Why Doug Jones Thought He Was Going To Ruin Pan's Labyrinth

From the moment the Faun appears in Guillermo del Toro's 2006 fairy tale "Pan's Labyrinth," it's hard to buy that there's a human underneath the latex. Set in the early Francoist days of 1944 Spain, the story blends the real and the mythic for its young protagonist Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), and the Faun, played by veteran actor Doug Jones, may or may not be her ally.

Jones spoke with Film International about the movie, recalling that the script brought him to tears on his first read — for the limber American actor, "Pan's Labyrinth" was clearly going to be a hit. Del Toro had written the role of the Faun specifically for Jones, whom he had previously worked with on "Mimic" and his 2004 graphic novel adaptation "Hellboy." The catch was twofold: first, the movie was in Spanish, which Jones did not speak. Second, Jones had to navigate this language barrier while encased in the physically demanding nooks and crannies of the Faun's body. In Jones' mind, if he couldn't pull everything off convincingly, he had the potential to derail his co-stars' performances, and the movie entirely:

"I was honored when Guillermo handed me the script, told me the role of the Faun was written for me, and that no one else could play it but me. It was very kind, but very intimidating, I may add. With that much faith in me, I thought, I'm going to ruin the movie. 

Reader, he didn't ruin the movie. Though given the chance to count aloud instead of delivering lines as the Faun, to be dubbed over later, Jones performed his dialogue in Spanish. While it was dubbed over later, Jones' clear enunciation made it easy for actor Pablo Adán to sync his dubbing with his mouth movements.

The language was only one obstacle. To sell himself as a monster, Jones would get help from the Barcelona-based special effects studio DDT Efectos Especiales, who crafted the incredible creatures seen in the film including the Pale Man, whom Jones would also play (more on that later).

Working off of Sergio Sandoval's concept art (seen on the artist's webpage), DDT engineered a towering man-beast of the woods with goat legs — not to be confused with the Pan known in mythology. Roots and gnarled branchwork would serve as limb and sinew for the Faun, and greenery peppered his torso like patchwork hair.

No stranger to heavy prosthetics, the "Hocus Pocus" star would be covered head-to-toe for his scenes. Battery and servo-packed horns atop his head would work in tandem with his face piece, allowing the facial features to match his performance. Jones' made-up mouth would be free to move as he spoke, but he'd have to navigate past the Faun dentures covering his teeth. A multi-piece body suit would enable more natural movement, while the Faun's long hands and spindly fingertips were glove appliances. The famed goat legs are a practical effects marvel, a belt-suspended rig connected to metal stilts, which the actor's legs (wrapped in greenscreen-like material to be digitally removed later) would walk on. Catch the results and test footage in the behind-the-scenes featurette:

"My challenge," Jones says in another featurette, "is to make this character not look like a guy in a suit." He succeeds, finding a complex character underneath the Oscar-winning SFX enhancements and bringing to life one of the early frontrunners for great movie monsters of the 21st century.

As it turns out, Jones would bring to life another stellar movie monster on the same film. A ravenous creature with pale, excess skin and eyes where they shouldn't be, The Pale Man is one of the challenges Ofelia is tasked to overcome, the second of the Faun's trio of tasks that he promises will give the girl immortality. When del Toro asked Jones to play the child-eater as well as the Faun, it was a no-brainer:

He also asked me to play the Pale Man, whom I call the Hand Man. At the time, I thought, "You cheap bastard, you want a second character for free — I get it!" [Laughs] But he had very specific reasons for having the same actor play both, since the Pale Man was a creation of the Faun."

That's right, folks. In a 2007 interview with Ain't It Cool News, Jones further confirms the fan theory that, because the Faun tasked Ofelia with going to the Pale Man's flesh-toned lair and retrieving a dagger, it stands to reason that the creature might be an innovation of the Faun or even an incarnation of the woodland beast himself. "In my sick mind, I think that the Pale Man might be a creation of Pan's," del Toro reportedly told Jones on the film set.

Both the Faun and the Pale Man are full realized baddies, the sort that del Toro calls "eye protein" compared to eye candy creatures whose designs might look cool but don't fortify the story. Color-coded with a fleshy, bloody palette in his lair that mirrors the fireside dinner table of Ofelia's real-world monster Captain Vidal (Sergi López), the Pale Man is not only a modern-day monster icon (scarier than Dracula, according to /Film), but a terrifying example of del Toro's dedication to style with substance.