In Guillermo del Toro’s 2025 Frankenstein, Mia Goth plays Claire, Victor’s late mother, and Elizabeth, the woman his younger brother William is engaged to—and the woman Victor becomes fixated on. The casting links two figures in Victor’s emotional life, while Goth and the filmmakers distinguish them through her approach to performance, Claire’s light prosthetics and French speech, and costume design.
Who Mia Goth plays in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein
Goth plays two characters in this adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel. Claire belongs to Victor’s childhood and is deceased by the time the later story unfolds. Elizabeth is William’s fiancée and becomes the focus of Victor’s romantic fixation. Netflix’s interview with Goth describes Claire as a source of maternal comfort and a figure associated with Victor’s lost childhood innocence.
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The roles are not presented as one person or as a literal identity between mother and love interest. Rather, the same performer connects two relationships in Victor’s story.
Why del Toro wanted one actor for both roles
Goth said she initially expected to play Elizabeth alone. She recalled talking with del Toro about having recently become a mother, and wondered whether that conversation helped him see a connection between Elizabeth and Claire. She presented that link as her own inference, not as a confirmed account of his decision.
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Goth also saw a maternal quality in Elizabeth: “As much as Claire is Victor’s mother, I also think there’s an incredibly maternal side to Elizabeth.”
Del Toro gave a more direct explanation in Netflix’s film explainer: “I needed the same actor that plays the mother to play Elizabeth.” He framed the choice in Freudian terms, describing Victor’s attraction to Elizabeth as an unconscious, primitive falling-for-his-mother dynamic. That is del Toro’s interpretation of the film’s creative idea, not a clinical diagnosis or a claim that Claire and Elizabeth are literally the same person.
How Goth approached playing Claire and Elizabeth
Goth has described the assignment as daunting. When she learned she would play both, she recalled responding: “I don’t know how I’m going to do that, but we’ll figure it out!” She said she felt scared about taking on two characters and eventually needed to quiet her thoughts and let go of the worry.
Claire’s physical and language details
Netflix’s explainer reports that Goth wore light prosthetics as Claire and spoke only French in the role. Those are specific ways the film marks Claire; they are not the only distinctions between the characters.
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Finding Elizabeth through costume
Goth told W Magazine that costume fittings helped her find a character from the outside in. In Netflix’s account, Elizabeth began to click for her during a fitting, as she tried on a dress. The detail shows how costume could support her process without reducing the performance to clothes alone.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How costume shapes Elizabeth’s presence
Costume designer Kate Hawley described Elizabeth’s nightgown to Marie Claire as simple and luminous, drawing on Victorian references and the film’s melancholic blue-green palette. She also said Elizabeth had a “‘60s horror femme fatale, coming down the staircase” quality. Hawley’s comments describe the design intention; Goth’s account of fittings describes how clothing helped her enter the character.
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Together, the casting and design create a deliberate link between Claire and Elizabeth while giving Goth concrete points of difference to work with: their place in Victor’s life, Claire’s French speech and light prosthetics, and the separate process of finding each character.
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