Guillermo del Toro discusses his career at the Tribeca Film Festival

Academy-Award winning director, Guillermo del Toro finally made his debut appearance at the Tribeca Film Festival recently, which according to festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal’s brief onstage introduction, was five years in the making.Del Toro, who won an Oscar for Best Director for his film, The Shape of Water, engaged in a lively conversation with Alec Baldwin at the festival and talked about his career, his overall approach to filmmaking, the studio system and what inspired The Shape of Water. He also discussed why he only does “bonkers” movies and the importance of exceeding a film’s budget. “As a kid I wanted to be a marine biologist that lived by the sea, studying the creatures of the sea, and [writing] horror stories,” Guillermo del Toro shared. “When I found directing, I said, ‘That tops it’.”When asked whether he would remake a monster movie, given he has long been steeped in horror and creature features dating back to the silent era, Guillermo del Toro revealed that it’s not going to happen. “I had an idea to do Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, but I don’t think it’s going to happen,” he shared, adding that he had pitched an early version of Shape of Water to Universal with a more direct tie to the studio’s Creature from the Black Lagoon but it didn’t go anywhere.“The movies I do, most of the time I do them because the premise is so absolutely bonkers,” he explained. “Everything I’ve done, even the most commercially viable ones, they have some weirdness in them. When you’re on a set and you’ve absorbed 100 years of cinema … you have to stop and say, ‘OK, that’s what would normally happen in that movie. What can I do that is different?’ And you stop yourself. You have to stop yourself. And the older you get, the more you want to go different.”Del Toro also mentioned another important aspect of his process: pushing the boundaries in the studio system. “As a director, it is your duty to irresponsibly always exceed the scope and exceed the budget,” he said. “If you have enough time and enough money, you’re ****ing up.”He added: “I may be fat here,” pointing to his stomach, “but not here,” indicating his head. “Up here, it’s like a six-pack.”Del Toro further went on to share his love of monsters and said, “I think monsters, we need right now in a way. [The] media tells us to be perfect in so many ways — the traditional ones: you have to have perfect hair, perfect teeth. ‘Never let them see you sweat’. No, no, no, no. Let me sweat. Let me have crooked teeth. Let me have imperfect hair. I don’t give a [toss]. I want to be a good human being.”He continued, “No one can live in those standards. Whereas in standards of imperfection, everybody can win. And I find these monsters so moving, because they embody that for me. They embody the ‘other’ in a way that nothing else does.”– With information from Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter. 

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