Jacob Elordi wasn’t feeling so euphoric pre-“Frankenstein.”
While filming Prime Video’s World War II miniseries, “The Narrow Road to the Deep North,” he lost a significant amount of weight.
The project, however, helped Elordi prepare for the role of the Creature in Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein.”
“My brain was kind of all over the place,” the “Euphoria” star, 28, recalled to the Los Angeles Times. “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.”
That mental and physical exhaustion worked in his favor before taking on the horror sci-fi movie.
“I just realized that it was a blessing with ‘Frankenstein’ coming up, because I could articulate these feelings, this suffering,” he explained.
Elordi said that the role came at just the right time in his life, as he was currently wrestling with his purpose as an actor and “the unbearable weight of being.”
“At that time in my life, I really wanted to hide,” he shared. “I really wanted to go away for a while. I was desperate to find some kind of normalcy and rebuild the way that I acted and how I approached making movies.”
Elordi recalled the film coming along and thinking, “‘Ugh, I really wanted to go away right now.’ And I realized immediately the Creature was where I was supposed to go away to. I was supposed to go into that mask of freedom.”
The transformation into the Creature included a grueling makeup process.
However, the “Kissing Booth” alum felt “liberated in this makeup.”
“I didn’t have to be this version of myself anymore,” Elordi noted. “In those six months, I completely rebuilt myself. And I came out of this film with a whole new skin.”
The cast also includes Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and Goth as Frankenstein’s love interest, as well as Christopher Waltz, Felix Kammerer, Lauren Collins, Lars Mikkelsen, Charles Dance and Ralph Ineson.
In August, Elordi broke down in tears when “Frankenstein” received a standing ovation that lasted between 13 and 14 minutes at the Venice Film Festival.
The star sported a traditional black suit and matching bowtie, and was seen putting his hand on his chest as he looked at the audience and smiled, before wiping away tears, as seen in footage from the premiere.
That same month, Elordi opened up about the 10 hours a day he spent transforming into his monster character.
“There’s so many different layers to the costume,” he told Variety. “When he’s born, he’s wearing nearly nothing. His chest is open and his head is high. Then, as he starts to experience pain, as we do as a teenager, he starts to hunch his shoulders. And as an adult, he closes off.”
Elordi was initially nervous to meet del Toro, 61, on Zoom for the first time.
“I have this thing which I’m trying to shake, but every time I have to talk to a director I’m up all night,” Elordi elaborated. “You set your iPhone up and you’re like, ‘You have to chill.’ But then you think, ‘Should I just be in a white T-shirt or should I be more dressed up? It’s Guillermo del Toro, so I need to look like I’m educated, but also excited. Should I be in a fedora or have a crucifix?’”
