E-mail a friendGuillermo del Toro
airdate January 10, 2007
Guillermo del Toro started directing at age 8, using a Super-8 camera. After spending time as a special effects make-up artist and forming his own company, he exec-produced his first feature at age 21. Listed as one of Time's 50 Young Leaders for the New Millennium before he made his third film, Toro's credits include Blade II, Hellboy and Crone - his feature directorial debut, which put him on the American indie map. His new film, Pan's Labyrinth, earned a Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe nod.
Guillermo del Toro
Tavis: Guillermo del Toro is a talented filmmaker whose credits include 'Mimic' and 'Hellboy.' His latest movie, 'Pan's Labyrinth,' was recently named best film of the year by the National Society of Film Critics. The movie is also up for best foreign film at this Monday's Golden Globes. Here now, some scenes from 'Pan's Labyrinth.'
Tavis: I love that line. From the imagination of Guillermo del Toro. (Laugh) That guy's got a great job, doesn't he? That guy...
Guillermo del Toro: (unintelligible)
Tavis: He must make a ton of money. From the imagination of Guillermo del Toro.
del Toro: Can you imagine that guy in the drive through in a burger joint? I want four burgers, with fries.
Tavis: Yeah. (Laugh)
del Toro: Amazing.
Tavis: Nice to meet you.
del Toro: Same here.
Tavis: Glad to have you here. I go to that line in part because I'm curious as to what drives, what stirs up, what is this imagination of Guillermo del Toro, because this movie is quite imaginative.
del Toro: Yes. I believe it's all sugar rush. (Laugh)
Tavis: Yeah. (Laugh)
del Toro: I think it's all candy fed.
Tavis: A sugar rush. Yeah.
del Toro: No, I think it's always been like that, since I was a very young kid, and its monsters (unintelligible), and I love them. In any way, shape, or form, I don't care if it's Godzilla or a gremlin. Love them.
Tavis: But it's one thing to love them. I don't wanna (unintelligible). It's one thing to love them, but another thing to come up with these storylines. And people around the world are gonna be trying to figure this thing out. What did he mean by - they already are, of course. What does he mean by this, and what does this, what's he saying here. Is there something deeper here, or is it just your imagination run amok?
del Toro: No, I think I tried to configure some of the movies like a parable. Like there was 'Backbone,' 'Cronos,' this one. I tried to create, like, a fable or a parable about something. 'Cronos,' and this one, to an extent, is about a choice, disobedience, immortality. Our dealing with mortality, which is a much better subject.
And I try to layer them very carefully, very densely. And then if people watching them like a Saturday night movie, that's fine by me. If they wanna study them a little more, I put things in there that they'll find.
Tavis: Yeah. To your point now, are there messages here that you are trying to deliver? Because you could obviously do a film that is just entertaining, or to your point now about choices and about morals and about mortality versus immortality. You trying to send a message through 'Pan's Labyrinth?' Messages?
del Toro: Well, I think that when I was a kid, I'm an ex-Catholic. And when I was a kid, I would go Sunday church, and I would be mostly interested in the parables of the bible. They really took me. And it's not so much disclosing a parable as it is bringing it forth as a point of discussion. I don't have a point that I need to drive in, but I do show the different destinies of characters that are confronted with a choice in the movie. And those that choose to obey, and those that choose to disobey. And contrary to the classical fairytale, I'm in favor of disobedience.
Tavis: (Laugh) What I love - I'm glad to hear you say about, speak on parables. One of my favorite parts of the bible, as well. I love parables. I've got three or four that are personal favorites. But those four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, I love those parables in there. I love these didactic narratives, to your point, in part because they don't beat you over the head, but again, it's a didactic narrative here.
But when you put that forth, people can walk away with any number of different interpretations, and people will see different things. You're okay with that with your film, though.
del Toro: Oh, absolutely, because to me, that's the essence of a fairytale. Fairytales were created not only to entertain, but they addressed spiritual subjects for me. Not to any canon or religion, just what it is to be human. They made manifest troubles that happen inside the soul of the human being. And one of the most beautiful books in the bible, for example, to me is a very mysterious book, which is the book of Job. It can be interpreted in so many ways to so many people that it becomes archetypical.
Tavis: Now, you said a moment ago, I thought I heard you say you were an ex-Catholic.
del Toro: I'm totally ex-Catholic.
Tavis: Is there a reason for that?
del Toro: Well, I'm all in favor of sloth, and I'm all in favor of gluttony. (Laugh)
Tavis: Yeah. (Laugh)
del Toro: And other sins. I actually started digging sins when I started growing - oh, no, no, that's not it. In reality, (laugh) I don't believe that any form of organized religion or politic does not get corrupted, because it becomes a power structure. So, I believe in the principles, I love, it's still internal part of my life. But I put my own riff to it. It's different than when I was a kid.
