Guillermo del Toro Net Worth

Guillermo del Toro's Quotes

• When you have the intuition that there is something which is there, but out of the reach of your physical world, art and religion are the only means to get to it.
• Aside from being a perfect Hellboy, he is a gentleman, a friend to die for, a great actor and - for the ladies - he has the sexiest male voice this side of Barry White. What more can one ask for? - On Ron Perlman, 2002.
• I remember the worst experience of my life, even above the kidnapping of my father, was shooting Mimic (1997) [del Toro's first Hollywood feature, in 1997, which was severely compromised by producer interference]. Because what was happening to me and the movie was far more illogical than kidnapping, which is brutal, but at least there are rules. Now when I look at Mimic, what I see is the pain of a deeply flawed creature that could have been so beautiful.
• It would be a cliché to say that, because I am a Mexican, I see death in a certain way. But I have seen more than my share of corpses, certainly more than the average First World guy. I worked for months next to a morgue that I had to go through to get to work. I've seen people being shot; I've had guns put to my head; I've seen people burnt alive, stabbed, decapitated ... because Mexico is still a very violent place. So I do think that some of that element in my films comes from a Mexican sensibility.
• The sign of a true friendship is when you can forgive success.

Interesting Facts about Guillermo del Toro

1. Became a vegetarian after seeing The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) but only for four years. Currently, he's no longer a vegetarian.
2. Turned down a chance to direct Blade: Trinity (2004), AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Harry Potter en de gevangene van Azkaban (2004) to work on his dream project: Hellboy (2004).
3. Fought the film studios for almost seven years to get Ron Perlman for the title role in Hellboy (2004). The studio wanted a bigger name to ensure the success of the movie, but del Toro thought that Perlman was the perfect choice and wouldn't make the movie if he wasn't cast.
4. He is friends with fellow successful Mexican directors Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro G. Iñárritu.
5. Has a photographic memory.
6. Following his international breakthrough, his father was kidnapped for ransom in Mexico in 1997, and held for seventy-two days until the money was paid. Fellow filmmaker James Cameron helped secure the ransom money. Although del Toro still frequently works in Mexico, he has relocated his family to the USA out of fear of more kidnappings.
7. In a January 2007 interview on the radio program "Fresh Air with Terry Gross," said that his strictly Catholic grandmother was a "Piper Laurie in Carrie (1976)" figure in his childhood. He told Gross that his grandmother would require him to mortify himself in self-punishment, in one case placing metal bottle caps into his shoes so that the soles of his feet were bloodied while walking to school. She also tried to exorcise him twice because of his persistent interest in fantasy and drawing monsters from his imagination.
8. His favorite movie monsters are Frankenstein's Monster and the Creature of the Black Lagoon.
9. In 2007, he was one of 10 Mexican Oscar-nominees. The others were Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Guillermo Arriaga, Adriana Barraza, Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo Navarro, Emmanuel Lubezki, Eugenio Caballero, Pilar Revuelta and Fernando Cámara.
10. Lost 45 lbs. while making Pan's Labyrinth (2006), which he admitted in the DVD's video prologue.
11. Turned down a chance to direct I Am Legend (2007), One Missed Call (2008), Harry Potter en de halfbloed prins (2009) and Halo to work on Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008).
12. Turned down the chance to direct Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996).
13. He regards Mimic (1997) as the weakest of his films and blames constant interference from the producers Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein as the main reason, because they didn't respect his artistic vision. He later made peace with the film after creating a new Director's Cut.
14. Ranked #37 on EW's The 50 Smartest People in Hollywood. [December 2007]
15. Was asked to direct End of Days (1999), but he turned it down.
16. His movie and comic book collection is so huge that he had to buy an extra home to accommodate it.
17. Is good friends with director Robert Rodriguez.
18. Cites Bride of Frankenstein (1935) as his favorite movie.
19. His favorite albums are "The Wall" by Pink Floyd and "Security" by Peter Gabriel.
20. In an article in USA Today (August 22, 2011), del Toro listed his six favorite fright films: Freaks (1932), The Uninvited (1944), The Innocents (1961), De zomer van de witte haai (1975), Alien (1979), and The Shining (1980).