Guillermo del Toro says he’s “a big fan of death” during Marrakech talk

Guillermo del Toro surprised audiences at the Marrakech International Film Festival by turning a discussion about creativity toward something far darker, and, for him, far more fascinating.

“Why should you want to live longer?” he asked the crowd of festivalgoers, students and journalists. “I’m a big fan of death … I think death is really good. I’m certainly looking forward to it, because it’s the day you go, ‘Well, tomorrow I won’t have any problems.’”

The director, speaking during a long-form conversation moderated by Kim Morgan, moved between reflections on art, emotion and the origins of his lifelong obsession with monsters. He recalled first seeing Boris Karloff at age 7: “That was religion. That was my church.”

He added, “I immediately felt that what my grandmother used to feel about Jesus, I now felt about Boris. And I saw myself in him.”

Del Toro said emotion remains at the center of his work, even if the world treats sincerity with suspicion. “I’m Mexican, so emotion is big for me. I think emotion is very scarce right now… We are in a horrible moment in which cynicism simulates intelligence. If you say, ‘I believe in love,’ you’re a fool. If you say, ‘I don’t believe in love,’ you’re a wise man. I don’t agree with any of that.”

Describing the operatic ambition behind his latest vision, he noted, “The Romantics took a huge step toward the possibility of ridicule.” Later, he returned to that idea: “You have to be completely open to failure if you’re ever to experience success … you have to be ready to be ridiculous. So I’m ready to be ridiculous at all times.”

Now, after finally bringing his own interpretation of Frankenstein to life, del Toro joked about the emotional crash that followed its completion, admitting he feels “postpartum depression” after letting go of a dream he carried for half a century.