Guillermo del Toro Won’t “Impose” A Trump-Themed Monster Movie On Audiences

Known for his films about monsters and fantastical worlds, Guillermo del Toro walked away with the Golden Globe for Best Director for The Shape of Water. When asked if he would create a different kind of monster movie — one based on Donald Trump — he wasn’t too keen on the idea.

“You have to do movies about things that are close to you or things about your own life,” said del Toro backstage at the Globes. “All my movies are strangely biographical and end up lining up with social concerns or not.” He adds that you can’t “impose” a movie about Trump.

As he mentions, Del Toro’s movies, more often than not, have used fantasy to address social issues. With The Shape of Water, he spins the Beauty and the Beast tale on its head. Both characters are different: Sally Hawkins’ character is mute, while the monster (Doug Jones) is — well — a monster. Unlike the classic Beauty and the Beast story, del Toro says, “The female character is the engine of change, and the beast remains the beast.” He adds, “Love is not about transformation or changing the person.”

Del  Toro says that The Shape of Water is pertinent to now and thinks that the important thing about fables and fairy tales is that they were “created to address things like a parable.”

More than that the Mexican filmmaker says that living as “the other,” he was happy that movies like The Shape of Water and Get Out have a “cinematic place” and “thematic weight” to other dramas, comedies and war films.

“The movies I made are the movies I feel I need to make,” he adds. “That will continue — even stronger now.”