Frankenstein with Guillermo del Toro and Bradley Cooper (Ep. 574)

The Director’s Cut - A DGA Podcast

Directors Guild of America

Tv & Film

4.6 • 806 Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Director Guillermo del Toro discusses his new film, Frankenstein, with fellow Director Bradley Cooper in a Q&A at the DGA theater in New York. In the conversation, he discusses the consideration he took in the multiple perspective structure of the story, the research and detail behind crafting intricate props and capturing authentic settings, and what he looked for in an Actor when casting the role of The Creature. Based on the classic novel by Mary Shelley, the film tells the tragic story of the brilliant but egotistical Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who brings a monstrous creature to life. When the experiment spirals out of his control, events transpire that lead to the undoing of both the creator and his creation. See photos and a summary of this event below: https://www.dga.org/events/2025/december2025/frankenstein-1025

Transcript

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0:00.0	Mary is really brutal with the creature.
0:02.0	If you read the novel, the creature really is demonic at times,
0:07.0	and still you love them.
0:09.0	And the thing is, what I wanted to do is about today.
0:13.0	Why do we have to value people as the best and the worst?
0:17.0	When the oxygen is not in the black or the white, it's in the gray.
0:44.3	Hello, and welcome back to the director. Hello, and welcome back to the director's cut, brought to you by the Directors Guild of America.
0:52.3	In this episode, a daring science experiment leads to disaster, and director Guillermo del Toro's Gothic horror, Frankenstein. Based on the classic novel by Mary Shelley, the film tells the tragic story of the brilliant
0:58.9	but egotistical Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who brings a monstrous creature to life.
1:04.6	When the experiment spirals out of his control, events transpire that lead to the undoing
1:09.5	of both the creator and his creation.
1:11.6	In addition to Frankenstein, D'Oltoro's other directorial credits include the feature films Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak, Nightmare Alley, Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio, and the pilot for the series The Strain.
1:29.8	He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for his 2017 feature,
1:35.3	The Shape of Water.
1:38.6	Following a screening of the film at the DGA Theater in New York, Del Toro spoke with
1:43.2	director Bradley Cooper
1:44.3	about filming Frankenstein.
1:47.0	Listen on for their spoiler-filled conversation.
1:59.4	Okay.
2:03.6	You know, the thing that I always like, desperate to feel when watching another movie by someone
2:11.6	that we love as a filmmaker is that you feel like it's personal, right?
2:15.6	That you feel like no matter what the story is, you can't
	...

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