Tavis: Let me do a parallel, offer a parallel, if I can, here. How do you, when you become the kind of star that you are now being given credit with other colleagues for ushering in an appreciation for Mexican artistry, or artistry coming out of that experience, how do you keep your artistry from being corrupted? You're right, organized religion gets corrupted. But once you get to Hollywood, and people start putting their hands on you and this creative imagination of yours, your artistry can get corrupted.
del Toro: Yeah, well, you do your best. I came here first in 1994, essentially to pay off my debt from 'Cronos,' which left me broke for the first time. I've been broke three times.
Tavis: Yeah. (Laugh)
del Toro: And that's one of the ways to keep from being corrupted. I go do something like 'Devil's Backbone,' and then I go do something like 'Blade' or 'Hellboy.' And then I make it a point, spiritually and personally, and it's artistic survival to come and do 'Pan's Labyrinth,' which, financially, for me, not for other people, but for me, it's a catastrophe financially. (Laugh)
But it's spiritually amazing to do. I need it as much as one would need to breathe. So, I recommend going for bankruptcy a couple of times. (Laugh) And it'll keep your spirituality intact.
Tavis: I'm glad to hear you say that, because I hear the point you're making. But your artistry is that important to you, to make those kinds of choices. Even if you don't make money off of it, I'm doing this for Guillermo.
del Toro: It is. It sounds altruistic, but ultimately, it's survival. Because there is a saying that Basque poet wrote in Spain that I love. He says, 'There was a man that was so poor that all he could have is money.' And living in the environment I live in, I'm dealing with people I deal in, I see people that are incredibly rich, and they're having a beautiful meal, and they're not paying attention to the meal. They live in a huge house. I wouldn't call it a beautiful house. But they're not enjoying their house. And so on and so forth. So I really, I was raised that way.
Tavis: You said that this movie, I read in one or two interviews where you've suggested that this is the most personal film you've ever made. And I kind of laughed when I read that. I was, like, this guy's gonna be a - I'm waiting to meet this guy. He must be pretty strange. (Laugh) If this is the most personal film he's ever made. What'd you mean by that?
del Toro: I meant everything you can imagine. (Laugh)
Tavis: (Laugh) I was afraid of that.
del Toro: Including strange facts, like for example when I was a kid, I was very given to lucid dreaming, which essentially meant that I would - I hope it was lucid dreaming - I would go to sleep and start dreaming I was in the exact bed I was in, in the exact room I was in, and things would come out in that room. Monsters. And in one of the dreams, at midnight I would hear the chimes of the church at midnight, and I was in that bed, in that room, and a faun like the one in the movie would come out from behind my grandmother's armoire.
So that's the start of how personal it is. And then I think the girl represents the essence of what I am. Like the essence of the artist that you carry when you're a kid. I'm not wearing garters or a dress underneath these clothes, (laugh) but that girl represents a lot of the essence of what I am.
Tavis: Yeah. This the same grandmother who had you exorcised not once, but twice?
del Toro: Yes, twice. (Laugh) And the first time she exorcised me, and the second time, I started laughing, 'cause I was old enough to find it ridiculous. And the more I laughed, the more my grandmother would throw holy water, 'cause why is he laughing at the holy water? And I was laughing at the holy water; I'm more laughing at you. (Laugh)
But it was impossible, my grandmother, whom I loved dearly, she died. And when she was dying, I took her my latest creations to look, and she was looking at my drawings and my sculptures and stuff like that, and she started crying. And she said, 'You could never create anything beautiful.' (Laugh) And I said to her that these are beautiful to me.
Tavis: I was told you always carry a little brown book with you, and there it is.
del Toro: Yeah, this is it.
Tavis: So you're sketching all the time.
del Toro: Yeah, I wrote something about a few minutes ago that I cannot read on the air, but I'll show it to you.
Tavis: Okay. But you're writing and drawing all the time.
del Toro: Yeah, what I do is I make notes all day long. I do drawings...
Tavis: Jonathan, can you see this? I just want you to see that. His handwriting is so...
del Toro: It's, I've...
Tavis: Very small.
del Toro: Each project is sort of, each book is an artistic project for me. So what I do is I try to make it different. My writing changes on each of the notebooks. This sounds completely like the, this is my seven writing, (laugh) like the psychopath in seven, really tight and neat. Because I have a finite number of these books, and I said, 'Well, I gotta start writing smaller (laugh) or I'll lose it.'
Tavis: His name is Guillermo del Toro. His film, you already know about. 'Pan's Labyrinth.' It's winning everything, and I do mean everything. Go check it out, you will certainly be entertained. It's a pleasure to meet you.
del Toro: Same here.
Tavis: Come back sometime.
del Toro: I will.
Tavis: I enjoyed talking to you.
del Toro: Yeah.
Tavis: That's our show for tonight. Catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Our radio podcast now available at TavisTalks.com. Catch you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from L.A., thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.
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