The film is out now in select theaters and will hit Netflix on November 7.
In a conversation with Guillermo del Toro and Oscar Isaac, dropped online by Netflix to promote the long-awaited collaboration between the cinema faves, the duo talked about how their Latin culture informed their take on Frankenstein.
Guillermo del Toro revealed he and Isaac were on the same page from day one: “I think that one of the things we connected over that dinner was our Latinness. Because obviously the shadow of the father looms differently in the Latin family, I believe.”
Isaac supplied, “[The] patriarchal thing, it’s so strong.”
The director nodded at his actor’s assessment of the way patriarchy comes into play in his film in a different tone due to their upbringing: “[And] the melodrama, and the drama of being blind to those flaws, you know, it’s very Mexican.” The filmmaker shared that he showed Isaac 1949’s La Oveja Negra (The Black Sheep) by Mexican filmmaker Ismael Rodríguez, which stars Pedro Infante, the iconic figurehead of machismo masculinity of a bygone old cinematic era—think Clark Gable en español.
Isaac shared how he sprinkled some of the star’s on-screen presence as he made his Victor’s masculine energy inspired by the Infante’s sweeping movements when he played key scenes, “We used that one moment when Jacob [Elordi] comes back to ask for a bride,” and described how the creator responded to his creature’s request, “and I just kind of walked by him and pushed him away. That was a little nod.”
From a filmmaking standpoint, del Toro elaborated on his intentionality: “Those moments for me are things that you determine only from a Latin culture.
