Elordi and Del Toro flee from The Creature’s torture method

Jacob Elordi undergoes a major transformation to embody The Creature in Guillermo del Toro’s film Frankenstein, a project that has been the filmmaker’s dream for decades. At the film’s premiere in Los Angeles, Elordi explained that his approach to the character was not based on suffering, but on creative freedom.

The actor, known for Saltburn, told The Hollywood Reporter that while the prosthetics required a lot of focus to become The Creature, the work environment was key. “Guillermo created such a free set, I hate when people say this, but he really created a safe space, so it was creatively very liberating to be on that set,” Elordi said. He added that his method wasn’t like this idea that everyone has of being Method, that you get tortured and suffer and everyone else suffers so you can get a performance. It was a little different than that.

Oscar Isaac, who plays Victor Frankenstein, his fictional creator, echoed the director’s vision, noting that the set felt much more like a team… it was us really coming together and being there for each other.

Del Toro’s dream come true and the power of forgiveness

For Guillermo del Toro, completing the adaptation of Frankenstein has been a moment of postpartum depression and celebration at the same time. The director expressed the joy of having achieved, with a great team, a very operatic, beautiful, epic intimate story about parents and children… And the power of forgiveness and acceptance is not an easy task.

Del Toro also explained why it was vital to tell the story from the perspectives of both Victor and The Creature, an element that splits the film in half. That’s what we’re not doing on anything right now. “We are showing one perspective or another, and the complexity comes from the idea that the other exists, and the other is you,” he said. The filmmaker believes that if the audience can identify that it is not you and me but us, it is an urgent story to tell.

Frankenstein, which also stars Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer and Christoph Waltz, arrives in select theaters on October 17 and begins streaming on Netflix on November 7.