Benicio Del Toro is a Puerto Rican-born actor and film producer, best known for his roles as Fred Fenster in THE USUAL SUSPECTS (1995), Dr. Gonzo in FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS (1998), Javier Rodríguez in TRAFFIC (2000), Franky Four Fingers in SNATCH (2000) and Jack 'Jackie Boy' Rafferty in SIN CITY (2005). He scooped an Oscar? for Best Supporting Actor for TRAFFIC and was nominated in 2003 for his performance in 21 GRAMS. In 2009 he starred as Ché Guevara in Steven Soderbergh?s double-header CHÉ, for which he received a Palme d?Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Q: I understand that THE WOLFMAN was a real labor of love?

A: Yes. Definitely. It has been an opportunity to do something for your memory, an opportunity to play for fun, and to be in a different kind of movie, which is more of a fantasy. It is kind of cool to join that world as an actor.

Q: You are an avid fan of the original THE WOLF MAN movie, and a bit of a collector, right?

A: Yes. I have been a fan for years of all the 1930s, 40?s and 50?s horror movies like FRANKENSTEIN, THE WOLF MAN, THE MUMMY, DRACULA, KING KONG and GODZILLA. I grew up before the multimedia world, so I was first introduced to these movies by these 8 millimeter, 4-minute, truncated versions of these horror classics made by a company called Castle Films that, as kids, we would project onto the wall. Those were the first things I started collecting. That was my intro to collecting memorabilia from these movies. It wasn?t until much later that I saw the full versions on TV.

Q: What Wolf Man memorabilia have you collected?

A: Most of THE WOLFMAN memorabilia that I have came out in the late 60?s and 70?s; Famous Monsters magazines, with all those classic Basil Gogo covers, The Aurora models, and of course a classic black and white poster of Lon Chaney?s WOLFMAN that was very popular In the 70?s. But original memorabilia is quite scarce and hard to find. Basically, of the original horror memorabilia, I have posters of THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN.

Q: Compared to the rest of the Universal ?classic monster? franchise ? FRANKENSTEIN, DRACULA, THE MUMMY ? THE WOLF MAN has been somewhat neglected, wouldn?t you say?

A: Maybe you?re right. Now that I think about it, yes, that original story hasn?t been re-told. Even though now you turn on the TV and there are many werewolf movies, vampire movies, vampire series? we haven?t seen the original WOLFMAN story since it came out in 1941.

Q: Maybe that?s because Dracula and Frankenstein are established literary creations, while Wolfman?s heritage comes directly from the screen?

A: Perhaps.

Q: You clearly love the original, but it perhaps doesn?t hold up in the same way as the other ?classic monster? movies. Is that fair?

A: Let?s face it. It was a movie that was written probably in two weeks, I think. Two weeks before they started. Does it hold up? In a sentimental way, it does. But in a literary way, if you sit down and compare it to movies that are a little bit more psychological, maybe it doesn?t. But it does deliver in other ways. It is a combination of the people involved, Jack Pierce?s makeup, Curt Siodmak?s story, and its tragic conclusion. I think it is very influential on other pictures, especially on other great pictures of this genre. Maybe we could say that CAT PEOPLE as a movie, and the way the story is told, is done by a couple of masters. But the original THE WOLF MAN came out before that and it does have a similar theme in a way. It?s on the level of another classic, like THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. If it grabs you it will never let go. And if you see it as a young person it really never lets go, it stays with you for the rest of your life. I hope that our movie can do the same for a new generation.

Q: You mention the lack of psychological depth in the original. Presumably you have had to layer more depth into your version?

A: Yes. You do what you can. The thing is if you go too deep you could make it complicated. It depends. One thing we wanted to do was to make sure that the make-up was strong. We got extremely lucky that Rick Baker was definitely into it, so he did the make-up and it was definitely top notch. It?s great. It has a little bit of THE WOLF MAN and of THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF. Do you remember the Hammer film with Oliver Reed? Our make-up is a little bit different, maybe a little darker in some way. Our film is also more explicit and it has some twists and turns. But the basics of the story are based on the original, with Lawrence coming home, the prodigal son idea, and the guy getting bitten by this beast but not believing he?s going to turn into a werewolf. Then he is trapped in that tragedy and the only way to destroy it is with a silver bullet.

Q: You are a producer as well as the lead actor. How involved were you with getting the production up and running?

A: My manager and I went to Universal with the idea. We got a meeting with the executives. At the time, I was in the middle of getting ready to do CHÉ with Steven Soderbergh. My hair was long, my beard was long, you could say I looked like a werewolf or a shorter version of Chewbacca. Universal went for it and we got Andrew Kevin Walker to write and we began developing with Scott Stuber. Then Rick Baker came in and my job of actor/producer became quite exciting.

Q: Were you interested in acting as a kid in Puerto Rico? Or did that come later at boarding school in the United States?

A: No, I wasn?t interested in acting as a kid. The acting bug got me when I was a freshman at UCSD.

Q: When did you really feel as though you?d commit to it as a career?

A: It was probably after THE USUAL SUSPECTS. It was then that jobs started to come to me steadily, so it was slowly becoming a reality. I always also asked myself what else I could do. It?s not necessarily just the acting, but making a movie is just incredible fun. For me I really enjoy it. There are the ups and downs, but ultimately it?s a job that if you have ideas you care about, it is just amazing what you can do with them. For me it?s amazing how things happen.

Q: Any new projects?

A: There are a couple of things I?m working on, the Scorsese project called SILENCE is one of them. I don?t know when that will start, but am really looking forward to it.

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