Stars Jacob Elordi and Oscar Isaac, director Guillermo del Toro and other members of the creative team brought star power and excitement to the Monday evening U.K. premiere of Netflix’s Frankenstein at the 69th edition of the BFI London Film Festival (LFF).
Elordi treated excited fans to selfies and autographs until the very last second, and del Toro spent much time doing the same to the delight of his fans. Also walking the red carpet at the Royal Festival Hall at London’s Southbank Center were fellow Frankenstein stars Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, Christoph Waltz, Charles Dance, David Bradley, and Lars Mikkelsen, as well as composer Alexandre Desplat, costume designer Kate Hawley, production designer Tamara Deverell, and creature designer Mike Hill, among others.
Goth shared with THR on the red carpet that it was del Toro’s idea to let her play a surprise second role – Victor Frankenstein’s mother, in addition to the part of his love Elizabeth Lavenza. “I was so honored,” Goth said. “Because just to be a part of his movie and in one role is so flattering. But to be asked to be in two was very special.”
Kammerer also expressed his excitement. “It was an amazing experience, especially because I’ve always had working with Oscar [Isaac] on my bucket list as I absolutely value him as an actor,” he told THR on the London red carpet. “And now I can call him a colleague. And Jacob, who’s so humble, Mia, and, of course, Christoph. With Christoph especially we found we had a connection as the two Austrians on set spending many nights at dinner together. That was certainly one of the highlights.”
How is working with del Toro? “He’s very precise,” Kammerer emphasized? “And he’s very, very funny, and he’s very open about his process. So if he doesn’t like something, he will let you know and everyone on set, but in a good way. But also, if he likes something, he will scream and shout: ‘I like that.’ It’s a lot of fun.”
Creature guru Hill said he tried to focus on the film at hand rather than past representations of The Creature. “What you have to do is try and ignore all the past versions,” he told THR. “I just came up with what we thought this creature could look like. And the main point I tried to get was to make him look like he’d come from the 1800s, not a modern-day creature, a modern-day special effect. I wanted it to look like he was built then. And I think the design reflects that, the medical procedures at the time, the naivety at the time.”
Desplat explained his job on Frankenstein this way: “There’s so much beauty on the screen: the design, costumes, the cast. It’s so amazing for a composer to be able to add music to that beauty. Number two is how do you create empathy for the audience and the creature? How do you make this creature human, more human, by using the finest, most difficult and fragile instrument – the violin.”
What does that do in terms of emotions and atmosphere? “Having this pure sound of the violin, the audience feels the fragility of the creature,” he told THR.
Desplat also summarized the essence of the story and the film. “It’s a love story,” he said. “It’s a romantic love story, epic, but romantic, because every character in the film is in search for love.”
Frankenstein hits select theaters on Oct. 17 and starts streaming on Netflix on Nov. 7.
