Oscar Isaac Took Smelling Salts for a Key Frankenstein Scene

Sometimes a special scene requires a little extra kick. In GQ’s latest Epic Conversation, leading man Oscar Isaac joins writer-director Guillermo del Toro for a chat about Frankenstein, their new take on the Mary Shelley classic that’ll be streaming on Netflix starting Nov 7. The discussion takes them through a range of different anecdotes and stories, from their fateful first meeting to the subtle ways in which their heritage courses through this interpretation.

But in one key moment, Isaac hilariously recalls a day on set filming a scene that comes early in the movie, where his Victor Frankenstein is, as the actor describes, “in full God Mode,” monologuing through a fiery speech before a medical hall of his peers. Isaac’s preparation for the speech, which he says even formatted into an iambic pentameter rhythm, was just as rigorous as the actual filmmaking process, which del Toro estimates took about five days for this one scene. On Day 3, Isaac didn’t feel he was quite there yet, hoping to come across more frenzied. Before the next take Isaac says his trainer recommended hapé, a sort of smelling salt for energy, which Isaac was familiar with and figured could help Victor come across more “tweaky” in the scene.

The only problem: Isaac’s trainer warned him not to inhale it—right as Isaac inhaled. “You’ll be okay, just take a seat,” Isaac’s trainer warned. He was not. Isaac began vomiting and seeing triple, while his trainer tried everything like blowing a meditation whistle to relax him as Isaac’s call time rapidly approached.

Isaac rallied and reported to set—only to forget his lines for the first time ever. Confessing to del Toro that he needed a minute, Isaac retreated to his trailer for a half hour to come down, before returning to set and knocking the scene out of the park. But the actor reasons it was a worthy lesson in remembering that there is such thing as going too method. “You don’t have to reach outside of yourself,” Isaac remembers feeling. “This idea of I just need something to make me better—you don’t need to do that.”

Watch the rest of the episode below, where the duo reminisces on Robert De Niro’s thirty-year-old take on the classic monster, Frankenberry cereal, and more.