Guillermo del Toro’s take on the classic Frankenstein is already one of the best interpretations of what’s called the first science fiction novel. The movie has received an Oscar nomination this year for Best Picture, and Jacob Elordi has a Best Supporting Actor nod for his role as the creature. Del Toro clearly chose the right actor for that part, and he says he knew he had as soon as he saw the actor in the make up.
Jacob Elordi certainly looks the part in Frankenstein, available with a Netflix subscription. He’s a big guy at 6’ 5”, and the filming of the movie makes him look even bigger, but that’s not why he was right to play the Creature. In a recent Frankensein Q&A attended by SFX Magazine, Guillermo del Toro spoke about Elordi’s performance. Though he indicated it may not have been as much of a performance as we thought, as Elordi’s portrayal was quite “real” in the eyes of his director. Del Toro explained…
I think Jacob Elordi, as people understand it, is the fiction. He said to me on the first conversation [we had], ‘This creature is more me than me,’ meaning we judge Jacob Elordi for how he looks, and it’s exactly what he is not. I think he didn’t hide with the makeup, he revealed it. The makeup peeled away the ego and allowed him to be. I think he is that Creature. And that’s one of the reasons I said, ‘He is the guy.’ That’s how I feel.
If Elordi was the right one for the role that means quite a bit, considering he wasn't originally going to play the part. Elordi took over the role from Andrew Garfield after the Spider-Man star had scheduling conflicts.
Del Toro is certainly right that Jacob Elordi, like most professional actors, has something of a reputation. People judge him by the way he looks, whether or not that’s accurate to the person that he is. Elordi himself seemingly felt that the disconnect between the appearance and the reality of the Creature wasn’t that different from the way he felt about himself. The physical transformation into the “monster” gave him the ability to embody that.
Elordi also put a lot of work in to get his performance ready for the screen. Del Toro says the actor was working for weeks before filming began, and that he used the process of being in a makeup chair for 10 hours a day to mentally prepare. The filmmaker continued...
His sensibility, his patience, he meditated every day. And basically, he came in a few weeks before we started shooting. So he prepped on those 10 hours [of makeup work] every day. That was his prep.
The work certainly appears worth it, considering he now has an Oscar nomination under his belt for the performance. The Best Supporting Actor category is stacked with talent, so it won’t be easy to win, but it’s a safe bet that everybody will see Jacob Elordi a little differently now, no matter how it goes.
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