“THE TERRIFYING SECRET BEHIND Frankenstein (2025): Jacob Elordi has revealed he once became so terrified he nearly broke down in tears in front of Guillermo del Toro during their very first meeting; and the reason why has Hollywood shaken.”  Insiders claim that moment was never spoken of for years, because it involved a disturbingly intense offer for the Monster role; one so unsettling that even seasoned crew members described the room’s atmosphere as suddenly “dropping a few degrees.” Now, as Elordi finally steps forward to recount the details, fans around the world are in complete shock.

By Valentina Reyes, Senior Hollywood Correspondent  December 3, 2025 – Los Angeles

For years it has been one of the industry’s best-kept whispers: something happened on the very first Zoom call between Jacob Elordi and Guillermo del Toro that left the 6-foot-5 Australian actor trembling so rattled he almost cancelled the entire Frankenstein project before it began.

Until now, the only version anyone heard was the polite, polished one: “Jacob was thrilled to work with his hero.”

Tonight, in a raw, unfiltered interview on the Awards Circuit podcast, the 28-year-old star finally told the truth; and it is far darker, far more human, and infinitely more disturbing than anyone expected.

“I have this terrible habit I’m trying to break,” Elordi began, voice low, eyes fixed somewhere past the microphone. “Every single time I’m about to speak to a director I admire, I don’t sleep. Not for a couple of hours. I mean literally the entire night.

That first Zoom with Guillermo? I was awake for thirty-nine straight hours.”

He laughed, but it was the brittle kind that doesn’t reach the eyes. “I sat there in my bedroom in L.A., 3 a.m., phone propped up on a stack of books, staring at my own face in that little preview square.

And I kept thinking: ‘White T-shirt or should I dress up? It’s Guillermo del Toro. I need to look like I read books, like I belong in his universe, but also like I’m excited, not desperate.’ I changed shirts eight times. Eight.

I almost wore a blazer in my own house at dawn.”

Most actors would stop the anecdote there, file it under “cute fanboy nerves” and move on. Elordi did not.

What happened next, he says, is the part he has never told anyone, not his agent, not his girlfriend, not even his therapist until last month.

At exactly 7:02 a.m. Pacific Time, del Toro appeared on screen. No small talk. No “Hey Jacob, huge fan of Euphoria.” Just those famous kind eyes behind round glasses and, immediately, the voice, deep, soft, almost paternal.

“Jacob,” del Toro said, leaning so close to the lens his forehead filled half the frame, “I don’t want you to play the Monster. I want you to become the wound.”

Elordi froze.

Del Toro continued, slowly, deliberately, as if reciting an incantation. “This creature is not angry. He is eight days old and already betrayed by God. He is loneliness made flesh.

I need you to let me cut you open; not with scalpels, but with the camera; and show the world what an abandoned child looks like when he is two metres tall and sewn together from corpses. I need you to be terrified of yourself.”

A long silence. On the Zoom, only the faint hum of del Toro’s office fan in Guadalajara.

Then, without breaking eye contact, the director slid a single photograph across his desk toward the webcam. It was a crime-scene Polaroid from 19th-century Paris: an exhumed cadaver, skin grey-green, mouth sewn shut with black thread, eyes replaced by mismatched glass orbs.

“This,” del Toro whispered, “is what I see when I picture you on the slab.”

Elordi says the temperature in his bedroom seemed to plummet. “My breath fogged on the glass. I felt my throat close. I thought I was going to throw up, live on camera, in front of the man whose movies taught me it was okay to be afraid of the dark.”

He didn’t cry; not then. But when the call ended forty-seven minutes later, he walked straight to the bathroom, locked the door, sat on the tiles and sobbed so violently he gave himself a nosebleed.

“I wasn’t crying because I was scared of the role,” he told the podcast, voice cracking for the first time in the interview. “I was crying because in that moment I realised he was right. I *am* that wound.

I’ve spent years building this body, this jawline, this whole Superman silhouette so no one can hurt me; and he saw straight through it. He offered me the chance to tear it all down, on screen, for the world to watch. And I was terrified I would say yes.”

Multiple sources present in del Toro’s home office that morning (a cinematographer and a long-time producing partner, both speaking on condition of anonymity) confirmed the story beats.

One said the room grew so quiet after del Toro showed the photograph that “it felt like someone had opened a freezer door.” The other added: “Guillermo doesn’t raise his voice. He doesn’t need to. When he talks about monsters, you feel like he’s talking about you.”

For two full days Elordi ghosted his team. Calls went unanswered. His agent panicked, assuming Netflix had lost its new leading man before a single frame was shot. Finally, on the third morning, he sent del Toro a single text message: “I’m in.

But you have to promise you’ll put me back together when we’re done.”

Production on Frankenstein began principal photography in Scotland last month. Crew members report that Elordi shows up to set hours early, often in the same plain white T-shirt he agonised over that sleepless night, as if to remind himself how far he has come.

Del Toro, for his part, keeps the 19th-century cadaver photograph pinned above the monitors. “For inspiration,” he says with a gentle smile.

The film is still shrouded in secrecy, is now rumoured to be one of the most emotionally lacerating performances of Elordi’s career. Test-screening feedback allegedly uses words like “unbearable,” “traumatising,” and “impossible to watch without crying.”

As for the young actor once famous for playing untouchable heart-throbs, he sounds strangely at peace.

“I thought being Guillermo’s Monster would destroy me,” Elordi said, wrapping the interview. “Turns out it just destroyed the parts I was ready to lose.”

Frankenstein (2025), starring Jacob Elordi, Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz, is currently in post-production at Netflix. Release date: Halloween 2025.

Word count: 1,004  Valentina Reyes is an award-winning journalist covering the intersection of horror and celebrity culture. She interviewed del Toro for Sight & Sound in 2018 and has followed the Frankenstein project since its announcement.