Frankenstein star Jacob Elordi reportedly plans to take his mother Melissa to the Oscars next month for Best Supporting Actor, but the Frankenstein star has revealed that if he had listened to his mother, his award-nominated role in Guillermo del Toro’s blockbuster adaptation might not have happened. Because it turns out that after Elordi shot the creepy DVD cover for Pan’s Labyrinth, long before he became a professional actor, she tried to dissuade him from working with del Toro.
With this anecdote, Elordi recalled when he was 10 years old and “storming the horror aisle” at the Blockbuster DVD rental chain. It was there that he first saw a copy of del Toro’s 2006 feature film Pan’s Labyrinth. “Then I saw a tree and a little girl, and I turned the DVD case over and saw a pale man. And I remember thinking, ‘What is that?’
The film was rated “M” for “adults” under Australia’s film classification system, but Elordi’s mother reluctantly agreed to let her rent it on the condition that she “never work with this man.” Speaking alongside del Toro at the BFI’s IMAX screening in London, the actor laughed as he recounted the episode, adding, “And lo and behold.”
Del Toro interjected, “It’s good not to disobey your mother.”
Elordi’s casting was thanks to a twist of fate, after original actor del Toro had the role in mind but was withdrawn just nine weeks before filming began. Aside from having only four weeks to prepare, Elordi said, “When I first read the script, I was so excited and so confident that I had no fear…There’s no other filmmaker on this planet who could make a truly great Frankenstein movie.”
The film has been in the works for more than 30 years, dating back to when del Toro first read Mary Shelley’s iconic book at the age of 11. BFI At IMAX, del Toro spoke about the book in religious terms, explaining: “I felt like this book should exist because the creature[in Frankenstein]is me. You know, I completely identify with that creature. And I’m the person Mary Shelley wanted to convey. I wanted to tell this story in Law, which is the origin of humanity, and the understanding of Paradise Lost…I was born and raised Catholic, but I became a Frankensteinian at the age of 11.
Although the film was made for Netflix, del Toro was similarly evangelical about seeing it on the big screen. “This is the best way to experience all the stories together and the best way to watch movies,” he said of the 85-by-65-foot screen behind it. “So it takes 35,000 iPhones to make that screen… But it’s also a communal aspect. The way I see it, movies, whether it’s ‘The Shape of Water,’ ‘Pan’s Labyrinth,’ or this (‘Frankenstein’) It brings beauty. When we connect with movies, we gain empathy, humanity, forgiveness, a spiritual inclination towards something, especially if we can experience it as a community, because we have never been more connected and alone.”
“I mean, we’re the loneliest people to ever walk this earth, and yet we can’t stop looking at this shit,” he says, pointing at his phone, before pointing at the screen behind him and adding, “Please watch that shit. Enjoy.”
