Guillermo del Toro on Seeing a UFO, Hearing Ghosts and Shaping 'Water'
"It was a flying saucer," says the director, and "it was horribly designed."
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Guillermo del Toro’s taste for sci-fi and fantasy doesn’t come from nowhere. When he was younger, the acclaimed director recalls, “I saw a UFO.”
“I know this is horrible,” del Toro continues. “You sound like a complete lunatic, but I saw a UFO. I didn't want to see a UFO. It was horribly designed. I was with a friend. We bought a six-pack. We didn't consume it, and there was a place called Cerro del Cuatro, "Mountain of the Four," on the periphery of Guadalajara. We said, ‘Let's go to the highway.’ We sit down to watch the stars and have the beer and talk. We were the only guys by the freeway. And we saw a light on the horizon going super-fast, not linear. And I said, ‘Honk and flash the lights.’ And we started honking.”
The UFO, says del Toro, “Went from 1,000 meters away [to much closer] in less than a second — and it was so crappy. It was a flying saucer, so clichéd, with lights [blinking]. It's so sad: I wish I could reveal they're not what you think they are. They are what you think they are. And the fear we felt was so primal. I have never been that scared in my life. We jumped in the car, drove really fast. It was following us, and then I looked back and it was gone.”
Del Toro was speaking at Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film & TV in November, when he took part in the ongoing interview series The Hollywood Masters. He also described a close encounter with a ghost, “a sighing ghost, [with] a really sad sigh.” Much scarier was his trip to a haunted hotel with composer Danny Elfman and writer Mike Mignola. “I said, ‘Each of us is going to stay alone for 40 minutes and nobody should knock on the door.’ And then we hear [ghostly sounds] and it was Danny Elfman’s ringtone.”
Along with ghosts and UFOs, del Toro described some of the thinking behind such films as Cronos and Pan’s Labyrinth, and his new work, The Shape of Water. A transcript of the conversation is below.
Full story at site
"It was a flying saucer," says the director, and "it was horribly designed."
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Guillermo del Toro’s taste for sci-fi and fantasy doesn’t come from nowhere. When he was younger, the acclaimed director recalls, “I saw a UFO.”
“I know this is horrible,” del Toro continues. “You sound like a complete lunatic, but I saw a UFO. I didn't want to see a UFO. It was horribly designed. I was with a friend. We bought a six-pack. We didn't consume it, and there was a place called Cerro del Cuatro, "Mountain of the Four," on the periphery of Guadalajara. We said, ‘Let's go to the highway.’ We sit down to watch the stars and have the beer and talk. We were the only guys by the freeway. And we saw a light on the horizon going super-fast, not linear. And I said, ‘Honk and flash the lights.’ And we started honking.”
The UFO, says del Toro, “Went from 1,000 meters away [to much closer] in less than a second — and it was so crappy. It was a flying saucer, so clichéd, with lights [blinking]. It's so sad: I wish I could reveal they're not what you think they are. They are what you think they are. And the fear we felt was so primal. I have never been that scared in my life. We jumped in the car, drove really fast. It was following us, and then I looked back and it was gone.”
Del Toro was speaking at Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film & TV in November, when he took part in the ongoing interview series The Hollywood Masters. He also described a close encounter with a ghost, “a sighing ghost, [with] a really sad sigh.” Much scarier was his trip to a haunted hotel with composer Danny Elfman and writer Mike Mignola. “I said, ‘Each of us is going to stay alone for 40 minutes and nobody should knock on the door.’ And then we hear [ghostly sounds] and it was Danny Elfman’s ringtone.”
Along with ghosts and UFOs, del Toro described some of the thinking behind such films as Cronos and Pan’s Labyrinth, and his new work, The Shape of Water. A transcript of the conversation is below.
Full story at site