Guillermo del Toro says new movie is 'a fairy tale for troubled times'

— -- Guillermo del Toro's "The Shape of Water" just dominated the kickoff to awards season with seven Golden Globe nominations, and the director revealed that the film -- a creative love story with a twist -- is his passion project.

Del Toro told "Popcorn With Peter Travers" that he chose to direct the film even though many would see it "as a completely insane, unsure bet."

"It was a very personal decision and a very crucial point in my personal life. And I said, 'Look, I'm 52. Let's go where it's not safe, you know. Let's go there,'" del Toro said. "I think those are the general moments as a storyteller where you find, so to speak, the gold."

Sally Hawkins, Doug Jones, Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins star in the film about a Cold War romance between a cleaning lady and a water creature who had been used in scientific experiments. Del Toro describes the film as "a fairy tale for troubled times."

"The beauty of 'Shape' is the embodiment of that otherness," del Toro said.

Del Toro said that some see the water creature "as beauty, and some see [it] as a filthy thing that needs to be studied and tortured and kept at bay."

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Hawkins plays the cleaning lady who is the love interest of the water creature. Del Toro said he started writing the part for just for her in 2012.

"I called her agent and said, 'I'm writing a movie for Sally,'" del Toro told Travers. "Then when I met with Sally a couple of years later I said, 'I've written this for you. You play a silent cleaning woman but you get a monologue and a song and dance number.'"

"The Shape of Water" is in theaters everywhere.

Be sure to watch the full interview with Peter Travers and Guillermo del Toro in the video above.