Acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro has revealed a surprising and deeply personal inspiration behind a crucial scene in his long-awaited film adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The Mexican filmmaker, 61, says the surreal experience of winning an Oscar directly shaped how he shot the moment the creature enters a house.
From the Oscars Stage to a Gothic Palace
In a new interview with Bradley Cooper for Variety, del Toro explained the connection. The director won the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture in 2018 for his romantic fantasy, The Shape of Water. He described the disorienting, dreamlike feeling of walking from his seat onto the stage to accept the honour.
"That happened to me at the Academy Awards," del Toro said. "When I got the Oscar for Shape of Water, people asked, 'How does it feel?' I said, 'Well, you're in your seat and then you climb up to the stage and turn around and go, 'What is this?'' All of a sudden, you're in your dream moment."
He directly applied this sensation to Frankenstein's monster, played by Jacob Elordi. "The moment where he crosses from his hiding place into the house, the camera crosses with him through the set," del Toro detailed. "All of a sudden, he's in a completely different environment... The monster needed to feel like that. He enters the house, and it needs to feel like a palace."
A Decades-Long Passion Project Realised
Del Toro spent decades attempting to adapt Shelley's 1818 Gothic novel for the screen. His vision was finally realised when Netflix released the film, starring Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi, in November 2025.
The film has been met with significant critical acclaim. Just last weekend, it earned four Critics Choice Awards, including a Best Supporting Actor trophy for Jacob Elordi. The Independent's critic Clarisse Loughrey named it the best film of 2025.
In her review, Loughrey wrote that del Toro channels the spirit of Shelley and the Romantic poets, embracing "radical compassion and imagination." She stated, "Guillermo del Toro, our father of monsters, is one of the closest figures we have today to Shelley... Frankenstein is his passion project, his life's ambition. He's described Shelley's novel as essentially 'his Bible'. And with his adaptation, he doesn't speak for Shelley, but more directly communes with her."
A Legacy of Monsters and Meaning
This revelation underscores the deeply personal and thematic layers del Toro weaves into his work. By drawing from a pinnacle moment of his own professional recognition—the Oscar win—he found a profound way to visualise the monster's transition from outsider to a being confronting a new, awe-inspiring world.
The director's unique ability to blend the personal with the Gothic and the fantastical continues to resonate, proving that even the glitz of Hollywood's biggest night can fuel the creation of a timeless, monstrous parable about belonging and perception.
