Trivia / Sicario

• Actor-Inspired Element: While Alejandro is frequently silent in the movie, he initially had more lines. "In the original script, the character explained his background several times to Kate," Benicio del Toro said. "And that gave me information about who this guy was, but it felt a little stiff to have someone you just met fifteen minutes ago suddenly telling you what happened to him and who he is." Working with Denis Villeneuve, Del Toro began cutting some of his dialogue to preserve the mystery of who his character is; Villeneuve estimated they cut 90% of what Del Toro was originally intended to say by screenwriter Taylor Sheridan. Like Del Toro, Villeneuve saw power in stripping the character down to a brooding silence, stating that dialogue belongs to plays and "movies are about movement, character, and presence, and Benicio had all that."
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Josh Brolin agreed to star in the film, soely because he wanted to work with Roger Deakins again.
• California Doubling: Mexico City standing in as Juarez as the actual city was too dangerous to be filmed.
  • All the scenes taking place in Arizona, and any scenes taking place in rural Mexico, were all filmed in New Mexico.
• Enforced Method Acting: Emily Blunt was sick with the stomach flu (though she insists that she didn't experience diarrhea) during the border scene, so her look of nervousness was a result of her illness.
• Executive Meddling: Averted. The studio originally wanted the main character to be male, but was refused.
• Fake American:
  • Emily Blunt and Daniel Kaluuya, who portray FBI agents Kate Macer and Reggie Wayne, are British.
  • Victor Garber, who portrays their boss Dave Jennings, is Canadian.
• Fake Nationality: Alejandro is implied to be either of Mexican or Colombian origin. Benicio del Toro, is Puerto Rican.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Kate mentions that she is childless. Emily Blunt started filming four months after she delivered her daughter, Hazel.
• Method Acting: Emily Blunt met with four different FBI agents to influence her performance.
• Throw It In!: When the team has entered the tunnel, Emily Blunt hits her head on the top of the tunnel. Director Denis Villeneuve said in an interview that he left that take in since it added realness to the mission and the film itself.
• Wag the Director:: There was a slightly different ending in the original version of the screenplay, with Alejandro choosing to spare Fausto's family and physically humiliate Kate in the ending scene by lifting up her shirt and pointing out all of the bruises he gave her in their earlier confrontation. Denis Villeneuve, Emily Blunt, and Benicio del Toro were all dissatisfied with how this played out, so they changed it to better fit how they felt the characters would act in the situations.

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