Benicio Del Toro on playing brutally precise hitman

A scene from the movie Sicario.

Since his breakthrough in The Usual Suspects (1995), Puerto Rico-born Benicio Del Toro has established his career playing characters in drug-drenched stories.

The 48-year-old, who won a supporting actor Oscar for 2000's Traffic and who most recently played Pablo Escobar in Paradise Lost, makes no excuses.

"You know movies take from their times. We can look at movies with the drug thing from the 60s, 70s and 80s, Easy Rider, The French Connection, Scarface.

"It happens that I'm making movies in this time where the war on drugs is around us and they tap into this world. I've played everything. I've played the guy who's a junkie, I've played the guy who sells it, I've played the guy who does it recreationally, I've played the policeman who tries to stop it. I've played the hitman, the real sicario in Savages, and now there's this guy who's just had enough."

In Sicario, Del Toro plays a brutally precise hitman, Alejandro, who joins a black ops mission from Texas into Mexico.

"He's just got to do whatever it takes," explains Del Toro, "to use the big USA power to end it. But I don't think he's going to be successful. It's just going to create other monsters."

A final emotional scene between Del Toro and co-star Emily Blunt has been hailed as their Oscar moment. Del Toro had a hand in the scene, convincing director Denis Villeneuve to reduce his dialogue and to focus on what he considers his best asset - his eyes. "I felt like I was going to cry and I didn't expect that," Del Toro recalls. "Alejandro's stoicism finally cracks. You know a script works when air shifts in room like that. It's what you live for and why you do this."

Up next, it looks like Del Toro is swapping his sniper rifle for a lightsaber - he's reportedly been offered a villainous role in the second Star Wars reboot, Episode VIII, which means he's going to be part of two giant franchises after his cameos as The Collector in Thor: The Dark World and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Who: Benicio Del Toro
What: Sicario
When: Opens today