn’t have asked me to change my name. It’s one more hurdle that you have to climb if you are ethnic. And part of it is because of the stories, movies are stories and there are not that many stories being written from the Latino experience. When I was in acting school, I had a Latino teacher who said, if you’re going to do this, you have to work twice as hard as John Smith. So I’ve always worked really hard, and it’s got me places. 

Alejandro works for anyone who will point him towards the people who made him. Us. Them. Anyone who will turn him loose.