When Mia Goth signed up to work in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, she had no idea that she would be playing two roles. She only knew about Elizabeth, a character Goth realized was “far closer” to her than she had assumed.
In the most recent adaptation of Mary Shelley’s masterpiece, Oscar Isaac’s Dr. Victor Frankenstein becomes besotted with Goth’s Elizabeth, who is his younger brother William’s (Felix Kammerer) fiancée. Goth also plays the character of Claire, Victor’s late mother, whose memory is both a comfort to him and a reminder of grief and loss.
The Pearl actor believes a passing comment by her may have given del Toro the idea to cast her as both Elizabeth and Claire.
Goth had mentioned she recently became a mother in one of her early conversations with the director. “In that moment, I saw Guillermo’s eyes light up,” she told Netflix’s Tudum. “He said to me that he hadn’t completely figured out who Elizabeth would be. I wonder if, in that moment, he started to put Elizabeth and Claire together for the first time.”
Goth believes that there is a motherly element in both characters, which made the casting choice even more impactful. “As much as Claire is Victor’s mother, I also think there’s an incredibly maternal side to Elizabeth," she said.
This side of the character unfolds on the screen when Elizabeth comes face-to-face with the Creature (Jacob Elordi) for the first time. While his own creation disgusts Victor, Elizabeth sees a beating heart behind the mass of sewn-together body parts that everyone is ready to call a ‘monster.’
Del Toro himself calls the Creature a “resurrected soldier out of a mass grave,” who, through no fault of his own, becomes the unwilling result of Victor’s ambitious project of building the perfect man.
“When she sees the Creature for the first time, there's an immediate connection there,” Goth says. “She understands him. She just knows, ‘I see you. I may not look like you, but I feel like you.’ That was a big point for me.”
Goth first felt Elizabeth click during a dress fitting with the film’s costume designer, Kate Hawley, who drew inspiration from entomology, botany, and the natural world for the character’s elegant wardrobe. Trying on one of the looks, she felt like she had been carrying a piece of Elizabeth within her all along. The actor found parallels between her own personality and the character’s, and realized that Elizabeth exists in her quietest, most authentic moments.
From then on, Elizabeth has been a guiding force for Goth’s creative journey in Frankenstein. “In many ways, I feel like Elizabeth was mothering me throughout this whole process,” the actress mused.
Frankenstein is now streaming worldwide on Netflix.