Euphoria Star Jacob Elordi Embraces Suffering to Embody Frankenstein's Creature

In the weeks leading up to the release of Guillermo del Toro's highly anticipated Frankenstein adaptation, the film's star, Jacob Elordi, has been opening up about the intense preparation he underwent to embody the iconic creature.

Elordi, best known for his role in the hit HBO series Euphoria, revealed that he was able to draw on the "suffering" he experienced while filming an earlier project, Prime Video's The Narrow Road to the Deep North, to help him get into the mindset of the Creature. The actor described the earlier shoot as "grueling," during which he lost a substantial amount of weight, leaving him in a state of physical and mental exhaustion.

"My brain was kind of all over the place," Elordi recalled. "I had these moments of great anguish at around 3 a.m. in the morning. I'd wake and my body was in such pain." However, the actor said he was able to channel this experience to inform his portrayal of the Creature, which he described as a "blessing" for the role.

Elordi admitted that he was initially reluctant to take on the Frankenstein project, as he had been struggling with his purpose as an actor and "the unbearable weight of being." But he soon realized that the Creature was the perfect escape, allowing him to "go away" and "rebuild" himself. In fact, Elordi felt "liberated" in the Creature's elaborate makeup, no longer having to be "this version" of himself.

The result of Elordi's transformative experience is a performance that has already earned critical acclaim. In his review, The Hollywood Reporter's chief film critic, David Rooney, praised del Toro's "sumptuous retelling of Frankenstein," describing it as "not so much straight-up horror as tragedy, romance and a philosophical reflection on what it means to be human." Rooney concluded that the film is "one of del Toro's finest, [an] epic-scale storytelling of uncommon beauty, feeling and artistry."