In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast features in-depth conversations with today’s most noteworthy actors and creators. Join host and senior editor Vinnie Mancuso for this guide to living the creative life from those who are doing it every day.
Benicio del Toro is coming off a mighty impressive 2025, in which he starred as ruthless tycoon Zsa-Zsa Korda in Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme” and stole the show as Sensei Sergio St. Carlos across from Leonardo DiCaprio in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another.” (The latter role earned him his third Oscar nomination.) Three decades into his career, Del Toro has honed his inimitable ability to do a lot with a little onscreen: to convey character with a squint, a stare, or a mumble.
“If I may quote the great Christopher Walken, he gave me one of the best pieces of advice that I’ve ever heard an actor give another actor, which was: ‘If you don’t know what to do, don’t do anything,’” Del Toro tells us on the latest episode of In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast, before remembering an even earlier inspiration. “One of the first people I started to imitate was my dad. And when he said nothing, everybody perked up. So when he said something, everybody perked up.”
Del Toro is more comfortable describing his process as it relates to other people. Despite being a trained alumni of the Stella Adler Academy of Acting and Theatre, he can’t quite articulate the alchemy of what happens to him in front of the camera. But he can describe what he’s seen up close as a scene partner.
“Take Scarlett Johansson in ‘The Phoenician Scheme.’ She came in, she made everybody laugh on set, and then suddenly she was in front of the camera and everything was just muted around her,” Del Toro says. “They call it, in acting, 'the bubble.' You create that bubble.”
“Creating that bubble is very strange. I sometimes think I might do it myself, but I’ve definitely seen it with other actors,” he continues. “I’m using Scarlett as an example, because I do remember seeing suddenly, almost like everything became blurry around her, on what the camera was seeing.… I don’t think it’s a superpower; it’s just putting that presence and intentions, those actions, those decisions—putting the interpretation right there in front of a camera to be captured. Actors do that, and as you progress in your career, I think you get better at it, creating that focus.”
In this episode, Del Toro goes long on his biggest inspirations, his early training, the secrets to memorable performance choices (including this one-of-a-kind line delivery from “Escape at Dannemora”), the inspiring whirlwind production of “One Battle After Another,” and much, much more.
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