Jacob Elordi’s Mother Told Him Never to Work With Guillermo del Toro

Although Jacob Elordi is reportedly planning on taking his mother Melissa to the Oscars next month, where he is up for best supporting actor, the “Frankenstein” star has revealed his award-nominating turn in Guillermo del Toro’s epic adaptation may not have happened if he had listened to his mom. Because it turns out she tried to dissuade him from ever working with del Toro long before Elordi had even become a professional actor after she clocked the creepy-looking DVD cover for “Pan’s Labyrinth.”

Telling the anecdote, Elordi recalled how as a 10-year-old he would “raid the horror aisle” at DVD rental chain Blockbuster, which is where he first saw a copy of “Pan’s Labryinth,” del Toro’s 2006 feature. “And I saw the tree and the little girl, and I turned it around, the DVD case, and I saw the Pale Man. And I remember thinking, what is that?’”

Although the film was rated “M” for “mature” under the Australian film classification system, Elordi’s mother reluctantly said she would allow him to rent the movie on one condition: “You must never work with this man.” The actor, who was speaking at a BFI IMAX showing of the film alongside del Toro in London, recounted the episode with a laugh, adding: “And lo and behold.”

Del Toro interjected: “It’s good to disobey one’s mother.”

Elordi’s casting was thanks to a twist of fate after the original actor del Toro had in mind for the role pulled out just nine weeks before shooting started. Other than having only four weeks to prepare, Elordi said he was “so excited and so sure when I read the screenplay for the first time, that I had no fear… there’s no other filmmaker on this planet that could make a truly great ‘Frankenstein’ film.”

The film has been in the works for over three decades, dating back to when del Toro first read a copy of Mary Shelley’s iconic tome as an 11-year-old. At the BFI IMAX, del Toro spoke of…