Javier Bardem still wants to play Frankenstein's monster: 'I have the looks'

Javier Bardem was once slated to play Frankenstein's monster in Universal's ambitious Dark Universe franchise, until the whole thing fell apart. But his dream of portraying the classic character? It's alive, it's alive!

During a recent appearance on The Jess Cagle Show on SiriusXM, the Spanish actor was asked about rumors of his involvement in screenwriter David Koepp's planned Bride of Frankenstein reboot. And while it doesn't sound like Bardem will be in Bride, he'd still "love" to tackle the Frankenstein role — or roles.

"I haven't heard anything about it, so I don't know what's the state of that," the Being the Ricardos star said. "Me personally, I would love to play Frankenstein. Actually, I would like to play both — Dr. Frankenstein and Frankenstein the monster. Because it's the dichotomy and the contradiction of one… the same being. But I don't know if that's going to be the case or not. As far as I know, it's not happening."

As for Bardem's Frankenstein's qualifications? "I have the looks," he quipped. "I have the head size, that's for sure."

Bardem was previously announced as playing Frankenstein's monster back in 2017 when Universal had its sights set on a series of interconnected films based on the studio's classic monsters. But when the Tom Cruise-led reboot of The Mummy underperformed at the box office, the franchise was scuttled in favor of standalone reboots like The Invisible Man, starring Elisabeth Moss.

If Bardem doesn't get the chance to play Frankenstein or the monster, he does have a suggestion for who else could do it.

"The only one that I will recall that could do Frankenstein is Josh Brolin," he said. "He has the same size head as me. I don't know who else can do that. With some screws in our forehead, it could work, absolutely."

Bardem continued: "When we were doing No Country for All Men, there was a moment where Josh looked at us, and it was Tommy Lee Jones, him, and I. And we never shared the screen together. And Josh said, 'No wonder we can't share the screen. These are the three biggest heads in cinema history. You can't put those three heads together in one frame.' It was like, yeah, right, that's why the Cohens didn't put us together."

Watch the interview above for more from Bardem.

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