Best Supporting Actor 2025: Jacob Elordi in Frankenstein

Jacob Elordi received his first Oscar nomination for portraying the creature in Frankenstein. 

Frankenstein is Guillermo Del Toro's rendition of the oft told story of Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) attempting to create life from dead flesh. 

Jacob Elordi plays said creature and a natural fit given his towering height, something that is utilized in his earliest scenes as the creature as the film includes the strange prologue from the novel where we find Victor Frankenstein's quest with the creature has taken him to the Artic circle, finding refuge on an explorer’s ship. Our first image of Elordi as the creature is of the hulking monster, covered in an intimidating cloak, and making beastly growls, though speaking English with a menacing rage as we hear him yell for Victor and demanding that he be brought to him. Only being held back, temporarily, by a giant blunderbuss that sends him into the water below. The sheer physical presence is the nature of Elordi’s performance more than anything at this venture, as we see the monster we are intended to expect. We then follow the story of Victor’s life and what brought him to create this creature that rejected the nature of life and death. Eventually leading to the creation of the creature and the arrival of Elordi in a way  where he can be more clearly seen, albeit heavily made up. Where we get quite the opposite of the opening as walks into the sleeping Victor’s room, the experiment having been a success, and honestly the whole of Elordi’s performance is a great risk. As essentially playing the part with a childlike wonder, learning how to walk, fascinated by the act of just seeing someone and interacting with person. Mimicing Victor’s actions and Elordi’s first line delivery in these scenes of “Victor” with this wonderment of discovering life and connection. Honestly if there was a misstep here Elordi would just not be good, he’d be terrible, however he doesn’t make a misstep. He creates such a genuine quality in every reaction, every bit of playfulness when stepping in water, his appreciation and essentially seizing the idea of the word “Victor” and looking upon Victor as a genuine friend if not father…which naturally Victor reacts to by locking him in a dungeon. 

Elordi captures the essential purity of the creature in these scenes, where he shows the infant lost in his giant body. In his eyes showing him searching for something, trying to find it, even accidentally cutting himself as part of the struggle to figure out the world. Elordi importantly, despite Victor not noticing, presents that sense of attempting to connect and find his way. His physical movements Elordi makes combinations between the adult, infantile and animalistic. All of it just seems right in the realization of the creature that is attempting to make his existence as he can. Even in the moments of anger and fear when Victor becomes more aggressive towards him, Elordi again excels in making everything so honest. As there is this fundamental earnestness where if Elordi winked, even if he lost the moment of the state of the creature’s growing mind, it wouldn’t work, however Elordi touch is so deft in realizing the supernatural growth of a creature, yet with such a distinctly human understanding to it. When for example Victor’s brother’s fiancée Elizabeth (Mia Goth) happens upon him, Elordi's, despite his size, meek manner and even gentle approach of again the creature finding a whole new world in one person as he interacts with Elizabeth. Contrasting that is his reaction to Victor presenting him as a show pony, where Elordi shifts to annoyance slowly conveying the growing intelligence of the creature and importantly his growing bitterness to his creator that seems to hold him in so little esteem. I love the moment where Victor is basically torturing him to “teach him”, and Elordi’s reaction brings the later note of rage in the intense reaction all fueled within his delivery of “Victor”, however more than just rage, there is the sense of betrayal and disbelief at his so called creator. Something we see further when Victor decides to kill, by naturally destroying his entire castle, where Elordi’s delivery of “Victor” is that of accusation and then of "Elizabeth" so pointedly of purposeful spite. 

After Victor attempts to murder the creature he finds himself lost in the woods, as Elordi takes upon the lead role of the film as we follow the creature essentially growing mentally. There is a great burden on Elordi as he must deliver the narration of the creature reflecting on his past, while we watch him actively in the past trying to learn what he can often silently. And Elordi simply is outstanding, he is such a captivating and just powerful presence throughout this sequence. He never just is on the screen, he carries you right into the creatures’ experience every step of the way. It’s fascinating as it isn’t because of how he looks, but rather the most human quality of his eyes and his physical work where we see the creature become more and more refined. There’s not a moment Elordi fails to utilize, as he makes something even out of the creature trying to pet an elk, where Elordi beautifully emphasizes that striking desire for that connection still. A connection he finds as an invisible force essentially, as he witnesses the everyday life of family, particularly the interactions of the wise old blind grandfather (David Bradley). Elordi creates a convincing earnestness in bringing this happiness for humanity, in every glance to seeing the family, while adjusting his parroting, towards more so acting out the family’s physical interactions as something he’d wish to experience. Elordi’s work captures such a sincere poignancy in bringing the joy of discovery with every letter, and something emphasized by his narration. Elordi’s delivery of such brings wisdom and a guarded warmth, that doesn’t overwhelm but rather creates the sense of reflection towards a time where he managed to find joy in his very strange existence. 

