When director Guillermo del Toro asked Tamara Deverell to be the production designer on his film adaptation of Frankenstein, she had a good idea of what he wanted. Del Toro had been dreaming of making a Frankenstein movie for years, and she had worked with him on several projects before. She told me they’re so much sync, “I find with Guillermo, it’s not speaking in words, it’s speaking with images.” But that didn’t make the production design any less challenging. We discuss where Tamara looked for inspiration, why it’s important for her to build physical sets no matter the size, and how she reimagined the signature set piece of every Frankenstein adaptation -- the lab where The Creature comes to life.
