You can call Guillermo a monster fucker all you want, but in the end he’s being more brave than a lot of writers. He’s throwing an idea he’s had since a child into the public despite what everyone thinks.
To me this is really inspiring, and honestly he’s allowing ideas that were unhindered by the teachings of adulthood that were too much as a child, and he’s bringing them into his current day. He’s been saying that this is the movie that he likes the most, that this movie is the most personal to him. He claims that he’s had this movie in mind since he was six years old.
You can’t tell me you didn’t have an idea when you were young, and dream of making it a reality, only to be told that it couldn’t be because it was over your head for the time or that it was unrealistic. To me, his vigor is inspiring and his drive? Even moreso.
In this interview, he talks more about what inspired him for this movie (The Shape of Water) and why he’s writing in the first place, but one part that stuck out to me was him saying that in some of his previous movies he was representing his childhood, but this one represents adulthood; some of his more recent struggles such as his immigration and the discrepancies in treatment towards him versus the white man.
When he mentions the America that people think of when they say “Make America great again.” He points out that they likely mean that America, the one where the white man strives but the minority had oppression and the gay man had the AIDs Crisis. If you weren’t white or straight, America wasn’t great. And he believes that despite this movie being in 1960, it’s still accurate today and I agree.
To him, the creature represents the minority and Elisa stands for the ability to love for reasons beyond reason. He’s making a dark story that contains romance but none of the pandering that a typical romance holds. It’s blaringly realistic despite the sci-fi themes.
Guillermo Del Toro is a brave poet who’s bringing a new method for a timeless message, and I’m not only inspired, but as a writer, I’m praising him.
Japanese child actress Mana Ashida (little Mako) was embarrassed that she couldn’t pronounce Guillermo Del Toro’s name so he gave her special permission to call him “Totoro-san” instead.
