Mia Goth on Starring in ‘Frankenstein’: ‘I’ve Never Been So Scared Stepping Into a Movie’

It has taken over 50 years for Guillermo del Toro’s most personal project to make it to the big screen — since “The Shape of Water” filmmaker was just seven years old and first fell in love with Mary Shelley’s seminal, monstrous creation. But at its Hollywood premiere, del Toro seemed assured that his “Frankenstein” was invading theaters (and soon, Netflix) and just the right time.

“To me, [the message] is to reconnect emotionally to the idea of the power of forgiveness and acceptance — which is absolutely … a very scarce material right now,” he explained to Variety, adding that a new, “handmaid” version crafted by humans and “acted in human terms” was essential in 2025. “It’s not a blockbuster — a preconceived notion. It’s not a franchise. It’s something that it speaks very directly and autobiographically, unfortunately to me and many in the past.”

The idea of a misunderstood monster has recurred throughout del Toro’s work, not only in the Oscar-winning “Shape of Water,” but in his most recent directorial efforts “Pinocchio” and “Nightmare Alley.”

“It’s all about respect and love the other,” composer Alexandre Desplat explained. “In Greek, you say ‘xenophilia,’ which means ‘love the stranger.’ Because when you love the stranger, the stranger loves you. It makes a big difference.”

“I think it demands hope,” said Jacob Elordi, who plays the famed monster. “I think this film demands that we’re hopeful, and it demands that we are emotional and that we see the beauty.”

Elordi said that both “Frankenstein” and Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” — which he’ll appear as Heathcliff in Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of next year — were novels he was reluctant to read as a teenager, but was excited to rediscover at this moment in time.

“I’ve [grown up] and I’m in my later-20s now, so they mean something else — the experience of … the characters. It’s kind of ideal,” he said.

Mia Goth, who portrays Elizabeth Lavenza said she was nervous to work with the esteemed del Toro.

“I’ve never been so scared stepping into a movie. I really haven’t,” Goth said. “It was a lot for me, and I was always in my head. I kept thinking to myself, ‘Guillermo del Toro is making ‘Frankenstein,’ the movie you’ve always wanted him to make, and I get to be a part of that.’ And I was so scared that I was going to be the one bad thing in it, and I would ruin it.”

Goth said she eventually meditated her way out of self-doubt. “I decided to feel that moment when you open your eyes, you have that calm and just a little bit more wisdom. That’s where Elizabeth was.”

Dr. Frankenstein himself, Oscar Isaac, explained that del Toro instilled confidence in his performers.

“He very quickly said this: ‘You cannot fail. I made this bespoke for you.’ He approached it the same way that Mary approached writing ‘Frankenstein,’ which is making it a completely personal expression of what their experience has been, and it’s what he asked us to do as well,” Isaac said. “So as long as we were doing that in an honest, passionate way, there was no failing and there was no obligation.”

Felix Kammerer, who plays Dr. Frankenstein’s brother, was approached by del Toro during the 2023 Oscars, when “All Quiet on the Western Front” — in which Kammerer starred — took home the award for Best International Feature Film.

“I went to the bathroom, and he approached me, and he just pulled me aside, ‘When are we going to work together, kid?’ And then I told him my agency and how to reach out, and I thought, ‘He’s never going to call,’” Kammerer recalled. “Two weeks later, my agent calls, and she says, ‘So Guillermo del Toro wants to talk to you.’”

It was del Toro’s perfect ensemble for the story he’s always dreamed of telling — despite the fact that for decades, producer Scott Stuber said, it seemed “Frankenstein” was del Toro’s “white whale.”

“This was the right time. We tried a couple times earlier, but [del Toro’s] like, ‘This was the right time for me to understand the themes and mythology and what I want to tell of the story,” Stuber related.

“Frankenstein” arrives in select theaters Oct. 17 and will stream on Netflix Nov. 7.