[11] In 2002, he featured in Poniente, a drama film directed by Chus Gutiérrez exploring the plight of irregular immigrants working in greenhouses in Southern Spain, playing a Spanish racist foreman.

[15] As a result, he left his part-time job as a journalist and fully dedicated to acting since 2007,[18] having applied for a leave of absence from a permanent position in Canal Sur that he had just landed in June 2007.

[26][27] Also in 2016, he starred alongside Roberto Álamo in Rodrigo Sorogoyen's crime thriller May God Save Us playing the role of a lonely and stuttering police inspector tracking down a rapist and killer of elderly women in Madrid.

[28][29] With The Realm (2018), a new collaboration with Sorogoyen, De la Torre won his first Goya Award for Best Leading Performance, playing Manuel López-Vidal, a well-positioned regional politician whose life crumbles upon the unravelling of a corruption case.

[31] In order to prepare for the latter role, involving Mujica's long time in captivity under the civic-military dictatorship, de la Torre lost 15 kg and worked on improving his Uruguayan accent.

[40] Also in 2024, De la Torre shot the thriller film Los Tigres, resuming collaboration with Alberto Rodríguez with a leading role as an industrial diver.

[42] A vocal supporter of Yolanda Díaz's political project, De la Torre closed the electoral list of Sumar in the province of Málaga for the 2023 Spanish general election.