Fish Men Will Seem Strangely Sexy: Why Abe Sapien is Everyone’s Amphibious Boyfriend
Say a man is sexy and no one bats an eye…say a monster man is sexy and everyone loses their minds…
In the many, many times I've called a monster hot, I've almost always been confronted with pearl-clutching and gasps of shock and confusion. I’ve never really understood this reaction because oftentimes, monsters are supposed to be attractive, many of them are designed and written to be so. Such is the case with Abe Sapien from Guillermo Del Toro’s Hellboy (2004). Though Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is our protagonist and the most human-looking, thus a bit more digestible for those who aren’t self described monster enthusiasts, Abe Sapien brings an elegance and grace that contrasts with the rugged masculinity of our titular hero. These qualities, which are portrayed masterfully through Doug Jones’s physicality and David Hyde Pierce’s voice work, make him all the more attractive, and after watching the amphibious man come to life on screen, it’s not at all hard to understand why so many are still drawn to him.
Early Designs
The earliest Abe Sapien designs for the film were drawn up by Yasushi Nirazawa. His design included a semi-transparent exterior with a mostly green hue, much different from Abe’s final light blue/turquoise colorization; and this semi-transparent exterior would allow for us to see Abe’s “muscle organization”, as Nirazawa describes in his sketches. The designs are strikingly intricate and textural, each limb and fin has a particular pattern or design, and overall, these early sketches present Abe as much more masculine than his final look. A later design by Wayne Barlowe would modify Mike Mignola’s original comic book design for Abe and shift from less fish like to one that appeared more as an “aquatic alien”. Del Toro also requested that the design be “beautiful but in a strange and compelling way”, which would ultimately be a large component of what makes him attractive to so many. In Barlowe’s designs we see the fragments of Mignola’s original comic book designs, but slightly more elegant.
Nirawzawa’s design (a scan from Hellboy: The Art of the Movie)
One of Barlowe’s designs (also a scan from Hellboy: The Art of the Movie)
Some more of Barlowe’s design for Abe (Sorry for the blur these are scans of my book my scanner is NOT efficient)
“Can you remove a nose and still make the character beautiful? Can something that is as much a fish as it is a man be made aesthetically pleasing?...Guillermo suggested lengthening the torso, which made Abe even more graceful. What evolved gravitated toward more of an even split of man and fish.”
- Wayne Barlowe (Hellboy: The Art of the Movie)
Mignola’s designs (Left) and Barlowe’s modified design (Right)
From Barlowe’s sketch, Mignola worked to steer the design closer to his original Abe, while keeping the additions he admired from Barlowe’s design, such as his back fins and webbing. This, together with Del Toro’s eye for detail and precision, lead to a more smooth, sleek design; each small edit working to make Abe equally more elegantly beautiful and “strangely compelling” as he described to Barlowe. In a word, Abe Sapien became alluring.
Doug Jones as Abe Sapien on the set of Hellboy II: The Golden Army
D(oug Jones)ynamic D(avid Hyde Pierce)uos
On screen, Abe Sapien’s visual allure is put into motion by Doug Jones, who has also been in a number of Del Toro’s other films such as Pan’s Labyrinth, Crimson Peak, Hellboy II: The Golden Army (which I will discuss later), and The Shape of Water, where he plays another beautiful and strangely compelling fish man. His movements are fluid, but controlled. They have an obvious fluid-dynamic quality to them, even outside of Abe’s natural habitat. The delicate poise that Jones gives Abe’s movements draws us in as viewers; he’s precise in every small nod and finger-point, which matches his wit and intelligence, but at the same time his larger movements match the water: free-flowing, continuous, graceful. This is interesting because although his natural habitat is in the ocean, his being a monster has him often confined to a water tank. Though the environment seems comfortable enough, with a vast library filled with all the books he can read and assistants ready to feed him all the hard-boiled eggs he could ever dream of, confinement is still confinement.
