Guillermo del Toro interview

Denis Faye talks to Guillermo del Toro for the Writers Guild of America, west.

You often give your characters comprehensive biographies before you even start writing. How comprehensive?

I like to know where they're coming from, what the story is with their parents, with their wife, with their children, why they were raised in a certain way. But with some movies I do it and some movies I don't. In Devil's Backbone, I did very extensive biographies. In Hellboy, I did very extensive biographies. In this one I didn't. I really knew who I was using as model for each character. I knew the person very well. I knew who I was targeting, and I just used that base to write them. I mean, I don't know any fascist Captains [like Captain Vidal], but I know people who have the same sociopath impulses as he does.