Jacob Elordi cries at Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’ premiere

The creature walks — and cries.

Jacob Elordi became visibly emotional during a 13-minute standing ovation following the world premiere of Guillermo del Toro‘s Frankenstein at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday. Following the premiere screening, Elordi, his director, and castmates Oscar Isaac and Mia Goth bask in the adulation of the crowd, and the Euphoria star wipes tears from his eyes, as video captured by The Hollywood Reporter shows.

Frankenstein received an uproarious response at Venice, where it’s currently competing for the prestigious Golden Lion award against new films from directors like Benny Safdie, Jim Jarmusch, Kathryn Bigelow, and Noah Baumbach. The Holdovers helmer Alexander Payne chairs the jury presiding over this year’s festival.

Fans were treated to a first look at the movie at the end of July. Elordi stars as the famed monster, a fearsome yet tender-hearted amalgamation of bits and bobs of other bodies, hacked off and sewn together by the ingenious Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Isaac). Goth costars as Elizabeth, Victor’s doomed childhood sweetheart, and Waltz plays Harlander, an arms dealer and new invention from the 1818 novel by Mary Shelley.

One of the luminaries del Toro and crew are competing against at Venice 2025, interestingly, is Yorgos Lanthimos, who previously proffered his own riff on Frankenstein with Poor Things. Even though that film and del Toro’s Frankenstein derive from the same source material, the latter is being described in early reviews as a far more faithful adaptation.

But he wasn’t del Toro’s original choice for the role. Andrew Garfield was originally cast as the iconic literary antihero, but he was forced to back out due to scheduling conflicts. Elordi took over the role fresh off an award-nominated turn in Sofia Coppola‘s Priscilla Presley biopic Priscilla, which had its own premiere at the 2023 Venice Film Festival.