Why does Mia Goth play Victor's mother in Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein? Actor's two roles, explained

In Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein, actress Mia Goth takes on the powerful dual roles of Lady Elizabeth Harlander and Baroness Claire Frankenstein (Victor's mother).

The shared face represents the two great loves of his life, blurring the line between affection, obsession, and creation itself. The loss of his adored mother, Claire, fuels his obsession with reanimating the dead, and he sees a figure he has longed for his entire life in Elizabeth.

The film, featuring Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth as the central cast, was released on October 17 for limited screening. Distributed by Netflix, Frankenstein is available to stream globally on the streaming giant.

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Exploring Mia Goth's dual characters in Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein

Mia Goth at 16th Governors Awards (Image via Getty)

By casting the same actress, del Toro visually links the two most important women in Victor Frankenstein's life. Del Toro himself said that Victor is “obsessed” with his mother, and casting the same actress for his mother and his lover is a deliberate Freudian touch.

Cinematographer Dan Laustsen and production designer Tamara Deverell strategically use red to convey emotional weight in the film. According to Deverell, red symbolizes "inheritance and guilt, the color of a family curse," representing the complex themes of grief and memories of the past that are often woven together in a scene.

Del Toro further spoke about this specific detail in an interview with Tudum, stating:

“The mother and the home are red. So if Victor loses that, that’s the color that should haunt him the rest of the movie. He’s the only character that wears red; red gloves, red scarf. The red chases him through the movie.”

While speaking to Tudum, Mia Goth revealed that the idea for her dual casting developed during a discussion with Guillermo del Toro about the role. She stated:

“In that moment, I saw Guillermo’s eyes light up. He told me he hadn’t completely figured out who Elizabeth would be. I wonder if, in that moment, he started to merge Elizabeth and Claire together for the first time.”

Del Toro had long imagined the dual casting, believing that a single performer could heighten the story’s emotional and psychological resonance. After witnessing Goth’s transformative performances as both Pearl and Maxine in Ti West’s films, he felt confident that she could embody the contrasting identities with full emotional and physical range.

When he met Mia Goth for the first time in 2023 at a hotel restaurant in Los Angeles, Guillermo del Toro asked her directly if she would take on not one role, but two: Claire Frankenstein and Elizabeth, in his adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. In an interview with ELLE magazine, the MaXXXine star stated:

“I left that hotel room floating for a good two weeks.”

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Edited by Suchita Patnaha