Guillermo Del Toro

	I do have the original Hellboy coat – but I have the good taste to never wear it!

Director of new fear-fest The Orphange, Guillermo del Toro is the master of the bizarre, the fantastical and the plain unnnerving. We talk to him about the nature of fear and just how he makes his movies so unsettlingly brilliant. If anything in his new flick can freak us out half as much as the hand-eye-weirdo in Pan’s Labyrinth, then we’re in for a real treat. Or should that be ordeal…

In three sentences describe The Orphanage for our readers?

It’s a ghost story of sorts – a woman coming to terms with a very long-standing guilt. It’s survivor guilt really, you leave a place and everyone you knew died except you. She has to come to terms with the loss of her son, but she does it in an almost beautiful, magical way…

Sounds very “del Toro”…

Towards the end of the film you can see how important perception is in forming the way we view the world and how essentially faith and belief can permeate the way we see the world. 

What’s the best way of scaring/unsettling your audience?

Its empathy mixed with something truly bizarre. The two things that are most scary are: things that shouldn’t be that are; and things that should be but aren’t. Both are equally unsettling. But both also rely on empathy of the audience. 

You mean we have to relate to them…

The audience has to have empathy with the character on-screen. You want them to ask: “What if?” And, you’re right, the “what if” only works if they are putting themselves in the place of the character on the screen. Whether they have a flat tyre and are knocking on the door of a castle or are young filmmakers lost in the woods (Blair Witch Project), the same applies. I remember one of the maxims that Tolkien (JRR, Lord of the Rings) once said was: “Make everything familiar enough that it’s recognisable, yet extravagant enough that it is engaging.” 

Who is the scariest film character of all time? Jason, Freddie, the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang…

That’s really difficult to answer! Jack Clayton’s The Innocents is very scary because of its implications and its anecdotes. It’s a ghost story. The odd shadow and glimpse of a person are scary because they are simple and effortless. 

Have you ever drawn eyes on your hands and pretended you were the bandie-legged monster from Pan’s Labyrinth?

No, I have managed to keep slightly saner than that so far! 

Do you keep all the costumes from your film and do you dress up in them afterwards?

No, unfortunately none of my actors are my size…

Would you never have them remade in your size?

I do have the original Hellboy coat – but I have the good taste to never wear it! 

It’s probably best not to…

No, not in my neighbourhood! 

What do you think of all these teen horror films starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and the rest of the blonde American brigade?

Well it’s a tradition that goes back. It’s nothing new. The innocent nubile young girl that goes through horrific trauma is as old as the genre itself – the very root of graphic romance. Sarah Michelle Gellar is one more in a long line of tortured blondes. 

What’s the most gruesome way to die in a movie?

As long as it’s very specific it doesn’t matter. Being run over by a train or bus is pretty broad. I remember the decapitation of David Warner in the Omen how specific it was. That’s what makes it memorable. In the Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth and in The Orphanage deaths that are so specific that you can immediately relate. It’s like putting a paper cut on screen. Everybody knows how it feels. 

Who would win a fight between Hellboy and Blade?

Oh boy, the dual of the trench coat! I am partial to Hellboy. His technique is more flawed…but he can take it and wait until Blade is close enough to use the right hand of doom. 

Do you have an ultimate leading lady?

Its really a project-by-project thing, but Selma Blair, she is very good. 

Is The Hobbit actually going to happen going to happen? And are you going to be in the director’s chair?

Yes that will happen. The ink is dry and we are moving ahead. I am at work.

You have to move to New Zealand for four years so you are looking forward to it?

Yes if I didn’t, I would be making a huge mistake! 

How will it be to follow Peter Jackson?

If I thought it was a matter of following, I wouldn’t be doing it this way. It’s a matter of raising on it, I think The Hobbit has a peculiar spirit in relation to not only the trilogy but also to Tolkien’s work. It’ll have respect for what’s been done but also individuality.