Spanish interview transcript

TV3, 1994
**thanks to Isabel Ortiz

"I think that Coppola wanted to do a trilogy, Frankenstein and the man wolf were the other two. I think he is very fond of gothic world and he was very helpful when he became producer and he gave me advice about the screenplay and talked to me about his experiences in Dracula. He saw the last shots and the early prints of the film and he helped me a lot because he protected me against the study when they were nervous for some reason. The passion he felt about this subject was very helpful to me".

"The book is full of details but there are too some holes in the biggest cinematographic scenes, like the creation. For me was difficult to find a style that fited but my work with Shakespeare has helped me to not being frightened about the stories that are larger than life, with that kind of dialoges. So I was not frightened of doing a non-realistic work. I was happy of using great sets, primary colors and a gothic side. I enjoyed a lot trying to make a big cinematographic sperience. The most difficult scenes were the creation ones, because the meovements in the laboratory were difficult. It was a kind of cathedral with big beams and it was hard to do what I wanted, big camera movements, but I needed them to transport the audience to the excitement of Victor Frankenstein".

"The worst moment of this project was when we began the film and when we shot the big scenes like the sea tempest, for which we built a replica of a russian whale ship and there were a lot of cameras. I haven't done some like that before and I was terrified".

About the stairway: "For me it was a central image of one of my ideas: gothic, fairy tales, happiness. It was images of blood running down that scales, something rotten, something from a story book. I just had a feeling that it was right and it had some phases. The designer wanted to put a handrail but no, I wanted scales that went up to heaven or down to hell or simply something very intense, non-realistic and misterious" (then he smiles).

About Robert De Niro: "He was very very involved. I think he wanted some moments of the performance to be very simple and gentle. They are the moments when he reacts and looks the camera. He uses only his eyes in his activity to made feel terror truly to the audience. De Niro noticed that it was something he hadn't quite done before, that combination". "There's nothing similar to the versions of Boris Karloff, that were excellent. From that moment on there had been lots of good versions of this story. But we wanted a patchwork man that had a look painful and tortured. Somebody that we could understand. Somebody who learns how to talk as he does in the film and that was convincing meanwhile. Robert De Niro was decided to do it in as unique and original as we could."

"If we could in some years to create life or win the battle to death, it will be a funny but terrifying idea. Who controls that power? Who would decide which kind of life are we going to create? The governments? Would they use this power to create super-man armys? If we prevent death, what will happen with thw Earth and the excess of population? Those are frightening issues and I think that scientists and governments hadn't been always responsible, had not always the imagination to deal with the power they have. Science, yes, it could advance, but always with some sense of what the consequences of their actions might be. That's the argument the creature gives to their father: think about the consequences".

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