Director sought happy ending for Black Lagoon’s creature
Guillermo del Toro’s latest film, “The Shape of Water,” is a boy-meets-girl tale, of sorts.
The girl, Elisa (Sally Hawkins), is shy, lonely and mute, and the guy (Doug Jones) is an amphibious being, like the creature from the Black Lagoon. Elisa toils as a cleaning lady at a topsecret, Cold-War-era facility in Baltimore where a government agent, Strickland (Michael Shannon), tortures the seemingly supernaturally powerful “Asset,” or “Amphibian Man,” hoping to squeeze out of him something that will give America an edge over the Russians, who are plotting to steal him.
“I like to say that I’ve allegedly wanted to make this movie since I was 6 years old because I dreamt about a happy ending for the creature of the Black Lagoon when I was watching that movie,” the Mexican director said, speaking by telephone from his Los Angeles office. “As a kid, without much thought about the creature and the woman physically, I was hoping they would end up together.”
Del Toro — whose previous credits include “Hellboy” (2004), “Pacific Rim” (2013) and “Crimson Peak” (2015) — described “The Shape of Water” as a movie “that loves love and loves cinema.” Thus it’s lush, fantastical and romantic, with a gorgeous Alexandre Desplat score and some classic songs, not to mention such standard del Toro flourishes as startling bursts of violence and blood.
In addition to Oscar-caliber performances by Jones and Hawkins, del Toro has elicited winsome supporting turns from Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins. Spencer plays Elisa’s co-worker and loyal friend, Zelda, while Jenkins co-stars as Zelda’s neighbor, Giles, a closeted advertising artist struggling to stay relevant.
Everyone and everything on the screen in “The Shape of Water,” del Toro argued, serves to shine the spotlight on Elisa and the Asset. Their relationship builds slowly, without dialogue, blossoming from intrigue to love over the course of the film.
“In my view, they recognize each other, even though they come from entirely, impossibly different backgrounds,” said del Toro, 53. “They recognize an essence. There is an immediate empathy, and there is an immediate connection.”
“One of the reasons I made Sally’s character not a verbal character,” he said, “was that I wanted everything to be in the eyes, in the way that they look at each other. They immediately connect like that.”
Del Toro praised his leading lady, for whom he wrote the character, and his leading man. Hawkins is the acclaimed, Oscar-nominated British actress; Jones, who currently stars on “Star Trek: Discovery,” is a frequent del Toro collaborator.
“Sally’s eyes are incredibly powerful, and she’s a beautiful and luminous woman, but not in a perfume-commercial-model way,” del Toro said. “She’s incredibly otherworldly, beautiful, and yet you can find her on a bus.
“Doug understood that I wasn’t hiring him just to play a creature,” the filmmaker said. “He understood that he was a leading man. There’s a misinterpretation about Doug. He’s not a makeupeffects guy, a special-effects performer. He’s an actor.”
Moviegoers who immerse themselves in “The Shape of Water” might be shocked to learn that the film cost only $19.5 million to produce. To put it in perspective, del Toro’s “Pacific Rim” cost a reported $190 million.
However, Del Toro said that the $19.5 million he spent on “The Shape of Water” was enough to realize his vision for the project.
“It was enough because I started planning it two years before shooting,” Del Toro said. “So, to give you a few examples, some of the key props of the movie I bought myself on eBay. I went shopping in antique stores. I started planning a way to maximize the money.”
Del Toro recently announced his intention to step away from his director’s chair for a full year. He’ll use the time to promote “The Shape of Water” worldwide, work on the third season of the animated Netflix series “Trollhunters,” relax with his family and watch old movies. When he steps back behind a camera, it may be for a remake of a favorite film of his, “Fantastic Voyage” (1966), or it could be for something else.
Either way, del Toro will approach whatever he does next refreshed and ready to kick off what he refers to as the next phase of his career.
“I mean it when I say that I tried to renew myself with ‘The Shape of Water,’” he said. “‘Shape’ is a very personal movie, in the sense that it’s an affirmation of everything I’ve done and points in a new direction.
“I hope it is in many, many ways the first movie of a new stage in my life.”