Guillermo del Toro is, in his own words, “a little exhausted.”
For good reason. It’s just days before the Oscars, and up until Academy Awards voting ended in early March, Del Toro had spent about seven straight months promoting and campaigning for “Frankenstein” following the movie’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival in late August.
“We know what it is,” del Toro says laughing, referring to awards season. “We know how long it lasts. We’ve done it before.”
However, somehow, del Toro found time in that hectic schedule to shoot his commercial directorial debut for Patrón Tequila. “We had seven days down on the ‘Frankenstein’ campaign,” del Toro recalls. “It had to happen in those seven days.”
Del Toro first collaborated with Patrón in 2017 when he designed a set of bottles for its citrus-infused tequila.
The commercial, officially titled “The Perfect Pour,” stars del Toro as himself directing a commercial featuring a gaggle of colorful skeletons at a bar. “I insisted we shot in the Hacienda Patrón [in Jalisco, Mexico],” he says. “I scouted and then we measured because it’s a single motion control shot. It has two live-action actors, the bartender and me. I marked every skeleton on the floor. It felt so good to prep in a couple of days, shoot in two days and out of there.”
Before we get to Patrón, I want to talk to you about your first commercial for Alka-Seltzer.
I didn’t direct that one. I acted in it and I did make up and effects. I did some clay animation commercials in the ’80s that I directed, but as live action director, I have never gone past the meeting stage where I reached a behemoth disagreement with the agency and the client. And when I took this, I loved the idea of starting in a straight commercial with a beautiful product shot and then have skeletons pop out everywhere. I thought that was the end of the meeting because normally when I come up with an idea that outlandish, that’s the end of the meeting. But the fact that we had the relationship before, the fact that the first bottle we designed for them was themed around an altar for the dead, it felt like a natural evolution.
The skeletons are quite adorable.
The idea for me was to make the commercial playful and show that you cannot compromise and you must be true to your essence, both as a product and as a director. Patrón is Patrón because it’s done simply but beautifully. We designed the skeletons. It took a few weeks to come up with the right colors and the ornaments. Ironically, in Mexico, it’s a very festive celebration of life when you do Day of the Dead. So we wanted them to have the humor. The skeletons were designed by Guy Davis and Karla Castañeda. We wanted them to feel like papier-mâché.
Each skeleton has its own personality.
We went beat by beat with the actors and we said, “Well, what is your personality?” We had a very funny serious meeting about skeletons. We did what we called an “American Idol.” We had 25 skeletons, different colors and designs, and we said, “Well, which one do you like?” We went full method.
How long does it take from Patrón saying, “OK, we like the concept,” to “Here’s the final cut”?
I would say five months, four months, something like that, almost half a year. I didn’t want to build a set and I wanted to make it about the Hacienda. We redesigned the bar quite carefully. We changed color patterns, fabrics, and we reupholstered the chairs with the logo.
You’re going to get spoiled being able to shoot something so quickly.
No, other than Patrón, honestly, I don’t foresee doing any more commercials. I’m not interested. I was interested in this because we have a similar philosophy from the time we designed the bottle to now, I find our principles very sympatico. But for me, it’s about Jalisco, it’s about my identity, it’s about something that represents my roots. I cannot sell sodas or yogurt.
How do you like your Patrón?
Smooth and with one ice cube.
Just one?
One, like a big one. It’s like the commercial. I like a big ice cube like to pour it over the ice. But frankly, the one I adore is the citrus-infused one and the coffee-infused Patrón. The citrus one that was in the bottle, we designed. It came in the skull, which is a very little bottle. That is such a good tequila.
So how many cases of tequila do you have in your basement.
I have about 20 left. Everyone knows about them.
Watch “The Perfect Pour” below.
