Biographie

At 21 years old, he is the youngest person ever to portray a villain in a James Bond movie: Dario in Permis de tuer (1989).

Burned himself with cigarettes repeatedly for the elevator scene in Las Vegas Parano (1998) because the real Oscar Zeta Acosta did as well. The shots of the burn were deleted.

Benicio and longtime friend Josh Brolin were once told by then Miramax Films executive Meryl Poster, that they were the worst auditioners she had ever witnessed.

Is one of five Oscar winners - for Best Supporting Actor in Traffic (2000) - to play a character that spoke mostly in a foreign language. Most of his dialog was in Spanish. The other are Sophia Loren, Robert De Niro, Roberto Benigni and Marion Cotillard.

He badly injured his wrist during a stunt fight during the filming of William Friedkin's Traqué (2003). He fell on his wrist as he dove for a knife and actor Tommy Lee Jones fell on top of him. He was injured so badly that he was out of work for months, even though the film was virtually completed. He required three hours of therapy daily and reportedly there is a question whether he will regain full use of the wrist.

Before I was ever in high school, I had dark circles under my eyes. The rumor was I was a junkie. I have dark circles under my eyes, deal with it.

My career went into the hole after Las Vegas Parano (1998). People might have seen what they saw on screen and subconsciously, people in the business might have taken what they saw literally. I think people thought, "He got fat. He got weird. His mumbling increased tenfold." I was trying to do an interpretation of a masterpiece of a book, and that's what the character was - an animal!

I like anything that's three-dimensional, anything I can believe in - even if it's fantastic, surreal or from another planet.

I like to keep growing. I haven't gotten anywhere, as far as I'm concerned.

I'd like to do completely different roles - a romantic lead, for example. I'd like to be dressed up in a suit and get the girl at the end of the movie.