‘Frankenstein’ has been on the bucket list of master horror and fantasy filmmaker Guillermo del Toro for as long as he has been making movies. Mary Shelley’s classic 1818 novel of an arrogant scientist who creates a living being out of dead tissue – only to reject him and turn him against humankind – has been filmed many times, but Del Toro’s new masterpiece (coming to Netflix this Friday after a limited theatrical run) may be the definitive version of the story for the 21st century.
QxzVykwNDsq2keHKXNG5A5Oscar Isaac stars as Victor Frankenstein, Mia Goth plays the ethereal Elizabeth, and Jacob Elordi gives a stunning, moving, and unrecognizable performance as the Creature in Del Toro’s lavish, macabre retelling. All three plus the director and crew members were on hand for a press conference to discuss the film, with Moviefone there as well to get their thoughts on bringing Frankenstein and his creation back to life once again in this epic, tragic film.
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1) ‘Frankenstein’ Has Been Part of Guillermo del Toro’s Life Since He Was a Child.
Guillermo del Toro has wanted to film his version of ‘Frankenstein’ for decades, but his relationship with the story – both on the page and the screen – goes back even further.
Guillermo del Toro: The book was age 11. I discovered the film, or had been exposed to Boris Karloff and James Whale‘s [1931] masterpiece when I was seven. It had a profound religious effect on me. I was raised Catholic, but there I found my true religion. I understood in Karloff what a martyr and a messiah meant. I said, “That’s me.” And then I read the book at 11. I realized the movie was not the book at all, and that there was a lot to tackle in the book: The humanity of the creature. The inhumanity of the world. I mean, the Romantics believed the enemy was life, really. And I think the sentiment echoed in me. And I thought, back then, I’ll make this movie about my dad and I, and then as I became a father, I said my dad and I, and me and my kid. Eventually, it was about forgiveness and acceptance.
2) Jacob Elordi Developed His Movement as the Creature From a Surprising Source
As he began to imagine how to move and walk like the Creature – which is essentially a toddler that develops into a superhuman being – Jacob Elordi was inspired by a form of dancing.
Jacob Elordi: I had a lot of ideas about what it means to be constructed of parts when I first read the script. What it means to have a calf from somebody else, a part of your brain from here, a part of your face from someone else, and how the communication would work from your brain to the muscles. But something that was really instrumental was that Guillermo had a great idea to study butoh, which is this Japanese dance of death that’s sort of about the reanimation of a corpse. It wasn’t so specific, but it was a helpful way to get inside my body. Then I just spent an agonizing amount of time in front of the mirror, which was just, like, my regular day [laughs]. I [also] read a baby development book, and I watched the children around me in my life, which was also bizarre – standing outside at a primary school [laugh]. I watched my dog a lot as well. My dog has this kind of great innocence in the way that she moves and the way she looks at things.
3) Oscar Isaac Didn’t See Victor Frankenstein as a Villain
Although people think of the ‘Monster’ when they think of ‘Frankenstein,’ the real villain of the novel – and many adaptations – is actually his creator. But Oscar Isaac says he had a different view of Victor, especially after Del Toro let him read the first 30 and last 30 pages of the script.
Oscar Isaac: I never judged him. I don’t think the movie judges him either. It’s just the blindness of what he’s reacting to. I think when we sat in that hotel room in New York and [Guillermo] showed me those 60 pages, the first 30 and the last 30, when I read those last 30, there were tears streaming down my face — his recognition of him as his son and releasing him from this curse that was just destined to keep going and going and going, I found incredibly, incredibly moving. Plus the fact that there was grace in it, even for someone that had been so cruel to him. He had his reasons. He gave his reasons. But the truth is that the cruelty that he showed to his creation, his son, was unmatched, and he just didn’t see it at all. And the fact that this [creature], who you could also see as his own inner child that he brought back to life, has to chase him down and break down the doors to say, “I forgive you,” was just so moving.
