Hellboy's del Toro - I Would've Been a Bank Robber

The Mexican director, whose latest movie ''Hellboy 2: The Golden Army'' opens next month, said Thursday night that monsters have a inherent beauty that not enough people appreciate.

''We live in a world that's constantly trying to tell you what (expletive) products to use to diminish your ugliness, or smelliness or the unpleasantness'', he said Thursday. ''I say (expletive) them all, let us be whatever we are, let us be free in our ugliness, fatiness, stretch markings, whatever the (expletive) we are. Monsters can be that, monsters can represent something else''.

One monster that's definitely something else: del Toro's movie version of the comic-book character Hellboy, a red demon that protects humans and shaves his horns down to nubs to better fit in.

''I attacked this movie the same way I attacked 'Pan's Labyrinth': from a design point of view, from a enjoyment point of view'', the director said in front of a full theater at the Los Angeles Film Festival. ''I think we created very unique monsters.''

Del Toro said his grungy ideal extends to himself. Dressed in a black suit with a polo shirt tucked out, he said he's so uncool that he dresses poorly and drives a 2000 Chrysler.

''If I wouldn't have been a director, I would've been a bank robber. I hate banks'', he said. ''Give me 'Ocean's Eleven' or any movie where banks are robbed, and I'm happy''.