Terry Gross

Guillermo del Toro, welcome to Fresh Air.

Congratulations on your new film, which brings together so much of your other work.

And I know it's a dream come true for you to do your own version of Frankenstein.

You first saw the movie, the 1931 movie, which is totally different from the book and your new movie.

But that movie really had a hold on you.

Tell us why it had such meaning for you.

There's three parts of the movie.

There's the introduction.

Yes.

Then there's the story told pretty much from Dr. Frankenstein's point of view.

Mm-hmm.

And then the final part is told from the creature's point of view.

Yes.

I really wanted to read Mary Shelley's novel, which I've never read before speaking to you again.

Mm-hmm.

And I wasn't able to find the time to do it.

Yes.

I did, however, read your introduction to, like, I think it's a 2021 annotated version of your novel.

Mm-hmm.

But anyways, in Mary Shelley's original telling of the story, is there a chapter that's from the creature's point of view or is that just something you wanted to do?