When the news broke that Jacob Elordi would be taking over the role of the Creature in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, everyone raised a curious eyebrow. Elordi had been rising through the ranks of stardom from rom-com love interest to prestige TV star to working with auteur directors in small films. Frankenstein would be the largest film of his career thus far, and the Creature the most important character. Whether intentionally or not, he would be making a statement about his talent and his ability to give high-level performances to all of Hollywood. Thankfully, he took the challenge of playing the Creature. Elordi didn’t just do a good job, but he, beyond a doubt, gave the greatest performance of 2025.

In a roundtable, Elordi mentioned he found it frustrating in school when his peers and professors weren’t taking acting as seriously as he thought it should be taken. Although it could be humorous for a teenager to feel that way, it’s easy to see how his mature mindset was integral to the career he has crafted. He’s made meticulous decisions to work with auteur directors, focusing less on popularity and big projects and instead honing his craft. Based on his popularity with fans, he could’ve easily cashed in on franchises and run-of-the-mill blockbusters, but that’s not his goal. Every major role he’s accepted feels like the perfect building blocks leading up to the pique of his career (so far), Frankenstein. 

It’s well known that Frankenstein has been Guillermo del Toro’s dream project all his life. He’s no stranger to a “creature feature,” and with the story of Frankenstein featuring the ultimate creature, the film needed the right person to play the role. It was destiny that brought del Toro and Elordi together. By the luck of the SAG-AFTRA strikes causing scheduling conflicts and an offhand joke to his Priscilla makeup team, Elordi was offered the role. To entrust the most important role in his dream project to a young actor without even having met him was a bold choice by del Toro, but it was meant to be. 

Jacob Elordi’s turn as the Creature is the epitome of a transformative role. On the surface, Elordi’s natural height and physique may seem like the most important aspects he brought to the role, but that would be terrifyingly reductive. While those features may naturally contribute to the otherness of the Creature, if you threw just any tall person in the makeup, never in a million years would they reach the performance level he brings to the role. Elordi mentioned he studied the Japanese dance style Butoh as inspiration for his body movement. That type of dance is less technique-based and instead more focused on externalizing internal emotions, which perfectly encapsulates how the creature behaves. Elordi’s ability to contort into unnatural positions and move isolated body parts is unreal. I haven’t seen anyone without a dance background be able to maintain that level of control over their body. You almost believe Elordi himself has been stitched together from dozens of men. 

The Creature could’ve been a role where an actor below his caliber would’ve gotten lost behind the makeup, but Elordi easily pushes through it. The way he emotes through his eyes makes it feel like you are seeing the deepest parts of the Creature’s soul. For so much of the film, Elordi relies totally on his face to express every emotion because he hasn’t developed the vocabulary to elaborate on them yet. Also, the Creature is a character that runs the full gamut of emotion: joy, happiness, fear, pain, love, anger, and more. Very rarely is an actor tasked to perform such wide-ranging feelings at this level of intensity in one film role. Also, he plays primal and innocent with such sincerity. The performance never comes across as affected and egotistical. It’s impossible not to empathize with the Creature, thanks to Elordi.

From movement, expression, to the enamoring, textured voice, no aspect of performance was left untouched. Elordi is unrecognizable in del Toro’s beautiful world. The progression of the Creature from newborn to adult is totally believable, with not a beat out of place. Also, his chemistry with Oscar Isaac is impeccable. You immediately accept their difficult parent-child relationship as truth. Without their connection, the final heartbreaking moment, the crux of the film, would fall flat. Instead, it makes hearts soar and tears well in eyes. Jacob Elordi’s performance as the Creature is absolute perfection, and there is no one else who could have brought the character to life as he did.

Frankenstein is currently streaming on Netflix.
You can read our review here.