Benicio Del Toro was photographed Feb. 13 in Beverly Hills. Artistic and Fashion Director Alison Edmond. Todd Snyder suit, shirt; Lardini tie; Doucal's boots; Del Toro's jewelry. Photographed by Myles Hendrik; Grooming: Diana Schmidtke "Meet him at the lobby entrance at 1 p.m. You'll recognize him :)" That's the only instruction. At 1 p.m., Benicio Del Toro wanders, a little hesitantly, into the Peninsula Beverly Hills. He has no entourage. He's wearing a black windbreaker, an Oakland A's cap pulled low over his tousled hair and those famous drowsy eyes. At 6-foot-2, he's an unmissable presence in this gilded foyer. Then again, it's Benicio Del Toro. He'd be unmissable in a snowstorm. He scans the sun-drenched lobby: society ladies in Chanel suits nibbling cucumber sandwiches, a harpist drifting through afternoon tea. Then he veers toward a dim, wood-paneled bar off to the side and slides into a banquette. Related Stories Movies "Decency Is a Superpower": Donna Langley Receives BAFTA Fellowship, Touting Cinema's Power to Help Us "See Each Other More Clearly" Movies BAFTA Film Awards: 'One Battle After Another' Wins 6, 'Sinners' Makes History With 3, 'I Swear' Stuns "I'll have a light beer," I tell the waiter. Photographed by Myles Hendrik Del Toro does not order a beer, leaving my "few small beers" bit - a reference to one of his One Battle After Another character's most famous lines - dead in the water. He orders a shot of espresso and shoots me a look of mild concern. "A beer? At one o'clock?" His eyes flick around the room. "How long is this interview, anyway?" "Do you enjoy doing interviews?" I ask. "Not really." It's not coming from a place of hostility. Once something is spoken on the record, he explains, it detaches the words from context. Forever. "Sometimes you read it or see it and it's like, well, that's not really what I meant at all," he says. "It shakes you a bit. It becomes ... permanent." Del Toro is revered by a loose coalition of the most venerated creatives working in Hollywood: Scorsese. DiCaprio. Penn. Anderson (Paul and Wes). Soderbergh. Villeneuve. Despite this outsized reputation, Del Toro resists easy categorization. Collaborators describe his talents as something more akin to a superpower. The force of his presence manages to bend scenes around him - bend entire films, sometimes - all without him raising his voice. Sean Penn, who stars with Del Toro in One Battle, met Del Toro when he was a dewy-cheeked 20-something newly arrived in Los Angeles from his native Puerto Rico. He remembers immediately wanting to know what was happening "behind the eyes." Of Del Toro's expansive imagination, Penn says it operates "in all capitals. You know you're going to get what you need. But you have no idea what you're going to get." For Del Toro, that unpredictability never announces itself as flamboyance. His performances are rarely loud. His greatest trick is quietly stealing scenes without ever having to chew the furniture. He broke out at 28 playing a marble-mouthed con man in 1995's The Usual Suspects. At 59, he's still captivating audiences with his idiosyncratic human creations. Take Sensei, the part he plays in One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson's epic about militarized oppression, the fight and folly of revolution and the instinct to protect the vulnerable. It's a low-register role that has placed Del Toro, somewhat to his disbelief, at the center of the awards conversation. "It's bizarre," Del Toro says of the attention that has followed since the Sept. 8 world premiere. The film is nominated for 13 Oscars, including best picture and best supporting actor for Del Toro and Penn. The last time Del Toro was nominated for an Oscar was more than two decades ago, for 21 Grams. Three years before that, he took home best supporting actor honors for Traffic. He insists he entered One Battle with modest expectations. "I'm in the movie for a limited amount of time," he says. "I came in to get Leo from point A to point D." "It's an honor," he adds. "It's huge. But it's very surprising. There's something about it that makes me want to not believe it. And I'm trying to enjoy this wave." He keeps returning to that word: wave. Not campaign, not fray. Wave. Something that lifts you whether you deserve it or not. Something you'd best just give yourself over to. "What I've learned about it is, let it rip. It's beyond my control. There's nothing I can do," he says. "I think the movie puts a mirror to where we are now," he says of the response to One Battle, which moves with breakneck speed through a world of desperate migrants, parents, children and a father trying to reunite with his daughter. "Sensei represents the helper," he continues. "That human side of all of us. Innocent until proven guilty. You see someone in need, and you help." Hermes suit, shirt; Paul Smith tie; Del Toro's own jewelry. Photographed by Myles Hendrik *** In an early draft of One Battle After Another, Sensei participated a