Mia Goth Reveals Why Joining Frankenstein Scared Her At First
Mia Goth says the prospect of stepping into Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein sent her anxiety soaring, but the X trilogy standout is channeling those nerves into her turn as Elizabeth Harlander.
Mia Goth is not exactly new to gnarly, high-pressure genre work, but even she got rattled stepping into Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein. She plays Elizabeth Harlander, and the scale of the whole thing had her worried she might be the squeaky wheel on a dream project fans (and, frankly, Goth) have wanted del Toro to make forever.
Why this one spooked her
Goth says the scope and pedigree of the film got in her head in a way nothing else has. She kept looping on the idea that when Guillermo del Toro finally makes Frankenstein, you do not want to be the weak link.
"I have never been so scared stepping into a movie... I was so scared that I was going to be the one bad thing in it, and I would ruin it."
That is a pretty unfiltered window into the actor brain, and it tracks. Del Toro doing Frankenstein is a capital-E Event, and Goth (best known for Ti West's X trilogy) was feeling the weight of that expectation.
How she got out of her head
To quiet the noise, Goth leaned on meditation. She says finding that calm, open-eyes-on-a-new-day feeling helped her lock into Elizabeth: steadier, a touch wiser, and not governed by panic. Once she put herself into that mindset, the self-doubt eased up enough to do the work.
The movie, the cast, the dates
- Guillermo del Toro directs his long-awaited take on Frankenstein.
- Mia Goth plays Elizabeth Harlander.
- Oscar Isaac is Dr. Frankenstein, with Jacob Elordi, Felix Kammerer, and Lars Mikkelsen also in the ensemble.
- Release plan: select theaters on October 17, then streaming on Netflix starting November 7.
Short version: even the bravest scream queen gets stage fright when the stakes are this high. Sounds like she channeled it into Elizabeth, which is exactly what you want to hear before del Toro flips the switch.