Doug Jones has brought many fantastical creatures to life over his long career, and some of the most memorable have been created in collaboration with Guillermo del Toro. Jones is set to reunite with Guillermo del Toro once again with THE SHAPE OF WATER, an other-worldly story set against the backdrop of Cold War America circa 1963. Doug Jones plays a creature who is the last of his species, a fish man whose origins are clouded in mystery. The actor spoke with Movies.com recently and dropped a few teases about del Toro's latest as well as his role in it.
My character is…even if I'm not in every scene, they're talking about me when I'm not there. I am the focal point of the whole movie. They're all having interactions because of me. It is one of the most gorgeous stories I have ever been a part of. And it was filmed beautifully. The art direction for the era – the cars, the clothes, the hair, the sets – it's very Del Toro and very gorgeous.
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Jones' character is being studied and tested in a U.S. government facility to see if his biology or technology can be used to give the U.S. an advantage over the Russians when it comes to military or space travel. The central character of THE SHAPE OF WATER is a janitor played by Sally Hawkins (BLUE JASMINE) who Jones says is a "very sympathetic character" who we're "just going to fall in love with."
What she goes through…you're going to be rooting for her every step. It's a classic Del Toro movie where we root for an underdog in very impossible circumstances, and I'm a part of all of that in a very, very integral way. So without giving it all away, I think I just gave it all away.
This obviously isn't Doug Jones' first time playing the part of a creature, so he's accustomed to doing the research which is needed when playing a non-human creature. "Often times I look to the script or the design itself, especially if you're playing a man-animal hybrid, which I've done many times," said Jones. "So in those cases, you have nature you can draw from. In Pan's Labyrinth, I was part man, part goat, part tree, so I got to incorporate a few things into the fawn. Other things that are completely fantastical, like if I'm playing a space alien, I can't go to a nursing home and find an old alien and get notes from him, right? So it's the writer, it's the director, it's your own instincts trying to create it from the ground-up." Production on THE SHAPE OF WATER wrapped up last year, and although the project doesn't have an official release date just yet, it's expected to hit theaters sometime later this year.
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