Not sure if I’ll play villain in ‘Star Wars: Benicio Del Toro

Benicio Del Toro enjoys keeping “people in the dark” about “Star Wars“.

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He’s played a recovering drug addict (“21 Grams”) and one not so recovering at all (“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”).

The British star, who became an American citizen last month, has topped a short list of actresses to portray action-heavy roles, especially after starring in “Edge of Tomorrow” with Tom Cruise. His performance in Steven Soderbergh’s “Traffic” earned him an Academy Award.

French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve has a knack for making emotionally wrenching and riveting films. Well, now thanks to an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Del Toro’s role in Episode VIII is now not as clear as we previously thought.

The shifting balance of power and knowledge among these three people-Kate, Alejandro, and Matt-is the dramatic core of Sicario, but the screenplay, by Taylor Sheridan (better known as Deputy Chief David Hale on TV’s Sons of Anarchy), skimps on the kind of rich character development that might have made their characters feel more human. “These tales are on the market within the newspapers”.

Initially, Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) is in complete control, heading up a special FBI unit that deals with hostage situations. The movie’s two-hour running time passed in a fevered rush, leaving me as exhausted and tense as the increasingly hollow-eyed Kate.

Del Toro is in Toronto to promote his Mexican drug cartel thriller Sicario, directed by Canadian Denis Villeneuve, at the Toronto international Film Festival.

Villeneuve, the Quebecois director of “Prisoners,” was more confident. Once I read the script and started to get into it, I was like, ‘Wow, this is something that I want to put my time and energy into!’ What attracted me to the movie is that it brings something into the consciousness. “For me, he was a source of information”. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the main trio of Blunt, Brolin, and del Toro are so watchable and Deakins’ cinematography is to die for.

Rumor has it that Lucasfilm and Johnson were also interested in Joaquin Phoenix for the role that del Toro eventually was cast.

“It was very simple”. I was just coming off of “Everest” and I almost didn’t do the movie. It’s not so much that “Sicario” endorses noxious policies as that it depicts a world where everything is terrible and nothing can be understood. “Motion!'” says Villeneuve, chuckling.

Blunt’s (Edge Of Tomorrow, 2014) mix of naivete and desire to do the right thing is compelling and Brolin (No Country For Old Men, 2007) is suitably condescending as someone who knows far more than he is willing to let on. When he doesn’t feel something, he cannot act.