Since interviewing Mick Rock for our 11th issue, the legendary photographer and I have become good, fast friends. It wasn’t long until we developed a weekly ritual where we would meet in the lobby of The Mercer hotel to get wired on caffeine while I listened to him recount tales of my childhood heroes – rock stars like David Bowie, Lou Reed, and Freddie Mercury. Listening to these first-hand accounts from an artist who lived through the frenzied, drug infused days in London and NYC alongside rock legends brought a realization upon me: Mick Rock is a hero of mine. After each of our meetings, I would leave with a smile on my face, humming a Bowie tune, feeling as if I’d been in the presence of these rock greats for the past several hours. The Mercer is the kind of place where one can find themselves occupying the same space as celebrities and fashion icons like Leonardo DiCaprio, Isabelle Huppert, Lenny Kravitz, Virgil Abloh, and – at one time – even Karl Lagerfeld. It was in this den of creativity and interconnection, during one of our rap sessions, that Mick and I were sitting at a table in the lobby, reviewing our sneaker collaboration while, unbeknownst to us, Benicio del Toro was sitting at the next table over. We were looking through images of the sneakers on my laptop when Benicio pointed to the screen from the other table and asked, are these yours? No, I responded, and pointed to Mick, they’re his. You know who he is, right? Benicio nodded his head, yes.

Benicio Del Toro's acting has a depth and grit that propels him into the league of the best – Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Marlon Brando, Javier Bardem, Sean Penn. Benicio has carved out a place for himself among the greats, as a disarmingly charismatic, character-acting chameleon. The screen stealing, Puerto Rico-born actor first found mainstream success as a Mexican policeman in Steven Soderbergh’s 2000 film, Traffic. His varied film credits, including cult classics Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Basquiat, as well as worldwide crowd stunners Sicario, Sin City, and The Usual Suspects, cement the actor’s status as one of the most sought-after stars, heralded as a master of his craft by audiences and film buffs alike. His highly anticipated Wes Anderson film, The French Dispatch comes out this year, in which he stars alongside Timotheé Chalamet, Elisabeth Moss, and Saoirse Ronan. Benicio and I were rapt as we listened to Mick unravel his seemingly infinite tales of the past. It was at this table that Mick offered to shoot Benicio for an AS IF cover. Benicio agreed under one condition: Mick interviews him, and no talk about acting, only music, culture and rock-n-roll. Deal!

The following is a result of their conversation on the set of the photo shoot between Mick and Benicio weeks later at Milk Studio.