Abe in his water tank
The BPRD (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) still keeps monsters a secret from the outside world, and as long as Abe Sapien is considered a “freak”, he will still be confined to this space (except for going on missions). This theme of both emotional and physical confinement is present in many of the Hellboy character’s stories; Hellboy is concerned that his very nature is a curse, and that he will never experience love or tenderness because of his appearance. Liz (Selma Blair) is confined because of her pyrokinetic powers, which keep her at a physical distance from people, and although she feels isolated, she finds herself unable to seek comfort because she is afraid of the damage her powers can inflict on others. The difference between Hellboy, Liz, and Abe is that Hellboy and Liz are both fairly young and inexperienced, but in contrast, Abe has had about 200 years to grow into himself, and as a result, he’s already much more comfortable in his monstrosity than his partners. There’s a particular line that David Hyde Pierce delivers as Abe, he says it to Liz in a very matter of fact but reassuring way:
“All us freaks have is each other”
Although Pierce insisted he not be credited as the voice behind Abe Sapien, expressing that Jones’s performance truly brought him to life (which is accurate, Abe’s physicality is one of his most defining characteristics, and the time and effort put into wearing layers of makeup and a monster suit cannot be understated), I still want to give him credit for the voice work he did, as it offered Abe a confidence and comfort which is perfectly balanced with Jones’s physical performance. I spoke with an online friend and fellow writer, Lor, who told me that Abe Sapien’s voice is one of the main qualities that attracted them to the fish man. They described Abe’s voice as soothing, and that this, along with his graceful and purposeful movements, make him seem like a romantic, and frankly I’d have to agree, as his flair for the romantic is highlighted in The Golden Army in his relationship with Princess Nuala (Anna Walton). Lor also continued to say this to describe Abe:
“You see that Simpsons screencap where Lisa is reading “non-threatening” boys magazine? That.”
Inspired by Lor’s comment I set out to make this very poorly put together collage, you are welcome.
Yes, I love the fish-man, and you do too
Just as Abe Sapien is equal parts man and fish, he’s also equally charming and shy, confident and reserved, understanding and candid. Much of Abe’s design is a balancing act in finding the perfect equilibrium between man and monster or the strange and beautiful, and as a result, this translates into other aspects of his character. When Abe meets Princess Nuala for the first time in The Golden Army, he falls in love, and it disrupts this balancing act. As he comes to know her better, they share a mutual pining and Abe loses his composure, becoming flustered and longing to know the right way to express his feelings for her. This erupts in one of the sweetest moments between Hellboy and Abe, where he confides in him and they sing “Can’t Smile Without You” together while drunk. Their drunken voices fill the BPRD headquarters, where even Princess Nuala can hear just how filled with love Abe is. Though Abe and Princess Nuala’s romance is cut tragically short, their relationship gives us an intimate look at him. In his conversation with Hellboy, Abe expresses that in meeting Princess Nuala, he feels truly seen for the first time. They’re both alone in the world, alien to their environments, lost. He can’t “read” Princess Nuala as he usually can with other people, his powers don’t really work on her⸺just as Abe is alluring to us, Nuala is alluring to Abe. Both are strangely beautiful beings. Around Princess Nuala, Abe exudes a tenderness that all of us want in a partner. He’s patient, caring, and kind, he has a deep love for not only his romantic partner, but for his chosen family. It doesn’t hurt that he’s strangely beautiful either.
Abe and Princess Nuala
I’ve spent an unholy amount of time trying to explain to my friends that the crushes I have on these monster-men are, in actuality, completely understandable. In a fantastical world, the limits are endless Beauty exists everywhere, even in the strangest places. The monster often represents the “other”, and as someone who has often been the “other”, I’ve learned to find beauty in everything and everyone, including myself. There is a running motif in Del Toro’s Hellboy, one that has also come to dominate his work. It’s said best by the man himself:
“Monsters are the patron saints of imperfection”
Abe Sapien is not a conventionally handsome man, and he’s not supposed to be either. Monsters do not serve to be palatable to us, they challenge our notions of beauty, belonging, and how we are situated in this world. But this distance from conventional standards doesn’t make him any less beautiful. Abe is striking in his posture and grace, powerful in his movements and the sheer love and kindness he has for others. He is beautiful in all his imperfections.
