BENECIO DEL TORO STORMS OUT OF INTERVIEW

// January 28th, 2009 // Hott News

when the going gets tough

Turns out portraying a Communist revolutionary is still a little controversial

Actor Benicio Del Toro attends the “Che, El Argentino” premiere at the Capitol cinema on September 02, 2008 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images Europe)

By John Charles Reedburg

Maybe. He should’ve stayed around to take the heat.

BENICIO DEL TORO got a little hot under the collar while discussing the movie “Che” with the Washington Times’ Sonny Bunch, abruptly cutting an interview short after the questions turned to Che’s darker side. From the Times piece:

“I’m getting uncomfortable,” Benicio del Toro said after fielding a question about his new movie’s portrayal of the Bolivian and Cuban revolutions. “I’m done. I’m done, I hope you write whatever you want. I don’t give a damn.”

With that, the Oscar-winning actor walked away, abruptly terminating an interview conducted late last week to discuss director Steven Soderbergh’s “Che.” How you view Che Guevara — a noble freedom fighter of the people or a Communist thug who created the Cuban gulags — depends a lot on your politics, but its safe to say that del Toro hews closer to the former, while the Washington Times sees it much more like the latter.

The article has already garnered over a hundred comments, most of them full of invective like this, from commenter Jailbones:

It is perfect that NancyBoys Soderbergh and Del Pince-Toro portray Guevara as a tough guy and a hero – that’s about their speed.
Guevara was a pansy, like these two fairies. He enjoyed shooting unarmed people in the head, by all accounts. What he didn’t seem to enjoy so much was shooting at people with guns in their hands. When he got crazy enough to try it, a bunch of Bolivian army clowns turned him into hamburger, as well they should.

Guevara was a farcical tough guy and a murderous communist whose reputation is promoted by sissy college liberals and Hollyweird types. On the other side, commenter Artic_Lion attacks the story and reporter:

The reporter went into the interview ill-prepared. He did not even know that Che was Argentinian. He got “good copy” but that is it. I am glad that Del Toro walked out on him. He is definitely a great actor and knows a phony when he encounters one. It is too bad that too many reporters don’t go after the story but, rather, they go for sensationalism which, sadly, “makes good copy”.

The film itself has received a similarly polarized reception. In Miami, an invitation-only screening was met with angry protesters. On the other hand, a screening in Havana, Cuba saw an audience of over 2,000 give del Toro a ten-minute standing ovation.