CS Video: Guillermo del Toro and the Crimson Peak Cast

Video interviews with Guillermo del Toro and the Crimson Peak cast

As a director, Guillermo del Toro holds a special place in the hearts of movie geeks because his fetishes are our fetishes, his obsessions are our obsessions. He’s in love with monsters, ghosts, haunted houses, comic books and horror movies, while at the same time he brings a literary element to what could be pigeonholed as simple genre fare. That is no more evident than in his new film Crimson Peak, which showcases his love of gothic romance in a story involving a young woman named Edith Cushing (her mere name should bring a smile to Hammer fans!), who is played by Mia Wasikowsa as someone–like Del Toro–with an affinity for the supernatural.

Once Edith gets involved with the mysterious Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), she is lured into a web of deceit and murder with one very large and foreboding mansion at the center of it all. We had the chance to chat with del Toro and the Crimson Peak cast, including Hiddleston, Wasikowska, and Jessica Chastain, the latter of whom gives a barn burner of a performance as the psychotic Lady Lucille Sharpe. 

Hiddleston discusses the many layers of his role, while Chastain talks about how her character takes charge over her brother, and Wasikowsa and Del Toro both explain how they sought to breathe new life into a genre that has been played out in everything from classic gothic romances like Dragonwyck or Wuthering Heights to B pictures like Nightmare Castle or The Pit and the Pendulum.

Crimson Peak opens in theaters everywhere this Friday, October 16.