Poor Things debuted a new trailer for the A24 movie with Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo. Yorgos Lathimos teams with the actress again after their time on The Favorite to bring a new interpretation of a Frankenstein monster to audiences. Poor Things is adapted from Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel of the same name. In the movie, Stone plays Bella Baxter, a dead woman summoned back to the world of the living by Willem Dafoe’s Dr. Godwin Baxter. While there’s some familiar ground there for both horror fans and Mary Shelley readers, modern twists help Poor Things stand out and feel fresh amongst the sea of Frankenstein adaptations that are out there.
Ruffalo plays a lawyer named Duncan Wedderburn who runs off with Bella. It’s a globe-trotting affair where the two fall in love. But, because this is a Frankenstein-esque story, things cannot remain the same for the happy couple. Stone’s reanimated character wants to see the world, even if it might not be ready to receive her like she might have imagined. You can watch the new trailer for Poor Things right here!
Videos by ComicBook.com
Emma Stone’s Experience on The Favorite Led to Poor Things
Emma Stone sat down with W Magazine this week to discuss how she found herself alongside Mark Ruffalo in this particular project. When it comes down to it, the star couldn’t resist working with her director from The Favorite again. However, there was pretty compelling motivation to play Bella as well. The Poor Things novel is a highly-regarded Scottish work and Stone’s character is nothing if not strange.
“My character Bella is a bit of a Frankenstein, but she’s also a bit of an experiment in the sense that everything is happening very rapidly on her,” Stone explained. “So her hair grows about two inches every couple of days. It had to get longer and longer quickly because that’s what happened in the book.”
Even with that description, people on the Internet cannot help making the comparison between this project and her previous work with Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favorite. It’s a bit of a Film Twitter darling and it’s not hard to see why. Apparently, the duo had been discussing bringing this story to the big screen for a while and all it took was a push to really the ball rolling again.
Stone continued, “We were going back and forth about it for almost five years, but the most special moment while we were discussing the movie would have to be when he first brought it up to me. And I was a producer on this film, so it was much more involved.”
Willem Dafoe’s Performance in Poor Things Draws Praise From Co-Stars
Dafoe’s role in Poor Things was intense just like most of the roles that you hear discussed for the esteemed actor. When he’s not flying around on a glider ruining young men’s lives, he’s asking Stone to slap him more than 20 times to get the emotion of a scene just right. The actress talked to the New York Times about that experience and had nothing but praise for her co-star.
Stone lauded Dafoe’s love for the craft of acting and couldn’t help but mention that story with the slapping. When it comes to nailing down a take, she hadn’t seen anything quite like that. “There’s this instinct to perform that many actors have — the ‘look at me, look at me!’ kind of performer. He’s the opposite of that,” she told the outlet during the interview.
Poor Things Has A Fresh Plot Description
“From filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and producer Emma Stone comes the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.”
Will you be seeing Poor Things in theaters? Let us know down in the comments!
