Guillermo Del Toro Finally Makes His Own 'Frankenstein'
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This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. The great filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has written and directed a new reimagining of Frankenstein. It takes inspiration from the 1931 film Frankenstein, one of the first, best, and most enduring horror monster films, but mostly from Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, which many consider to be the first science fiction book. She was only 18 when she wrote it. In del Toro's movie, the final part of the story is told from the creature's point of view. Some of the themes of his new film echo themes that he's been obsessed with for years. Misunderstood creatures, men who behave like monsters, father-son relationships, religion, empathy, cruelty, misguided scientific experiments that take a terrible turn...
and what del Toro describes as the uneasy truce between science and religion, machine and man, and the realization that you are inescapably alone. His other movies include Pan's Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, which won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, Nightmare Alley, a reimagining of Pinocchio, filmed in stop-motion animation, and two Hellboy films. In Del Toro's Frankenstein, Oscar Isaac plays Dr. Victor Frankenstein, the surgeon who wants to create new life, a new man built out of body parts from the newly dead. The creature he creates is played by Jacob Elordi, who's best known for co-starring in Euphoria, and also played Elvis Presley in the Sofia Coppola movie Priscilla.
Del Toro grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico, and lives in L.A., 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.
Well, it was curiously enough on a Sunday after Catholic Mass, we came back home and then we would watch horror movies on Channel 6 all day. And it was the first time I saw Frankenstein. And the moment Boris Karloff crossed the threshold… I had an epiphany. I had a St. Paul on the road to Damascus kind of experience. I realized I understood my faith or my dogmas better through Frankenstein than through Sunday Mass. I saw the resurrection of the flesh, the Immaculate Conception, ecstasy, stigmata. Everything made sense, and I decided at age seven that the creature of Frankenstein was going to be my personal avatar and my personal messiah. It was a really profound transformation, and it made an impression that lasted my whole life.
Can you compare how you saw the story as a seven-year-old to how you see it now?
Well, I saw it as a son when I saw it first. And now I see it as a father. And more poignantly, I have become my father. whilst trying to run away from the same mistakes of absence or, you know, mysterious emotions that I couldn't figure out as a kid. And I had a really profound moment to be able to reconcile this knowledge with a beautiful talk with my own kids and stop this lineage of... Fathers are a big shadow, particularly in Latin American families, I imagine.
What's the pain you're referring to in talking about your relationship with your father?
My father was always a mystery, and he was really funny and warm, but by turns he was also aloof and distant and had a lot of problems. Even when he came back from the kidnapping, he was taken 72 days. And I said, I'm going to get to know him real well. And our conversations never lasted more than a few minutes. And he just couldn't. And I didn't understand that. And I realized that, particularly with my profession, I had a huge alibi to repeat this distance. And I unfortunately couldn't, I believe, on time to... to really change it and become a very dedicated father.
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