Guillermo del Toro inaugurated Tuesday its star on the famous "Walk of Fame" of Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, where the Mexican director, keen on horror films, urged immigrants not to give in to fear after the deadly shootings .
"The big fear"
Guillermo del Toro, awarded two Oscars for his film The Shape of Water in 2018, is known for his fantastic universes and the ominous monsters he stages in his works. It was therefore as a specialist that he spoke of the "great fear" used by some to divide the population, "to tell us that we are all different, that we should not trust each other". But "these divisions are complete fantasies," he said, referring to the killing in El Paso (Texas) last weekend.
"When people say to me 'You live in an imaginary world', I say 'no, it's the politicians, the churches, not me'," continued Guillermo del Toro. "Do not believe the lies they say about us Believe the stories you have in you, and believe we can all change things."
Childhood memories
The director left Mexico in 1998 when his father was kidnapped and released in return for a million-dollar ransom, which he could only afford with the help of his friend and colleague James Cameron. He now lives in Los Angeles. Del Toro is part of the so-called "Three Friends" band, which he forms with other Oscar-winning Mexican filmmakers Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu ( Birdman , The Revenant ) and Alfonso Cuaron ( Gravity , Roma ).
At age 54, he recalled his childhood memories when he walked the same avenue of the "Walk of Fame" in the 1970s, looking for stars dedicated to the founding stars of the genre, such as Boris Karloff or Lon Chaney. "With these stars, I felt that there were people as strange as me, they were there and it gave me hope," said the director. Then, pointing to his star, he told the crowd, "This star is for you, so that all of you who feel strange can come in and sit down for a moment." Guillermo del Toro wrote and produced the movie Scary Stories which has just been released in the United States.