TO Who would come to mind to call a sex symbol like Jacob Elordi to impersonate the monstrous creature? It took an original head like that of Guillermo del Toro to want it as the protagonist of Frankensteinin competition at the Venice exhibitionin cinemas from 22 October and on Netflix from 7 November. “I choose the actors based on the eyes,” explains the Mexican director, who followed the same criterion with Oscar Isaac (in the role of Baron Victor Frankestein), My goth (in those of Elisabeth) And Christoph Waltz in those of Harlander, trafficker and “patron”, character who It does not appear in the written novel – in 1817 – from a nineteen year older Mary Shelley.
Alabaster statue
Jacob Elordi in Venice for “Frankenstein” (Getty Images).
“I wanted the creature you have a beauty, almost a alabaster statue, without seeing the suture points” he continued the director, who with another story of “monsters with a gentle soul” (The shape of the water – The Shape of Water) had won the golden lion (In addition to four Oscars) Here in Venice in 2017. And he, the beautiful Jacob? How did you feel? «I poured all my unconscious in him, every moment lived in my life. It’s more than me, “he said. Enigmatic, but effective.
Frankenstein, praise of imperfection
Fortunately, the “sympathy quota” provides for the authentically nice of the bull, with the help of Oscar Isaac, who He also told how annoyed Elordi he heard him, who is of Guatemalteca origin, and Guillermo speak in Spanish on the set: He feared they were criticizing him. In fact, a little disadvantaged compared to the others, who were already turning (“a psychedelic, hypnotic journey, how to be part of a sect” according to Isaac) when he reached them from the processing of another film in Australia.
“We are de-humanize”
Jacob Elordi in the role of Frankenstein’s creature (Ken World/Netflix © 2025).
Del Toro had dreamed of making this film since he was a child (“I have always been the monster, but I have also been Victor, Elizabeth; through this book I understood what a son means being a son, what it means to be a father”) but – he assures – he waited to turn it around today that he is sixty years old: he wanted the best for the figures of each department of the troupe.
The cut he designed for history, unfortunately, is certainly not a topical weight, on the contrary: “What does human be human? What makes us human? At this time we ask us more than ever, every day we de-humise each other further. I would like to underline the right to imperfection and therefore the need for understanding and forgiveness. We have to make peace with yourself and with what the next one was able to inflict you, always remain open to dialogue. And instead of listening to emotions we listen to the information. It is not the artificial intelligence that scares me, it is natural stupidity. Today’s monsters? I’m in a jacket and tie ».
Ten hours of makeup for Jacob Elordi
Oscar Isaac, Guillermo del Toro and Jacob Elordi in Venice for “Frankenstein” (Getty Images).
Elordi’s relationship with Frankenstein is also ancient: he still remembers when he went to Blockbuster to rent the VHS of the films of the past on the creature. Even undergoing each recovery to ten-hour-tenths of makeup was not effort, assures the twenty-eight year old Australian actor, already protagonist of Priscilla And SALTBURN. «It was a privilege in reality: that time allowed me to cancel myself and become the character. I submitted with joy “
Love story
Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein (Ken World/Netflix © 2025).
“Frankenstein It is a love story because love is the engine of the world and the salvation of the human being “concluded Del Toro“While the media want to focus our attention on terror and we are therefore surrounded by the sense of fear. Jean-Paul Sartre said that hell is in the other, I say that salvation is in the other ».