Guillermo del Toro Backstage Q&A | Golden Globes 2018 - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

del Toro won his first Globe for 'The Shape of Water.'

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00:00We talked before about all your intentions with the movie and everything,

00:03but how important is it for you that this movie is just showing

00:07that you're in connection with things that are happening right now?

00:10I mean, that's pretty...

00:12It could be very unusual for a movie that is so involved in fantasy to deal...

00:17You mentioned that you didn't know, of course,

00:19Trump was going to be the president when you were writing it.

00:23And then you didn't know that these things with Harvey Weinstein

00:26and all the other guys will happen.

00:27But then there's women here, there's, like, workers that are oppressed,

00:33so there's a lot of issues that are all, like, very current.

00:37They're there, yeah.

00:37So do you feel that can be a coincidence?

00:40It's probably something that...

00:41So you feel that you're part of the conversation right now?

00:43You're in contact with what is going on?

00:45How important is that for you?

00:47Well, I think that the important thing about fables and fairy tales

00:50is that they were created to address things that you cannot address as easily

00:55and embody as beautifully as you do with parable, you know, which is what we are.

01:01And I think the important thing tonight in many ways is that there was Jordan Peele

01:07and it was Shape of Water, Get Out in Shape of Water,

01:11standing in a legitimate, beautiful way next to drama, comedy, musical, action, war, everything.

01:20You know, we have a place in the cinematic conversation that has led to the creation

01:27of beautiful, powerful images, but also thematic weight.

01:32And I think that this was very prescient for me,

01:35as it is for anybody that lives as the other in a society.

01:40It was very pressing for me to talk about it, and I talked about it through this fable.

01:46Thank you. Gracias.

01:47Hello. Over here to your left.

01:51Congratulations on the win.

01:53Looking forward, do you feel like this will have any impact

01:56on the kind of stories you want to tell or the ways you want to tell them?

02:00Well, I've been very stubborn for many, many years,

02:04so I only do the stories I want to tell.

02:06I only do them the way I want to tell them.

02:10Sometimes you find a bigger audience,

02:13sometimes you find a more devout audience,

02:15sometimes you find a deep connection with fewer people,

02:19and blah, blah, blah.

02:20But, you know, I've been doing this for 25 years,

02:23and with the exception of 1997 Mimic,

02:26which was a very difficult production that was compromised.

02:30Other than that, the movies I've made are movies that I feel I need to make.

02:34And that is going to continue, even more strong now.

02:39What is beautiful is to do it now from an adult point of view, in a way,

02:44from a different point of view in my life or in career and storytelling.

02:48So this is a great blessing, and it's a pat on the back to continue.

02:52Mr. Del Toro, to your right, from The Greek Reporter, congratulations.

02:57And I would like to ask you, a few years ago,

03:00our president, being the president of the United States,

03:03would be considered fantasy.

03:05So I want to ask you a question,

03:06if you would be interested to make a movie with this character as your protagonist,

03:11would you like to make a movie about Trump at any point of your life?

03:14I think that you have to do movies about things that are close to you,

03:20that you understand, that you want to use as part of your storytelling kit

03:26or your own life.

03:28I mean, all my movies are strangely autobiographical,

03:32and they end up lining up with social concerns or not.

03:38I think that you cannot impose something like that as a model.

03:43It has to come from you.

03:45I think the movie is very pertinent to now, The Shape of Water.

03:50And it's not because I tried to make it so.

03:52It just happened to me.

03:56You know, I am interested in different type of monsters.

04:00Congratulations.

04:02This is a beautiful love story that you've won for,

04:05but you also tweeted very movingly the other day

04:08about the importance of telling stories

04:10so that young women will see that they don't always have to be part of a love.

04:13How do you balance those two things in your work?

04:18I think you approach each character with a different concern.

04:22When I write somebody like Mercedes in Pan's Labyrinth,

04:26I'm writing a very strong movement that is part of the resistance,

04:30the guerrilla, in post-war Spain.

