New York City–It's easy to envision Benicio Del Toro as the quiet kid at the back of the class. In a conference room in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Del Toro, sporting a thick beard and mustache and wearing a dark cobalt blazer and black shirt, seems content to take a backseat to his costars and crew.

Yet his low-key demeanour belies a complex intensity that surfaces in his emotionally and physically demanding performance as Jerry, a recovering heroin addict in Things We Lost in the Fire. Filmed by Oscar-nominated Danish director Susanne Bier in Vancouver (playing Seattle) and opening in theatres on October 19, the dramatic feature charts Jerry's uneasy relationship with Audrey (Halle Berry), who is in mourning after the death of her husband (David Duchovny), Jerry's best friend.

"It's a weird story of three good Samaritans who are blind, in a way," the soft-spoken Del Toro explains, "and they're on the same road but they're helping each other."

Puerto Rican–born Del Toro has played roles on either side of the law in drug-related films, such as his Oscar-nominated turn in 21 Grams and his performance in Traffic, which earned him an Academy Award for best supporting actor. He confesses that he's not quite sure why he gravitates toward troubled characters. "I guess I understand them. Or think I do.…If a story has a journey, usually there's going to be conflict inside the character. If the story is gonna have conflict, the characters are gonna have conflict. I like stories with conflict."

When asked by the Georgia Straight how he prepared for the role of Jerry, which required the portrayal of heroin­-withdrawal symptoms, he lists numerous sources. "I met with a doctor who's an expert in addiction…read some literature about addiction–William Burroughs's Junkie…met some recovering addicts, went to an AA meeting, and then life. I've had friends, and friends of friends, family of friends, that have had problems with addictions. There's life, too; you draw from life."

Although Del Toro clearly has depth and knows how to convey it, costar Halle Berry attests to his penchant for levity. "When you have Benicio Del Toro around, you cannot really get too heavy about anything. He has a wonderful way of finding the funny in every situation," she says.

Asked if he would ever want to play a romantic leading man, he quips: "Well, yeah. I am at home," to much laughter.

Although the two lead characters don't become intimately involved, romantic attraction percolates. "I remember there was one scene where we decided whether Jerry should try and kiss Audrey. And it wasn't scripted, and we were doing it without the kiss and there was something not working and…I could see that she [Bier] wasn't too happy with the way it was going, 'cause there was nothing going on, really, and then she came and she said, 'I think maybe you should try and kiss her,' and I said, 'I don't mind if I do.'"

As the news conference ends and reporters swarm Berry with questions, Del Toro quietly slips out the door, leaving his work to speak for itself.