English_Interview Guillermo del Toro

"Fat, catholic and repressed"

With the gigantic "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" in his pocket, Guillermo del Toro is ready for his biggest challenge so far: the two-part "Lord Of The Rings" prequel called "The Hobbit". Read how EVOLVER met one of its favourite directors ever - for an exclusive interview.    13.10.2008

Guillermo del Toro ...

 

... on moral positions

Guillermo del Toro: The only guy who has any moral standards in the "Hellboy II" movie is the bad guy. The heroes have very little ideology. Hellboy is completely ideology-proof. All he wants is to be told how great he is. He is completely irresponsible - which I love. But then in the middle of the movie he gets in this "To be or not be"-moment with the "Elemental". Normally in the movies when the hero destroys the monster people applaud. I wanted this to be different in my movie.

 

... on his creatures

Guillermo del Toro: The design of the creatures is always transforming. It can be the "Cronos" device or the Reapers in "Blade 2" or the Pale Man: it´s a constantly evolving sensibility. In earlier days I designed monsters like in "National Geographic". Now I think that monsters should be more like art, like Hieronymus Bosch, like Dali, Magritte - they should have their own surreal power. So I end up designing them like sculptural things.

 

... on CGI and Animatronics

Guillermo del Toro: Before the first "Hellboy" I was talking with James Cameron. And I said: "I would like Hellboy to be 8 feet tall and an Animatronic creation." And James said something wonderfully revealing: "Animatronics? She will never fall in love with him ... The rest will work, of course. You can use Animatronics for a Gorilla, but not for Hellboy." So we needed an actor - the same with Abe Sapien. When you can solve it physically and you go to CGI, that´s lazy filmmaking. Of course CGI is a wonderful thing that is going to stay. The problem is when you´re using the tool for everything. It´s like with a hammer and a screwdriver: If you try to put a screw into the wall with a hammer, it´s stupid.

 

... on the need to make "The Hobbit" different to "Lord Of The Rings"

Guillermo del Toro: I don´t care if it´s different or not - I just make the movie. If I feel it´s right, it doesn´t matter if it´s similiar or not. You have to be respectful to Peter´s visual heritage, which I am. But in the process of creating a movie like "The Hobbit" there are many, many places and characters that were not touched by the trilogy.

 

... on his collaboration with Peter Jackson

Guillermo del Toro: It´s a lot of fun, I tell you that. I never had as much fun - it´s really like back in childhood, when everybody´s constantly coming up with new ideas.

 

... on switching between mainstream und arthouse cinema

Guillermo del Toro: If I wouldn´t have done "Hellboy", nobody would have done it. Maybe another incarnation of Hellboy, but not that particular one. I feel the same responsibility for "The Hobbit" that I feel for "Pan´s Labyrinth". For me it was important to gain more creative control in a bigger budget movie - so "Hellboy 2" is as much a personal movie as "Pan´s Labyrinth". I am big fan of Andrzej Zulawski - and I am one of Ray Harryhausen too. It´s hard for me to distinguish.

 

... on "Hellboy 3" and further projects after the "Hobbit" movies

Guillermo del Toro: It´s an economical decision for the studio. I have about 11 screenplays that I have written since 1991 and that until now that have not been shot. Some of them are among the best things I have ever written. Some of them will never be shot - or they probably will be shot next: I don´t know. Career is what happens while you´re making other plans. If I had a career plan, I would have done something different after "Cronos" - just not "Mimic".

 

... on similiarities with Hitchcock

Guillermo del Toro: I think we´re both fat, catholic and repressed.

 

... on his dreams

Guillermo del Toro: My dreams are incredibly pedestrian. Rarely do I dream anything of any interest.

 

... on his secret wishes

Guillermo del Toro: I always said it and it´s no joke: I would love to rob banks, I´d like to plan a bank robbery. And there are no critics there. The only review you get is: You get away with the money or you don´t. And you don´t hear things like: Well, the robbery was interesting, but towards the end he loses a little bit control etc. It´s a fantastic profession with a lot of planning and it goes against one of the things that I hate the most: banks - one of the most disgusting things ever created.

Christoph Prenner