How did you come to work on Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, and what excited you most about the project?
Mike Hill, Prosthetic Designer and Jordan Samuel: Guillermo and producer Miles Dale invited me to breakfast and told me their next project was Frankenstein. And very flatteringly, they said if I didn’t do the movie, they wouldn’t do it without me. I could hardly contain my excitement. Jordan Samuel, Department Head: Guillermo and I first started working together on Pacific Rim, and he spoke with me about Frankenstein then. We’re both huge fans of the book and the genre, so to finally see it come to fruition has been a dream come true.
Guillermo del Toro is renowned for his profound affection for classic monster cinema. How did that influence your design approach?
MH: Guillermo and I share a near-obsessive admiration for classic monster films, especially the 1931 Frankenstein with Boris Karloff. But despite that, we never intended to be influenced by past versions. Guillermo’s script called for something different. JS: My visual references and inspiration came mostly from period portraiture and research, along with constant conversations with Guillermo and close collaboration with our brilliant costume designer, Kate Hawley.
Can you walk us through the process of developing the Creature’s look?
MH: It started with Guillermo telling me mainly what he didn’t want. Beyond that, he trusted me to develop a look. I couldn’t rely on past versions. This creature had to feel new but still rooted in history — something that looked as if it stepped out of the late 1700s. Victor Frankenstein isn’t trying to make a monster; he’s trying to make something beautiful, and he fails. That failure had to show. The Creature is a patchwork of crude surgery — incision lines, patches, and desperate corrections. Tragic, not evil.
Were there specific textures or design details you emphasized to make this Creature distinct?
MH: I wanted the viewer to understand, if they saw him for first time, he didn’t look like a man who had been stitched up from some terrible accident. I wanted them to realize someone did this to him, purposefully. That’s why I used geometric shapes that don’t really belong in modern surgery or in real life to a degree. The surface needed to feel like aged wax— delicate, imperfect, not ugly but not pretty either. He’s a first attempt.
What was the daily application and removal process like for Jacob Elordi?
MH: The head alone took about 3.5 hours. For the full head and body, it was up to 8 hours with 42 appliances, applied by a five-person team. Jacob was the ideal canvas — patient, collaborative, and committed to the character. He really wanted the character to work and understood the time we needed. He made my job a lot smoother and I’m very grateful to him.
Removal took about 90 minutes for the full body. We had a por table steam room in the trailer which really helped with the removal. Because of a late casting change, there was also no time to test the makeup in advance. It had to work on the spot. That was the scariest part.
Within a horror framework, Guillermo del Toro’s films often include beauty and vulnerability. How did you reflect that in the makeup overall?
JS: The overall designs were framed around the looks of the period, but as they developed in concept, prep and testing, I tended to veer off when it best served the story. When working with Guillermo, and in collaboration with hair, costumes, and all the facets of production design, it’s important not to be rigid in that approach. At the end of the day, we’re all helping Guillermo in illustrating a complex, richly beautiful story.
What does this project mean to you personally?
MH: Being given the opportunity to create the Frankenstein Creature for Guillermo del Toro was a dream come true. Literally. Even during the arduous hours, I reminded myself: this is what you have fantasized about since childhood; enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime moment. You are creating a Frankenstein creature in a movie made by arguably the best person on the planet to write and direct it.
JS: Helping Guillermo bring this vision to the screen has been one of the most exciting highlights of my career. This film has been a passion project for everyone involved, I feel very grateful.
Words Shannon Levy
Photos Courtesy of Netflix
