One of the most remarkable personal stories recently told by Jacob Elordi that helps one understand how much he considered giving up on one of the most defining projects of his career. The Australian actor has also stated that his mother had once told him to never work with a film maker called Guillermo del Toro, and this was not based on professional opinion but instead fear. Years after, that warning lived in the back of his head when he thought of taking part in the ambitious adaptation of Frankenstein by del Toro. And eventually, Elordi decided to be curious rather than careful, which has been repaid in critical praise and awards in large measures.
In an interview at a public gathering held at the BFI IMAX in London, Jacob Elordi, described the warning as having been given during his early age. It is not personal acquaintance to del Toro or his work and the disturbing images in the work that made his mother react. When Elordi was a child, he came across the DVD cover of Pan’s Labyrinth, the 2006 dark fantasy movie by del Toro that incorporates the elements of fairy tale with the cruel realities of war. The image of silence and horror came to his mind when he was looking at the cover art and did not suspect that this brief experience would become a part of his professional experience in the future.
And I caught a glimpse of the tree and the little girl and I turned them around, the DVD case, and I saw the Pale Man. And I recall having thought, what that, Elordi said, explaining the gut impression of the image. One of the most disturbing works of the film, The Pale Man, has always been viewed as a manifestation of del Toro being ready to face the darkness even in the stories about children or fantasy. To the mother of Elordi, the image was so frightening, that it needed a stern warning.
Despite Pan labyrinth having an M rating according to the Australian classification system, which suggests that it is a mature movie, Elordi had still been allowed to watch the movie under certain conditions. The message by his mother was memorable and obvious. She added that you must never work with this man, Elordi. The warning was issued half jokingly, half in earnest, but it made a lasting mark on him as an emotional memory accompanied by fear, imagination, and parental protective feeling.
The childhood experience came back to him years later when Elordi was being interviewed to play a role in the Frankenstein by Guillermo del Toro. By that time, Elordi was already recognized as a leader of the contemporary cinema and TV, especially by working on Euphoria. It was an exciting and daunting prospect to work with del Toro. The rank of Del Toro as a vision director is coupled with the rank of director who has a tendency of going into troubling, emotionally charged content, usually with the help of monsters who portray human problems on in depth levels.
Elordi confessed that he could have refused the offer altogether had he paid close attention to what his mother was telling him. But having read the screenplay, his thinking changed completely. The script was an intelligent and deeply emotional adaptation of the classic novel of Mary Shelley, which focused on the weaknesses, isolation, and ethical accountability, instead of mere horror. Elordi was attracted by the richness of the content and the sincerity with which del Toro took the story.
Through the excitement, he felt when he first read the screenplay, so certain that he was not afraid, because it is impossible to find another filmmaker in this planet capable of producing a film that is really great, a film of Frankenstein. The confidence he outlines is not that of a young lad, but of a man of adult intellect, of artistic fit. Elordi knew that the entire lifelong interest of del Toro in monsters was based upon his empathy, rather than shock value, and that Frankenstein was a novel that would appeal only to that kind of sensibility.
Guillermo del Toro himself replied to the story given by Elordi in his typical fashion. After getting to know about the maternal warning, the director said, on the record, that it is good to be disobedient to the mother. This comment is made lightly, highlighting a more serious fact of creative risk. At the critical point, many artists have to weigh the voices of others, even those with good intentions, against their own instinct and belief.
The screen version did not come into existence without any alterations. Frankenstein was initially cast to feature the actor Andrew Garfield who has dropped out of the project because of scheduling issues. Elordi was introduced to the role at a very critical time with a new energy and bodily presence to the stereotype of the monstrous creature. His performance has since been complimented as being emotionally held back and vulnerable, which raises the character above the normal horror tropes.
Frankenstein was released in 2025 and became the first movie to be nominated nine times in the 98th Academy Awards, among them the Best Picture and the Best Adapted Screenplay. Elordi himself was nominated as the Best Supporting Actor, and this was a step that marked a great change in his professional life. To an actor who is frequently called upon to play youthful or romantic characters, it was a validation of his skill to go into very complicated challenging material.
It is strangely poetic that what originates as a childhood phobia due to a DVD cover would turn into a career achievement later. The story by Elordi emphasizes the importance of early impressions but it also describes how our instincts are formed by those impressions and how with the maturity we come back to these impressions with a new knowledge. Monsters in the hands of del Toro are hardly monsters, they are reflections of loneliness, need to be accepted, and the need to feel misunderstood. The fact that Elordi was not afraid to work with that vision is indicative of a larger aesthetic in his work decisions.
Simultaneously, the anecdote is relatable as it is very human. Some of those warnings given to people by parents or guardians follow them into adulthood, some of them were good, others were based on the fear of the unknown. The question of when to take those warnings seriously and when to safely put them aside is a cross which everyone must cross. The ruling by Elordi did not simply overrule the apprehension of his mother, but he simply repackaged it in terms of trust of his judgment.