04:33And then you do it, and you don't superimpose a pattern of a love story on top of that.

04:40You are sincere with your character.

04:43You provide the best possible tools for the character to articulate.

04:48When you do somebody like Michael Mori on Pacific Rim,

04:51when you do somebody like Jessica Chastain,

04:54when you do, you know, I love writing these characters,

04:57and each of them tells you what they need.

04:59And if they need a love story,

05:01by God, you write them a great love story.

05:04But even then, even when you write a love story,

05:07you can do it consciously,

05:09trying to not tell the wrong story.

05:10Because in most exceptions of Beauty and the Beast,

05:15it's almost like a Stockholm Syndrome moment

05:17in which Beauty is kidnapped by this figure

05:20and develops a relationship with.

05:24And then the Beast has to transform

05:26into the most boring prince to have the relationship.

05:31And Shape of Water upends both things.

05:35You know, the female character is the engine of change

05:38on every single thing that happens in the film.

05:41And the Beast remains the Beast.

05:43You know, because I don't think love is about transformation

05:48and changing the person, but understanding the person.

05:52You know?

05:53So even then, you don't have to do the usual love story.

05:57Julia Pierpont from Xinhua News of China.

06:00Yes.

06:01Could you really understand

06:04and have an extraordinary ability

06:06to look into the shadow side,

06:09into the darker side of human nature

06:11and fantasy and terror,

06:13but you also are a really joyful and loving person.

06:17So how do you find that balance?

06:19I'm Mexican.

06:21And, you know,

06:24no one loves life more than we do in a way

06:32because we are so conscious about death.

06:34So the preciousness of life

06:36standing side to side

06:38to the one place we're all going through.

06:40Let's say everybody in this planet

06:44boarded a train that was

06:45final destination, death.

06:48So the train, we're going to live.

06:51We're going to have beauty and love

06:53and freedom.

06:55And I think that when you

06:57eliminate one of the two sides from the equation,

07:00it's a pamphlet.

07:03When you take in account

07:04the dark to tell the light,

07:06it's reality.

07:10Oh, she had one.

07:12Okay.

07:14I have a photographical question.

07:18Yes.

07:18Okay.

07:19Now, there are so many movies,

07:21so many TV shows

07:22with imaginative characters,

07:26aliens, monsters.

07:28Yes.

07:30How do you sit and think,

07:32how do I do this differently?

07:34Because after a while, for me,

07:36so many aliens look the same

07:39in every movie.

07:40You know what I mean?

07:41How do you come up

07:42with a practical answer

07:45to creating something unique

07:47when so many people are doing it?

07:50What I think you need to do

07:51is you do not drink from the source

07:54that has been done.

07:57You have to...

08:01A visual vocabulary

08:02is the same as a spoken vocabulary.

08:05Mark Twain said,

08:06the difference between the right word

08:08and the almost right word

08:09is the difference between lighting

08:10and the lighting bug.

08:12And it's the same with visual design.

08:14If your culture encompasses

08:16fine paintings,

08:17sculpture, architecture,

08:19pop culture, yes,

08:21illustration, comics,

08:23you have a breadth of language

08:25in which you can articulate a design

08:27and not have it be

08:29something somebody already did.

08:30that's not what you want to do.

08:32It's not what you want to do.

08:34It's a little bit more

08:34in which you can understand

08:35you have to do

08:36the right word to play

08:36and understand

08:36the right word,

08:37and the right word,

08:38you have to do so much

08:42that you are done.

08:43It's not what you want to do.

08:44It's the same way

08:47you want to do so,

08:48it's not true.

08:49So people can see

08:50on the next one.

08:51So people can see

08:52this one of the same things

08:53you can see

08:54in that one.

08:54This one is the same thing

08:55that they can see

Guillermo del Toro Backstage Q&A | Golden Globes 2018

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