Benicio Del Toro Talks About the U.S. Election: ‘Politics is a Dirty Game’

With just a few weeks to go before the U.S. presidential election, Benicio del Toro has spoken out against the way that hot-button issues like immigration are used by candidates to rally support in the lead-up to the election.

The Oscar-winning star of “Traffic” and “Sicario” is guest of honor at the 16^th edition of the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon, France, where he was hosting a masterclass.

Del Toro is part of a roster of stars attending the fest, which is organized by Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Frémaux. Other high profile talent on the ground in Lyon includes Xavier Dolan, Isabelle Huppert, Tim Burton and Monica Bellucci.

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“You can’t group people and say they are all bad people…most people who are trying to get to America are trying to improve their lives because there are problems in their hometowns, wherever they come from. They’re trying to better their lives, That said, I think that borders have to be respected,” he said.

“Politics is a dirty game, it’s a tough situation right now, there’s a lot of people that are suffering because of it, it has to be put in check. There’s gonna be an election and let’s see what happens, I trust in the younger people.”

Del Toro was asked about politicians’ weaponization of immigration after discussion of his movies about drug trafficking and cartels. Though he didn’t call out the candidates by name, he emphasized, “I don’t subscribe to treating anyone like they’re less than human because of the color of their skin, because of their religion, because of their origin or whatever.”

The actor has a packed slate of projects coming up, including Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme” which is currently in post; and will also star in Anderson’s follow up “The Battle of Baktan Cross” in which he’ll star opposite Leonardo Di Caprio and Sean Penn.

Asked what he thought of the dominance of streaming platforms and whether he fears it will lead to greater conformity of content, del Toro answered: “When change happens, I’m one of those people that’s like ‘Let it rip, let it rip!’ I think that there’s more opportunity now for people that are interested in film or storytelling like that.”

Pointing to the screen behind him in Lyon’s historic Pathé cinema theater which was hosting the masterclass, however, he said: “The way of watching a movie like this, is, for me, the best,” he confessed, adding that he likes the feature length format and “doesn’t have the attention span” to watch something as long as a miniseries.

But, he said, “I would be a hypocrite to say it doesn’t work because I’ve participated in them, and I’ve had a good time, I did a miniseries called “Escape at Dannemora” that I liked and it was very interesting, and I did a movie called “Reptile” that went straight to Netflix and I enjoyed it, and it found an audience. Now, I wish that you could experience it with a group in a box,” he said.

“But go with it, you can’t stop it — the phone, it’s too strong to stop it. My daughter, she watches everything on her phone… but she likes to go to the movies!”

The Lumiere Film Festival runs in and around Lyon until Oct. 20.