Guillermo del Toro on “Frankenstein” and remaking a monster | USAEMALL.com

Director Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth,” “The Shape of Water”) hovered over a model representing the creature in his latest film, “Frankenstein.” “We made, I think, the most extensive, minute, anatomical putting together of the monster in the history of cinema,” he said. 

He considered every tendon, every suture, every organ, and admits for some that can be a bit much. “Sorry about breakfast!” he laughed.

But to bring Victor Frankenstein’s monster to life in cinema, the filmmaker first was playing creator himself. Del Toro, who resurrected “Frankenstein” for Netflix as writer, producer and director, took “Sunday Morning” around a London exhibition detailing his elaborate vision for the gothic classic – from wardrobe and props, to his extensive notes, which he spent years writing. 

There is also, in a glass case, the original text, inscribed from Mary Shelley to Lord Byron. “This is the one I would steal,” he joked. “I would do a full Pink Panther.”

The groundbreaking novel about a scientist who creates a living, feeling being mixes horror, romance, and humanity. It was penned by Mary Shelley, who finished it when she was just 19, more than 200 years ago.

So, why does her story endure? “Well, first of all, it was written by a teenager that was full of questions and rage and rebellion,” del Toro said. “You know, it’s the same questions we have now: What are we? Why am I human? Why am I here?”

Is it a coincidence that the film comes out around Halloween? “No! No!” he said. “To me, Halloween is all year long.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I live a house that has secret passages. I live in a house that is inhabited full of monsters,” he said.

“In your mind?”

“No, I built it! When I was forty-something, I invested everything I had into creating the house I wanted when I was 7.”

“Well, no wonder you wanted to make ‘Frankenstein’!”

“I have a room dedicated to ‘Frankenstein.’ I call it the living room.”

And what does he do in that room? “I say hello to all the figures in the morning, I write, I investigate, I design.”

He started experiencing life through literature, he says, growing up in Guadalajara, Mexico. But for him, “Frankenstein” was not just any story he’d read. “You really wanted to make this film,” I said.

“I gave it over 50 years of my life, so yes,” del Toro said. “It’s in all of my movies. All 13 movies have elements of the film. ‘Pinocchio’ is another prodigal father asking for forgiveness of his child. My first movie, ‘Cronus,’ deals with eternal life. ‘Shape of Water,’ certainly, the idea of the monster being of the same essence than the main female character, and the female character recognizing herself in it.”

“We are all creatures,” he said. “I mean, we have a world that tells you you shouldn’t be a creature, but in reality we’re all weird in some way.”

And in what ways is del Toro weird? “I was this strange, pale creature that liked to read, and I was a hypochondriac at age seven. I thought I had trichinosis. I thought have cirrhosis. And I studied medical manuals, and I would go to my mom and say, ‘I think I have a terminal cancer.’ So I was a weird, weird kid.”

And for del Toro, there is an appeal to monsters: “Monsters tell you, look, it’s okay to be you. It’s okay to be imperfect.”

“You say someone needs to tell you it’s okay to be you. Who was that person for you?” I asked.

“Boris Karloff, Godzilla, the Creature from the Black Lagoon! What is beautiful about monsters is they become patron saints of imperfection.”

Boris Karloff’s 1931 portrayal of Mary Shelley’s monster is film history. In del Toro’s reimagination, Oscar Isaac is Victor Frankenstein, birthing a creature played by Jacob Elordi.  

“Every day there was some new, beautiful, strange thing waiting for me to try and do,” said Isaac. “To be invited to do these kinds of things as a performer, it was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.”

Asked what he did to become the creature, Elordi replied, “I don’t know if that will really fit into a news bit. I couldn’t tell you. It’s this elusive thing. Guillermo and I shared a language together immediately. I was, like, fully creatively ready to play something like that.”

Asked why he picked Isaac and Elordi for the roles, del Toro replied, “Eyes. I cast the eyes.”

I asked, “What do you see in their eyes?”

“Oscar had brilliance, madness, seduction and pain. And Jacob was completely open. He had an innocence and an openness and a purity in his eyes that was completely disarming.”

And did the filmmaker want his monster to be beautiful? “Oh yeah. 100%, it has to look like something newly minted,” he said. “Not like a repair job in an ICU.”

“But, there’s also a handsomeness, a sexiness to Jacob as the creature,” I said.

“Well, I was raised Catholic, and a lot of those crucifixions in Mexico have the loin cloth a little too low!”

“Were you thinking about that?”

“No,” del Toro said, “but my grandma certainly was!”

Del Toro’s “Frankenstein” is rich with Catholic imagery, and inspired by all the monsters he grew up with – fuelling his lifelong cinematic mission.

I asked, “Do you feel any connection to the Frankensteins of the past?”

“To the myth,” he replied. “I mean, my first crush was Mary Shelley. I truly can tell you this, you are born to sing one or two songs in your lifetime. This is my song.”

“So, what do you do now? “

“Oh, I don’t know,” del Toro replied. “Macrame? Pottery?”

To watch a trailer for “Frankenstein” click on the video player below.

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Extended interview – Guillermo del Toro (Video)

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Story produced by Mikaela Bufano. Editor: Carol Ross. 

     
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