Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro says 'I'd rather die' than use generative AI

Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro says 'I'd rather die' than use generative AI

Terry Gross

October 23, 2025 / 10:31 am

Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro was a child in Mexico the first time he watched the 1931 movie Frankenstein. He describes the iconic scene where the monster first lurches into the doorway as nothing short of "an epiphany."

"I saw the resurrection of the flesh, the immaculate conception, ecstasy, stigmata. Everything made sense," del Toro says. "I understood my faith or my dogmas better through Frankenstein than through Sunday mass."

It was then, at age 7, that del Toro decided the creature of Frankenstein would be "my personal avatar and my personal messiah," he says.

Del Toro's film credits include Pan's Labyrinth , Nightmare Alley and The Shap