Guillermo del Toro is, in his own words, “a little tired.”
For good reason. Days before the Oscar ceremony, and before Academy Awards voting ended in early March, del Toro had spent nearly seven consecutive months promoting and campaigning for Frankenstein after its premiere at the Venice Film Festival in late August.
“I know what it is,” Del Toro says with a laugh about awards season. “We know how long it lasts. We’ve done it before.”
But somehow, del Toro found time in his busy schedule to film Patrón Tequila’s commercial directorial debut. “We had seven days off on the Frankenstein campaign,” del Toro recalls. “It was supposed to happen in those seven days.”
Del Toro first collaborated with Patron in 2017 to design a set of citrus-infused tequila bottles.
Del Toro himself directed the commercial, officially titled “The Perfect Pour,” which features a group of colorful skeletons in a bar. “I claimed to have shot it at Hacienda Patrón (in Jalisco, Mexico),” he says. “It’s one motion-controlled shot, so we scouted and measured it. We have two live-action actors, the bartender and me. We marked all the skeletons on the floor. We prepared it in a few days, shot it in two days, and it felt great to get out of there.”
Before we get into Patreon, I want to talk about Alka-Seltzer’s first commercial.
I didn’t direct that. I starred in it and did the makeup and effects. I directed and produced a few clay animation commercials in the ’80s, but as a live-action director I’ve never gotten beyond the stage of a meeting where a major disagreement was reached between the agency and the client. When we shot this, we liked the idea of starting with a straight commercial with beautiful product shots and then having skeletons pop up here and there. I thought this was the end of the meeting. Because when I come up with a crazy idea, that usually ends the meeting. But the fact that we had a pre-existing relationship, that the first bottle we designed for them was themed around an altar for the dead, felt like a natural evolution.
The skeleton is so cute.
The idea for me was to make the commercial playful and show that you can’t compromise, both as a product and as a director, that you have to stay true to your essence. Patron is Patron because it’s simple yet beautifully executed. We designed the skeleton. It took me several weeks to come up with the right colors and decorations. Ironically, when Mexico celebrates the Day of the Dead, there is a very grand celebration of life. So we wanted them to have some humor. The skeleton was designed by Guy Davis and Karla Castañeda. I wanted it to feel like papier mache.
Each skeleton has its own unique personality.
We talked beat by beat with the actors and said, “So, what’s your character?” There was a very interesting and serious meeting about skeletons. We did what’s called “American Idol.” There were 25 skeletons in different colors and designs, and we asked, “Which one do you like?” We went with the full method.
How long does it take from a patron saying, “Okay, I like the concept” to “this is the final cut?”
I think five months, four months, something like that, almost six months. I didn’t want to create a set, I wanted to create something about the hacienda. We have carefully redesigned the bar. We changed the color pattern and fabric, and even reupholstered the chairs with the logo.
If you can shoot something that quickly, you’re going to mess it up.
No, other than our patrons, we honestly don’t expect to do any more commercials. I’m not interested. I was interested in this because we have similar philosophies from the time we designed the bottle to the present, and our philosophy resonates very well with us. But for me, it’s about Jalisco, it’s about my identity, it’s about what represents my roots. Carbonated drinks and yogurt cannot be sold.
What about patrons?
Smooth and with 1 ice cube.
Only one?
One seems like a big one. It’s like a commercial. I like to pour large ice cubes over ice. But frankly, what I love are the ones with citrus and the Patrón with coffee. We designed the citrus fruit that was in the bottle. It came in a skull, which was a very small bottle. It’s very good tequila.
So how many cases of tequila do you have in your basement?
I have about 20 left. Everyone knows about them.
Watch “The Perfect Pour” below.