4) Mia Goth and Guillermo del Toro Both Saw Themselves in Elizabeth
In the novel (and many previous screen versions), Elizabeth is Victor’s dutiful, loyal love interest. In this version, she is not only not engaged to him, but she sees what is wrong in what he’s doing and she is also the only one who recognizes that the Creature has a soul. Mia Goth says she connected not just with Elizabeth, but all the characters.
Mia Goth: Guillermo sent me the script maybe a couple of months after our initial meeting. I read it, and I was incredibly moved by it. I did recognize myself in Elizabeth, and maybe for the first time, I actually saw a little bit of myself in all of the characters. I had never had that kind of connection to a script prior to reading ‘Frankenstein.’ I think this sense of feeling like an outsider and this longing to connect and this searching for a home is what really resonated with me. Because the writing was so beautiful and so much of the work was already done, it makes the job of acting easier. You try and find the character within you, and you hope that it’ll resonate with people.
Guillermo del Toro added how Mia Goth inspired his take on Elizabeth and who the character was.
Guillermo del Toro: Elizabeth became an amalgam of me and Mary Shelley. The first time Mia and I met, I had written a long treatment just defining [Elizabeth’s] actions, but not her role. Mia had just had her baby, and she was talking about the baby with great love and passion and dedication, and I thought, ‘That’s freaking Elizabeth. That is really, I think, the most intelligent character in the movie. She understands more than anybody else.’ Some people may know more about this or more about that, but they don’t understand it. And it is a very strong energy she brings in, understanding the ‘other.’ Which is what the movie really is about — the ‘other’ is you. The ‘other’ is you. Every time you debase the ‘other,’ you debase you.
5) The Design of The Creature Was A Collaboration
Guillermo del Toro says that he, makeup effects creator Mike Hill, and Jacob Elordi all worked together on the film’s vision of what the Creature looked like.
Guillermo del Toro: [Mike and I] became friends and collaborators on ‘The Shape of Water.’ He created the creature. He designed it. 99 percent of makeup effects guys can make a monster. Only one percent can make a character. And when you meet somebody with that talent, then it’s a triangulation. It’s Jacob and myself and him. And what you do with it is try to avoid the usual appearance — like an accident victim, or an ICU character that came out all patched. We designed the body almost in the way you would design an industrial or beautiful sculpture. Like an alabaster sculpture of a saint flayed out of the skin. The idea was, this is not a repaired creature. This is a minted new soul. When you see it, it’s almost like a giant pale baby…I wanted that journey from a newly minted soul to a thinking human at the end to be a journey without saying, ‘Oh, it’s a bunch of parts put together.’
What is the plot of ‘Frankenstein’?
A brilliant but egotistical scientist (Oscar Isaac) brings a creature (Jacob Elordi) to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.
Who is in the cast of ‘Frankenstein’?
- Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein
- Jacob Elordi as the Creature
- Mia Goth as Elizabeth Lavenza/Claire Frankenstein
- Felix Kammerer as William Frankenstein
- Lars Mikkelsen as Captain Anderson
- Christoph Waltz as Heinrich Harlander
- Charles Dance as Leopold Frankenstein
- David Bradley as Blind Man
- Christian Convery as young Victor
- Ralph Ineson as Professor Krempe
List of Movies Similar to ‘Frankenstein’:
- ‘The Bride of Frankenstein‘ (1935)
- ‘Son of Frankenstein‘ (1939)
- ‘Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein‘ (1948)
- ‘Young Frankenstein‘ (1974)
- ‘The Bride‘ (1985)
- ‘Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein‘ (1994)
- ‘The Devil’s Backbone‘ (2001)
- ‘Hellboy‘ (2004)
- ‘Pan’s Labyrinth‘ (2007)
- ‘Frankenweenie‘ (2012)
- ‘I, Frankenstein‘ (2014)
- ‘Victor Frankenstein‘ (2015)
- ‘Crimson Peak‘ (2015)
- ‘The Shape of Water‘ (2017)
- ‘Nightmare Alley‘ (2021)
- ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio‘ (2022)
- ‘Frankenstein‘ (2025)
