VARIETY Magazine: Jacob Elordi and Oscar Isaac on Guillermo del Toro’s FRANKENSTEIN

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In a new cover story for VARIETY, the stars of Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” Jacob Elordi and Oscar Isaac speak with Executive Editor Brent Lang and Co-Editor-in-Chief Ramin Setoodeh about Isaac channelling rockstars to get into character as Victor Frankenstein and the literal and figurative layers Elordi donned to portray Frankenstein’s enigmatic monster. The two also discuss the third season of “Euphoria,” their respective first meetings with del Toro, why audiences should see the film in theaters, and more. 

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Elordi on filming the highly-anticipated third season of “Euphoria”:

“…I will say it’s really nice to be back. It’s been eight years or something since I started. It’s just lovely to see all these people that you’ve grown up with. It’s the same crew, the same cast.”

Elordi is excited that creator Sam Levinson is using 65mm film to shoot the new season, a rarity given the prevalence of digital cameras.

“Visually, what I’m seeing is incredible,” he says. “It looks really good.”

The third season involves a time jump for Elordi’s character, Nate, but he’s not certain if the other characters are also jumping forward in time

“I don’t really know what anyone else is doing. It’s all quite separate.”

Isaac on channeling rockstars like David Bowie and Prince for his portrayal of Victor Frankenstein:

Isaac plays Victor as a bohemian mix of rock stars, starting with David Bowie; his hair is in a pompadour, and he wears a wide-brimmed hat and long velvet coat. Victor’s laboratory is the stadium stage that allows the inventor to peacock as he creates a new life-form.

“I saw him much more as an artist than as a scientist. I watched a video of Prince going to the [2007] Super Bowl in order to rehearse. And I just basically stole his walk when he’s going up to the stage with his hands behind the back.”

In keeping with the rock star theme, del Toro’s direction consisted of telling Isaac: “Give me more Mick Jagger.”

Elordi on embodying Frankenstein’s monster, from costume to character:

To get into character, Elordi spent up to 10 hours in the makeup chair before shooting.

“There’s so many different layers to the costume. When he’s born, he’s wearing nearly nothing. His chest is open and his head is high. Then, as he starts to experience pain, as we do as a teenager, he starts to hunch his shoulders. And as an adult, he closes off.”

Elordi on the taxing process of getting into character:

Playing Frankenstein’s creation was the most demanding role of Elordi’s career. To make his early call time, sometimes he’d arrive to the makeup trailer at 10 p.m., staying up all night as he underwent the arduous transformation into a hulking, alabaster thing whose body is a fusion of limbs and organs from different corpses.

“You throw time away when you make a film like this. I stopped having a clock, and I would just wait till the SUV arrived. That meant it was time to go. I didn’t do breakfast, lunch or dinner, or think in terms of morning, afternoon, night. It was just one time.”

To create the character’s gargling and otherworldly speaking voice, Elordi listened to Mongolian throat singing.

“It’s guttural smooth chanting.”

Isaac on why agreeing to play Victor was a no-brainer:

Isaac was always del Toro’s first choice for Victor, even before there was a screenplay. The two met over a long lunch as del Toro teased out details.

“When I talked to Guillermo, he was like, ‘I’m making a feast.’ And he really did.”

A year later, del Toro had Isaac come to a hotel room, where he presented the actor with 30 pages from the script, and Isaac performed every part out loud.

“I’m just reading all the voices,” Isaac recalls. By the time he got to the last page, “we were just crying,” Isaac says. “There’s just so much pain there.”

Elordi on his nerves leading up to his first meeting with del Toro:

Unlike Isaac, Elordi was a last-minute addition to the film. When Andrew Garfield dropped out of the project before shooting was set to begin in March 2024, citing scheduling conflicts, del Toro had nine weeks to find a new leading man. He set up a Zoom with Elordi, but the prospect of a meeting left Elordi, a huge fan of del Toro’s, overanalyzing everything.

“I have this thing which I’m trying to shake, but every time I have to talk to a director I’m up all night. You set your iPhone up and you’re like, ‘You have to chill.’ But then you think, ‘Should I just be in a white T-shirt or should I be more dressed up? It’s Guillermo del Toro, so I need to look like I’m educated, but also excited. Should I be in a fedora or have a crucifix?’”

But Elordi and del Toro were aligned in their interpretation of the creature, seeing him as an innocent figure captivated by the world around him until the people he meets torture, abuse and shun him, leaving him jaded and vengeful.

“I was like, ‘OK, I’ll talk to you soon,’” Elordi recalls. As he waited to hear back from the director, “it was the most excruciating nine days of my life.”

But Isaac knew Elordi had gotten the role. “Guillermo called me after,” Isaac recalls, “like, ‘I found him! The creature could be Jesus. But with Jacob, it’s Adam. He’s the first human, and it has that innocence.’”

Elordi and Isaac on wanting audiences to see “Frankenstein” in theaters:

Elordi: “It’s heartbreaking that films like these don’t have full cinematic releases. My great hope is that we get this film in cinemas for as long as possible. And then, hopefully, that can set a precedent for more films out there.”

Elordi lists one of his favorite moments from the film — the birth of the creature as the camera pulls back in a sweeping shot, and he imagines theatergoers responding to it.

Elordi: “I want a couple of teenagers kissing in the back to see that and have those memories. You may not have that experience if you’re just at home on your iPad.”

Isaac: “It is gonna go to the theater for a while. I think people will get to see it on the big screen as much as they can. It is such a marvel…It’d be nice to have a communal experience. So yeah, seeing it in a theater would be ideal.”

Isaac on how del Toro’s adaptation is the most Freudian interpretation of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” yet:

When not railing against religion and social conventions, Isaac’s Victor is constantly nursing a glass of milk.

“Guillermo would always be like, ‘He wants that lechita.’ When everything goes wrong, he just wants that mama’s milk.”

To drive the point home, Mia Goth plays both Victor’s mother and Elizabeth, the woman he falls in love with who happens to be betrothed to his brother.

Del Toro and Isaac on the ethos of “Frankenstein”:

Del Toro: “The usual discourse of Frankenstein has to do with science gone awry. But for me, it’s about the human spirit. It’s not a cautionary tale: It’s about forgiveness, understanding and the importance of listening to each other.”

Del Toro told Elordi and Isaac that he was as inspired by telenovelas and opera as he was by Gothic horror stories.

Isaac: “It’s through the prism of this intense Latin American point of view. It’s this decidedly European story told with a very un-European approach. There was one moment when I was looking at the monitors and seeing this castle in Edinburgh, and all this sumptuousness. And I was like, ‘Is it too much?’” Isaac playfully puts on a heavy Spanish accent to mimic his director. “And he’s like, ‘Cabrón, there’s a reason why my Victor is played by Óscar Isaac Hernández!’”

[Photo Credit: Platon for Variety – Video Credit: Variety/YouTube]

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