At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, attendees of the Legendary panel in Hall H were treated to visits from the cast and crew of three highly-anticipated movies, the first being Crimson Peak, the Gothic romance horror film from Guillermo del Toro, in theaters this October. Click the jump for photos and a recap of the panel!
The panel was moderated by Chris Hardwick (who was introduced by Thomas Tull of Legendary, who said there was a bet going on about how many times Guillermo would say F–k.)
Guillermo talked about about his hopes for the movie, and pointed out that being married to his high school sweetheart, and having two daughters, he feels he has a responsibility to push the boundaries of gender roles in movies, saying “I really think that many times in some of these movies the girl ends up being a damsel in distress.” He hinted that in the movie “certain twists are a little more gender-liberating, shall we say.”
I’m incredibly conscious about this with two daughters: we live in a world where there is a secret gender war. As a storyteller it is our duty to take these great genres and great forms and retell them a little. With that said, I wanted it to be scary, and I wanted it to be gorgeous….it is the most beautiful movie I’ve made.”
Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska, and Jessica Chastain entered to thunderous applause, and screams of “I LOVE YOU” to Tom from the fan girls in the audience. Guillermo was familiar with the scene.
I always say that if they found him in an alley grinding puppies they will go “aww, puppies.”
The cast was asked which area of the set they liked the best
Tom: “I personally, the great hall I just found just jaw dropping…the house that the Sharpe’s live in is in Cumberland in the North of England, and the house was built on a sound stage in Toronto, and when I walked in for the first time it was just breathtaking; it was on three or four stories with a working elevator, and if you actually trod on the floorboards the clay which is underneath the house would seep across the floor, it was the most extraordinary place, the most extraordinary set I have ever seen, and I was actually very sad when they had to tear it down.”
Guillermo: “I like the bathroom. It sounds horrible, but the bathroom’s gorgeous. Not for the reasons you think.”
Chris Hardwick: “Well, maybe like, some of the reasons we think.”
Mia spoke about not having worked in a horror film before. “I was new to the genre and to the concept of horror, and Guillermo gave me a copy of Frankenstein, and there was an introduction to the book that he wrote, and it was sort of an education in why it’s an important thing and how we learn about ourselves through our fears. It was kind of amazing to have Guillermo as a guide in this new world.”
Tom spoke at length about how much he enjoyed working on the film. “I just had the best time with Guillermo. Guillermo has an enormous imagination. And getting to live inside that imagination, with all of his detail and rigor and precision was a huge pleasure. And I’ve never been teased so much on set by another directory, but I liked it.”
When asked what she liked best about her character Jessica said “I like a lot about my character, I love her, she absolutely breaks my heart. What I like about her is that she’s fiercely loyal, and she acts out of love to receive love.”
In response to one of the hardest part of the film, Tom said “The last act of the film is an emotional roller coaster; it exists at a very intense pitch, we all hold hands and batter through it, it can take it out of you some days, but I loved living it. I think most actors become actors because they’re fascinated by extremity; they’re fascinated by what happens when people are tested by physical, psychological or emotional challenges they have to overcome, and I personally find the last 45 minutes of this film is headlong and thrilling. There’s twist after twist, and you don’t know where it’s going to go, and it was a very satisfying challenge to overcome.”
Regarding his support from Legendary, Guillermo (who promised earlier that he would not be saying the word everybody thought he was going to say, because he’s strong-willed) said
Early on we decided that it needed to be R, it needed to be complex, and I secretly was hoping: I hope the other shoe never drops, I hope we never have to cross that bridge where they say “Well, yes we remember we said it could be R but this is too much or this is blah blah blah.” And it never happened. So I’m very happy to say that I felt for the first time completely free to make an adult movie in the English language, and I hope you guys enjoy the HELL out of it, and I would say, HELL yeah.
Photos generously provided by Melanie McCann and Hillary Papirio.