(Credits: Netflix)

Before you know it, Oscar-winner Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein would be knocking at your Netflix doorstep with Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi slipping into the iconic roles of Dr Victor Frankenstein and the Creature.

Ahead of the highly anticipated Netflix release, the Wuthering Heights actor recently opened up about his transformation and preparation for what he calls “the biggest film” of his career yet. As it turns out, Elordi was never really threatened by the monumental challenge which came with Frankenstein’s materialisation on screen.

In a conversation with Tudum, he said, “I wasn’t afraid, because I knew that Guillermo knew. I knew I didn’t have to tell him or show him.” The upcoming Frankenstein is beyond a simple retelling of Mary Shelley’s seminal 1818 novel. It pushed Elordi to study and navigate the evolution of the Creature from being coerced into existence by Victor Frankenstein to maturing into an individual who must assess his own creator.

Speaking of the experience, Elordi continued, “I’ll remember this forever. It completely reignited my passion for movies… I have a whole different energy towards making films now.” Del Toro chimed in, saying, “The way Jacob plays him like a baby in the beginning is just wonderful, and then the way he moves like a man is so moving, and it’s all Jacob.” But although the Priscilla actor didn’t feel intimidated by the opportunity, he had to remain calm through hours of prosthetic application.

He shed light on collaborating with del Toro, extolling, “When Guillermo del Toro asks you to make a movie, there’s no decision-making process. It’s just, ‘Yes’.” Despite that, Elordi couldn’t have walked onto the set without prior preparation. According to the actor, he had just about four weeks to warm up for production. The first step was to leave the material world psychologically and emotionally behind him. Then comes the change of perception, evolution of regularity, and finally, a leap into the process of metamorphosis.

Elordi also had to find the Creature’s voice to be able to imitate it, and the dentures he wore helped him. “I would go into my room and start doing these throat chants in the mirror. Then I put the teeth in, and the Creature just started speaking,” he explained. But the voice that comes out of the monster isn’t just sourced from one. It’s a mix of many as he learns the lingua franca from the blind man.

Once Elordi had these ducks in a row, it all came to his performance on the set, which was indeed a lot to tackle. There’s a dissolution of the real self when the transformation happens; the face, the structure, everything is altered. When he finally put on the costume with all the leather and furs, strutting down the set of an icy castle, it became what he describes as an “alive experience.”

Elordi also touched upon the themes from Frankenstein that drew him throughout the filming process, which examines the “archetypal father-son relationship” from every aspect, psychologically, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Right at the centre of the thematic crux is “forgiveness,” which again is a crucial part of the Creature’s evolution in life. If not for forgiveness, the Creature couldn’t be human.

“He can be a person, but the way he discovers that is not through violence or revenge,” Elordi explains. The Creature’s transformation takes place through the observance and understanding of a fellow human, which eventually allows him to make peace with his father’s flaws. In Frankenstein, viewers meet three generations of men. “You meet Victor’s father and see Victor acknowledge the terror that his father was. But then Victor becomes that terror. The Creature becomes the terror, too, but is able to take the trauma and turn it into something else,” he adds.

While it’s not easy to retain the self in the contradictions of multiple perceptions, Elordi has managed to shine through clearly. As for the rest, don’t forget to catch up with Frankenstein on Netflix on November 7th.