Guillermo del Toro on Writing and Directing the Oscar-Nominated ‘Frankenstein’

For decades, the director Guillermo del Toro has built a career blending the grotesque and the beautiful in films like “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “The Shape of Water” and “Pinocchio.” Now he’s earned his latest Academy Award nomination for his adaptation of “Frankenstein,” Mary Shelley’s classic novel. On this week’s episode, he talks with the host Gilbert Cruz about discovering the book as a lonely child, how it shaped his worldview and why this screenplay is the one he’s proudest of. “I always felt the creature is me,” del Toro said of the first time he read the book. “I felt so alone at age 11, and so full of love to give and so full of rage to dispose of. It was a very complicated emotional scope for somebody that young.”

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Guillermo del Toro on Writing and Directing the Oscar-Nominated ‘Frankenstein’ is an episode from The Book Review by The New York Times.

This episode is 00:35:46 long.

This episode was published on Feb 20, 2026.

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