TORONTO — The ride has already begun for Guillermo del Toro and “The Shape of Water.” A return to the prestige horror that del Toro broke through with “Pan’s Labyrinth,” ‘Shape’ earned at raves at the Venice Film Festival before earning the adoration of the Academy members at the Telluride Film Festival a few days later. The Mexican-born filmmaker was relaxing in Los Angeles before heading to Toronto when he learned he needed to return to Venice for a jury honor. That prize turned out to be the Golden Lion, one of the most prestigious film festival honors in the world. From Venice del Toro headed to TIFF where the movie is a contender for the People’s Choice Award that will be handed out this weekend. Needless to say, that’s something of a whirlwind even if you’ve lived the life del Toro has.
Sitting in a Toronto hotel suite del Toro is trying not to show any fatigue he’s been part of so far, but after a string of interviews a Diet Coke is a needed pick-me-up (for context del Toro would stop in the street and give public Q&A’s about ‘Shape’ in Telluride beyond the official ones after the film). Our conversation about ‘Shape,’ which stars Sally Hawkins (Best Actress contender), Octavia Spencer (going for another Supporting Actress nomination), Richard Jenkins (superb as always) and Michael Shannon (that legacy is more and more impressive), was filled with unexpected revelations. Granted you should be warned there are a few minor (and we mean minor) spoilers here and there, but if you still have any skepticism that ‘Shape’ is nothing more than a pretty fantasy flick this interview may open your mind a bit.
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Gregory Ellwood: Congratulations on winning the Golden Lion.
Guillermo del Toro: Thank you.
What was your reaction when they asked you to fly back to Venice for the ceremony?
I have almost no time to react because I was having breakfast in L.A. I got the news and they said you’re going to be in the airplane now. I arrive and I was in the boat towards the palace and I had 40 minutes, to take a shower, change and get in a suit. The reaction was I took four Tylenols when I boarded the plane and I went to sleep, you know? [Laughs.] I feel incredibly blessed, grateful, humbled and relieved that the movie’s having this first few steps in life.
I know your initial inspiration for the movie was the monster from the “Blue Lagoon,” but the story itself, to have Sally Hawkins character be mute. Where did some of those inspirations come from over the years?
It’s a process of thought. I started developing the movie in 2011, 2012. It shot last year. It takes five to six years. I knew she needed to be speechless because love renders you speechless and love is beyond words and all that. I wanted to make it about looking at the other in the way that is loving. Look that, that’s why she says, “He looks when he looks at me. He doesn’t know I’m incomplete and he’s happy to see me every time every day.” It’s about being seen and seeing. That’s the realisms of love. I’m not talking about romantic love. When your father sees you as a man it is one of the most important moments in everyone’s life. When your loved one sees you as desirable, brave, noble. The moment that is superior is when your loved one sees you as weak, as intemperate, as flawed and they still love you. That is the essence of love. I said, “I’m going to do it about that and not about beautiful romantic speeches.” Then I said, “When she really tells him how she feels she’s going to sing.” It’s not like musicals. You keep going. I knew I was going to set it in 1962 because that’s the year where the fantasy of America being great, making it great again, people dream of that period which was, Kennedy was in the White House, jet fin cars, super fast kitchens, petticoats, hairspray, convenience, the future, the space race. In reality, that’s the year when that possibility dies with Kennedy, he’s massacred by the Vietnam War and disillusionment and all that. It never was. If it was for a brief moment in suburbia, so be it. If you were urban, if you were anything but white Anglo Saxon, Protestant and heterosexual, it was a very different existence. I wanted to show 1962 is now.
At Telluride I remember, your friend Alejandro Iñárritu was moderating a Q and A with you and you recalled a funny story about how you were really drunk at a party and you went up to Sally Hawkins to pitch her the movie. Can you just talk about that for a moment? What was her reaction?
Oh no. Alejandro and Alfonso [Cuaron] – I weigh more than 300 pounds and I really, really really don’t like alcohol. When I drink it I drink either really fine tequila or a Bailey’s. I need enormous amounts of alcohol to even get a buzz because of my body mass. So Alfonso and Alejandro we went to a party of the Golden Globes and Alfonso and Alejandro said, “Tonight, we all get drunk.” So I said, “I’m going to start.” I went and I had ten shots of tequila in a row. Quick. I got really drunk and I said, “Okay, I’m ready.” They say, “You know what, we’re not going to get drunk tonight.” [Laughs.] I was wandering through the party and I see Sally who was drunk in half a cup of wine. I said, “Did they tell you I’m writing you a movie?” She says, “Yeah, my agent called. What is it about?” I said, “It’s about a woman that falls in love with a fish man.”* She said, “That sounds beautiful.”
*Imagine Guillermo telling this anecdote as though he was extremely wasted.
When did she actually get a script?
She got it about six months later. She loved it. She got a document earlier than that and she said, “This may be a coincidence but I’m writing a story about a woman that turns into a fish and dreams of water.” I said, “Can you send me that story?” She sent me the story. I used a couple of ideas, the idea of the gills on the side of the neck. The idea of her eating salt. I said I’m going to use salt in the water.
Where did the idea of Richard Jenkins storyline come from? Especially the idea of an older gay man trying to come to terms with possibly not finding love…
Or work.
Or work, right.
He’s completely outmoded.
Was that something you’d see in the lives of your friends? Was that something that was shared with you?
Originally I wrote it for Ian McKellen. Ian is a guy that I find endearing and adorable and I think it was sort of based on a director I admired that he played, James Whale [in Bill Condon’s “Gods and Monsters”]. The guy that directed [the original] “Frankenstein.” He was a guy that was all the rage when he was young and then he sort of voluntarily semi-retired. It was that, it was a composite of people I met in the past. I grew up in the 70s and 80s and there was a huge Mexican independent film movement. I produced movies when one of the movies I produced was the first Mexican gay comedy in the history of film.
Oh really?
It was called “Dona Herlinda and Her Son.” It was directed by a really brave, really smart gay filmmaker, called Jaime Humberto Hermosillo who was my screenplay teacher. I think [Richard’s character] was a composite of people I’ve met or people that I thought embodied the angst of that era. In the ’60s. A guy was so afraid of even being found out. It was like a tacit agreement of prosecution back then.