Del Toro’s ‘Sicario’ assassin returns for a new mission
Turns out the Sicario assassin Alejandro has a heart, even if it’s still consumed by vengeance.
Benicio Del Toro’s mysterious and memorable killer from the critically acclaimed 2015 thriller Sicario resumes his personal vendetta against the Mexican drug lords who killed his family with the release of Sicario: Day of the Soldado (in theaters June 29). A trailer for the sequel will be revealed Monday at usatoday.com.
“This is a man bent on revenge for what the cartels have done, killing his daughter and family,” Del Toro says.
Alejandro is hired again by CIA operative Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) to start a war between dueling cartels by kidnapping Isabela Reyes (Isabela Moner), the teenage daughter of infamous kingpin Carlos Reyes.
When the mission is exposed and Graver orders Alejandro to terminate Isabela, the killer’s cold façade cracks.
“He has the chance for an eye for an eye but sees a young girl going through what his daughter went through,” Del Toro says. “He has to decide to follow orders or protect the girl.”
Moner, 16, is unrecognizable from her plucky breakout role in last year’s Transformers: The Last Knight. Director Stefano Sollima told her she had earned the role after nailing her auditions, if she agreed to cut her long hair to highlight Isabela’s attempts to disguise herself.
“It was like, I’m down. I jumped at it. But that was a huge transformation for me,” says Moner, who is PeruvianAmerican. “Being a Latina, our hair is very important to us.”
Adopting the accent was the easier part of the assignment.
“Most of my 52 cousins and whoknows-how-many aunts have a thick accent I can mimic anytime,” Moner says. “To change the Peruvian accent to a Mexican accent required some poaching. There’s a difference in the flow and cadence.”
Shooting Oscar-nominated screenwriter Taylor Sheridan’s script in New Mexico and Mexico City was intense for Moner and the cast. In their down time, Del Toro would lighten the mood with jokes, stories and acting advice for Moner.
But when cameras rolled, he’d return to his imperceptible Alejandro. “I cannot even imagine what’s going through his head,” Moner says.
She, too, went heavy to reflect Isabela’s dire situation.
“I’m a very happy person, but we all got our dark places to go to,” Moner says. “I had to take a breath and channel that.”
Watching Day of the Soldado for the first time was especially difficult for Moner’s mother, seeing her daughter in peril and so stern.
“She was so worried for me, even if it was fictional. Afterward, she said she wanted to buy me a dog, because she thought I needed to be happier.”