50 Fun Facts About The Shape of Water

Who directed The Shape of Water?

It won him Best Director and Best Picture in the same night.

Who plays Elisa Esposito?

Del Toro wrote the role for her and pitched it while drunk at the 2014 Golden Globes.

In which city and year is the film set?

Del Toro said 'once upon a time in 1962' turns it into a fairy tale for troubled times.

Which 1954 monster movie inspired the film?

Del Toro wanted the Gill-man and Julie Adams's character to end up together.

How does Elisa communicate?

She was found abandoned by a river as an infant with scars on her neck.

Who plays the Amphibian Man?

He'd played a different amphibian, Abe Sapien, in del Toro's Hellboy films.

Who plays Colonel Richard Strickland?

He and del Toro discussed how Strickland would have been the hero in a 1950s version.

Who plays Giles, Elisa's neighbour?

The role was written for Ian McKellen, who was unavailable.

What is Giles's profession?

He's a closeted middle-aged man who has just lost a work assignment.

Who plays Zelda, Elisa's co-worker and interpreter?

She found it funny that the mute heroine's voices came from disenfranchised groups.

Where did Strickland capture the creature?

He brings it to the Baltimore facility for study.

Why does Strickland want the creature vivisected?

He persuades General Hoyt to examine its respiratory system.

Scientist Robert Hoffstetler is secretly what?

His handlers order him to kill the creature; he pleads to keep it alive instead.

Who plays Hoffstetler?

His real name in the film is Dimitri Mosenkov.

What finally pushes Giles to help with the escape?

He had also just failed a work assignment.

Where does Elisa keep the creature in her apartment?

She plans to release him into the canal when the rains come.

What does the creature do to Giles's arm and head after slashing him?

The healing power reappears at the canal.

What does the creature try to eat in the apartment?

Giles is slashed trying to stop it.

How does Strickland learn where the creature is being released?

Zelda's husband had already revealed Elisa has the creature.

How does Strickland die?

The creature had just healed itself from Strickland's bullets.

What happens to Elisa's neck scars in the final scene?

She revives underwater and embraces the creature.

With whom did del Toro form the idea over breakfast in 2011?

They later wrote the novelization together, published in 2018.

Which studio rejected del Toro's remake pitch in which the Creature gets the girl?

That was for a remake of the 1954 monster movie he was in talks to direct.

Which silent comedian did del Toro specifically tell Hawkins to study?

He thought Laurel could 'do a state of grace without conveying it verbally'.

What did the actor inside the creature suit decide to model its bearing on?

Del Toro had told him to make it 'animalistic, but royal and regal'.

Whose breathing was mixed into the creature's voice?

Sound editor Nathan Robitaille combined it with his own vocalizations and animal sounds.

Which film inspired del Toro to write Giles for Ian McKellen?

McKellen played closeted Frankenstein director James Whale in it.

What did Fox Searchlight offer for a black-and-white version?

Del Toro chose colour, fearing black and white would look 'postmodern'.

Where was the film shot?

The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres provided the Orpheum's interior.

Which Toronto venue's façade served as the exterior of the Orpheum cinema?

The apartments above it were a set at Cinespace Studios.

Who composed the score?

He said the opening melody's arpeggios were 'actually made of waves'.

How long did Desplat take to write the score?

He deliberately gave Strickland no melody at all.

Which top prize did the film win at Venice?

It premiered there on August 31, 2017.

How many Oscar nominations did the film receive?

The most of any film that year; Dunkirk was second with eight.

Which four Oscars did it win?

It was the first winner since Titanic to take Best Picture without an acting or screenplay award.

It was only the second fantasy film to win Best Picture, after which?

That was 2003's trilogy-closer.

Who hosted the 2018 Oscars where it won?

It was his second consecutive year hosting.

Whose estate sued for plagiarism over the 1969 work 'Let Me Hear You Whisper'?

The suit was dismissed and the son later admitted the claims were unfounded.

Which critic gave the film one star and mistakenly credited Benicio del Toro as director?

He also called the mute heroine 'mentally handicapped'.

Roughly how much did the film gross worldwide?

It gained over 1,000 theatres after the nominations were announced.

Who co-wrote the screenplay with Guillermo del Toro?

The film was a US-Mexico co-production, and del Toro also wrote the novelisation with Daniel Kraus.

Del Toro first pitched the role of Elisa to Sally Hawkins, while drunk, at which 2014 event?

He had written the script with her in mind after admiring her in Fingersmith and Happy-Go-Lucky.

The actor in the creature suit had already played a different amphibian man in which del Toro films?

His first reaction to learning the creature would be a romantic lead was 'utter terror', he told NPR.

Which supervising sound editor built the creature voice from his own vocals and animal sounds?

The blend also folds in recordings of the director breathing.

The interior of the Orpheum cinema was filmed in which Toronto venue?

Elisa and Giles's flats above the cinema were a set built at Cinespace Studios in West Toronto.

Parts of the government laboratory were shot on which campus?

The Humanities Wing of the campus's John Andrews Building stood in for the secret facility.

Which character did composer Alexandre Desplat deliberately decide not to give a melody?

Desplat said the opening melody was 'actually made of waves', with arpeggios written to make the audience feel they were floating.

In how many theaters did the film open its US limited release on December 1, 2017?

Both were in New York City; the wide release followed on December 22 against Downsizing and Pitch Perfect 3.

It was the first Best Picture winner with no acting or screenplay Oscar since which film?

Its four wins were Picture, Director, Production Design and Original Score, from a field-leading 13 nominations.

Del Toro admired Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky and which 2005 BBC drama before casting her?

To prepare, Hawkins studied silent comedians including Chaplin, Keaton and Harold Lloyd.