Main cast: Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Oscar Isaac, and Christoph Waltz
Casting by: Robin D. Cook
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Written by: Guillermo del Toro
Distributed by: Netflix
As we prepare for the 32nd Actor Awards presented by SAG-AFTRA, Backstage is breaking down this year’s film and television ensemble nominees for your consideration.
Acting’s not all that different from mad science; both involve creating a life from scratch. In Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel “Frankenstein,” the cast deftly portrays the connection between these realms by infusing a spark of being (to paraphrase Shelley) into their roles.
Anchoring the film’s ensemble, Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi form two chambers of a beating, bloody heart. Isaac leans hard into the megalomania of Victor Frankenstein—operatic, charismatic, and driven to a fault. As the Creature, Elordi keenly lets his towering stature and patchwork makeup contribute to the sense of strangeness while centering deeply human curiosity in his transformative performance.
Their distinct parts work even better when sewn together. Throughout the film, the actors find ways to reflect each other: Elordi plays the Creature as a little boy seeking the love his creator once sought as a child, and Isaac’s Victor lashes out with resentful brutality that matches the ugly circumstances of his ward’s “birth.”
Mia Goth gives a study in duality as enchantingly peculiar Elizabeth Lavenza, deploying cold curiosity when interacting with Victor, her fiancé’s (Felix Kammerer) brother, and filling the screen with warmth and generosity in scenes with the Creature. (Goth even pulls double duty by briefly appearing as Victor’s otherworldly mother Claire in early scenes.)
The entire cast takes to del Toro’s darkly fantastical sensibility, perhaps Christoph Waltz most of all. Playing Heinrich Harlander, Victor’s benefactor with secret motivations, Waltz brings grand drama—and that mood-setting Viennese accent—to the movie.
“Frankenstein” may be an old story, but its ensemble helped del Toro give it new spark.