MONSTER ambition

HE WAS DETERMINED TO MAKE IT BIG IN HOLLYWOOD AND JACOB ELORDI HAS DONE JUST THAT WITH HIS STANDOUT PERFORMANCE IN FRANKENSTEIN

- ALULUTHO GUZANA

DIMPLES, a chiselled jaw, smouldering dark eyes, hair you want to run your fingers through – when it comes to the gene-pool lottery, this guy won the winning ticket.

But the looks that made Jacob Elordi an instant heartthrob are nowhere to be seen in his latest movie – in fact, the only bits that are still visible are the tip of his nose and a sliver of his chin.

The rest of him is masked in makeup that took hours to apply and his 1,96m frame is clad in raggedy clothing. Still, if fans and critics are anything to go by, the absence of Jacob's yum factor has done nothing to dim his performance.

The 28-year-old plays Dr Frankenstein’s creation The Creature in the hit Netflix movie Frankenstein, directed by Hollywood hotshot Guillermo del Toro.

The film – the latest of more than 400 movies based on Mary Shelley's 1818 Gothic classic – presents The Creature as a powerful, emotionally mature figure whose heart has been broken by the rejection of his maker, Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac), a surgeon obsessed with creating life from the dead.

The movie explores Victor and The Creature's twisted father-son dynamic and The Creature’s journey of healing and forgiveness. “Jacob's eyes are so full of humanity,” Guillermo says. “I cast him because of his eyes.”

For Australian-born Jacob, this “life-changing” role was the one he'd been waiting for. “The creature on screen is the purest form of myself. If you can find yourself in a character, that’s a really beautiful thing. I'll remember this forever. It completely reignited my passion for movies and I have a whole different energy toward making films now.”