Benicio Del Toro’s work in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another has been widely praised ever since the film debuted last fall, and the man truly earns every syllable of it with his performance. Playing the stoic and organized Sensei Sergio St. Carlos, he is a keystone player in the story helping Leonardo DiCaprio’s “Bob Ferguson” evade authorities, and he steals every scene he’s in. It stands among the best work he’s ever done (recognizing that the man is already an Oscar winner), and one’s appreciation for it is only enhanced learning how instrumental he was in crafting the sensei’s arc.
Many Academy voters are still considering their choices in advance of the Oscars ceremony scheduled in a few weeks, and those confounded by the competition in the Best Supporting Actor cateogry would do well to read the new profile about Del Toro in The Hollywood Reporter. The feature reveals that he was a key collaborator with Paul Thomas Anderson when it came to the story implementation of Sensei Sergio St. Carlos, as he had some major issues with the script as it was first presented to him – which involved a murder and cover-up in his dojo. Explaining his problem with the logic of it, the actor recalled the notes he penned on the script:
What’s my relationship with Leo until that point in the film? I teach his daughter. I shake his hand. He writes me a check. I deposit the check. That’s it…If I kill somebody in my dojo that’s another movie entirely.
The idea of a double murder and the cleanup of that double murder was not something that Benicio Del Toro felt tracked logically – but instead of turning down the project, he instead presented a whole new path for the character. Instead of just being karate teacher to Chase Infiniti’s Willa, he is also a major player in what he apparently suggested to Paul Thomas Anderson as a ‘Latino Harriet Tubman situation.’
The filmmaker said in an email to the trade that he was never totally happy with what he had written prior to Del Toro’s note, and that suggestion, “made everything fall into place.”
Those who have seen the film probably don’t need an explanation why this was revolutionary for the direction of One Battle After Another (pun 100% intended). Sensei Sergio St. Carlos went from being an incidental part of the movie to a part of its core narrative and themes. He’s the exact right guy that Bob Ferguson needs to go during his sudden crisis, and his mix of chill and efficiency is dazzling on every rewatch.
Will Benicio Del Toro win for Best Supporting Actor? He has some stiff competition in Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein), Delroy Lindo (Sinners), Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value) and even his One Battle After Another co-star Sean Penn – but it’s fair to say at this point that he stands a pretty good chance at picking up his first Oscar since the one he got for Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic. Those who haven’t seen his work for themselves can do so with a HBO Max subscription, and the 98th Academy Awards will air on Sunday, March 15.
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