Netflix users have been left scratching their heads over a casting decision in new film Frankenstein.
The latest release from Guillermo del Toro, starring Oscar Isaac as eccentric scientist Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as the creature he creates, arrived on the streaming service on Friday (8 November).
But it’s the casting of Mia Goth that has caught viewers off guard, with people only just realising that the Pearl and MaXXXine actor appears in two roles.
Goth stars in the majority of the film as Lady Elizabeth Harlander, the fiancée of Victor Frankenstein’s brother William (Felix Kammerer) – but eagle-eyed users were quick to point out that she also shows up much earlier, playing Frankenstein’s mother Baroness Claire in flashback.
“I didn’t recognise her at all in the first role,” one person wrote on X/Twitter after discovering the news.
“Are you joking? I’ve watched the movie three times, twice in cinema and one at home, but I still didn’t know she played the mother,” another said.
“I literally just watched this and had no idea she was the mom omg,” an additional fan wrote.
Others said they knew that Goth was set to play two roles in the film, but still struggled to recognise her.
Goth’s roles are distinguished by their costumes, with Claire wearing deep red and Elizabeth wearing green.
Isaac told The Independent that the casting of Goth in both roles had Oedipal undertones; in the film, Victor falls in love with Elizabeth.
“The fact the only woman he’s ever seen is his mother – you know, whether she really did look like the same person, we don’t know, because he’s the one telling the story. I suspect she didn’t. But, in his mind, it’s her.”
Del Toro recently praised Elordi for replacing Andrew Garfield in the film, which is based on Mary Shelley’s gothic 1818 novel.
Garfield was set to play the creature, but he dropped out nine weeks before production due to scheduling conflicts caused by the Hollywood writers’ strike.
Del Toro’s long-term collaborator, The Shape of Water makeup artist Mike Hill, had spent nine months perfecting the look for Garfield’s version of the character before Saltburn actor Elordi stepped in.
But, according to Del Toro and Hill, the development worked out for the best.
“Andrew Garfield stepping out and Jacob coming in – I mean, it was like Jacob is the most perfect actor for the creature,” the filmmaker told Vanity Fair.
“We have a supernaturally good connection. It’s like, very few words. Very few things I have to say, and he does it.”