Leading eventually to the sequence between the creature and the blindman, which again would be easy to remind one not so eloquently of Gene Hackman if performed less than ideally. Luckily Elordi and David Bradley for that matter, are pitch perfect together. Elordi’s speaking in this scene is a natural advancement from his “Victor” as we see the timidness of intelligence in a way, as he now fears the situation and fears rejection. Yet the old man who reaches out, Elordi reaction is of the profound feeling of someone truly surprised to find affection and more importantly acceptance. The sequence shows the growing intelligence and Elordi naturally building within the theoretically unnatural progress. His voice becomes more refined, more keen, and even his looks towards the old man now with less seeking for understanding and now just the connection between men. His movements even slowly lose the learning, though still somewhat discombobulated, fitting for someone crafted from multiple parts, but not so broken in its way. The progression Elordi realizes the text, yet cinematically placing us within the experience of the creature so beautifully as to make these moments compelling so often just through his performance. Building to the moment of the creature becoming smart enough to have an existential crisis as he finds out about his own creation where Elordi doesn’t waste reaction shots in creating that fundamental conflict as he sees he’s been constructed by spare parts. Leading to a genuinely heartbreaking moment where the old man has been wounded by wolves, and the creature espouses his state as a monster, Elordi’s delivery is filled with such self-loathing, before being persuaded by the old man calling him a friend instead. “Friend” being the classic Frankenstein work, requiring much talent to make it seem new, let alone work, which Elordi does so by speaking it as this question, this question filled with a painful mix of hope and pathos, as he finds connection only in a dying man. 

The creature unfortunately finds only more violence from the old man’s relatives who shoot him “dead” only for the creature to revive, and Elordi brings such a haunting tone to his somber description as death as a comfort denied to him as the creature must continue to live even through his pain. Attempting to find comfort by begging Victor to create a companion for him, which Victor not only rejects, ridicules the very notion as an abomination. Elordi effectively becomes the “Monster” aspect by presenting as coming strictly to the rage against Victor’s pompous ego that is as destructive as anything the creature could possibly do. As we see when Victor’s actions lead to the death of Elizabeth and Victor’s brother. The former which the creature comforts her in the final moments, where again just Elordi devotion within every scene is incredible and the emotional nuance he finds within every interaction and creating the palatable sense of humanity. Before we get his “evilest” side which is more so the tormentor to Victor who intends to kill the creature, where Elordi accentuates the purposeful “role” he’s playing as basically the only companion to Victor, making it a bit of a game given he knows he can’t lose, to the point even surviving point blank dynamite. Where we return to the confrontation on the boat, and honestly the point where I will most agree, along with over the top CGI wolf deaths, with criticism of the film, as I don’t fully believe the reconciliation between Victor and the creature, largely because Victor is such a prick that any change to his bombastic grandiosity just doesn’t seem earned fully. Having said that, the scene doesn’t fail for me entirely because of Elordi. I can believe what we’ve seen from his creature choosing humanity, particularly because we see Elordi going through those emotions as he listens to Victor and chooses peace rather than violence. Only amplified then by the full ending, that wholly works for me, where we see him truly embracing humanity, and I love Elordi’s work. Because all he needs to do in a way is show the creature no longer burdened, rather we see this sense of freedom and appreciation as he helps the men on boat escape their icy fate, before looking to the sunset with the eyes now of a man ready to make what he can of his life as troubled as it has been. My exposure to Elordi before this film was relatively limited, but now I can say he has the potential to be one of the greats of his generation. As he finds an effortless path in such a tricky role, finding the nuances in every aspect, leaving his own mark on the part physically, verbally and emotionally as a portrait of both the curse and blessing of life.