Poor Things is now playing in select theatres, and it marks the latest collaboration between Oscar-winning actor Emma Stone and Oscar-nominated director Yorgos Lanthimos. The film has been met with rave reviews, and it’s currently a top contender during awards season. Stone previously worked with Lanthimos on the short film Bleat as well as the feature film The Favourite, which earned them both Academy Award nominations as well as a win for Olivia Colman. During a recent interview with IndieWire, Stone spoke about playing the reanimated Bella Baxter in Poor Things and revealed what makes a Lanthimos set unique.
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“It was very important to feel that this was an intimate experience no matter how big the sets were,” Stone explained. “There’s nothing better than to be free and experimenting.”
Lanthimos added, “I knew that I wanted to create this world for Bella to inhabit so that it reflected her individuality and uniqueness … The idea was that we would build everything in the studio, even exteriors so that everything would feel tactile and familiar but also out of this world.”
“We don’t have marks,” Stone added of the film’s production. “Yorgos doesn’t say action. There’s no video village, just Yorgos sitting with his monitor right by the camera. We don’t have stand-ins and we don’t leave set. It feels as small and intimate as humanly possible. The things that are happening from rehearsal or from take to take shift and change as time goes on, so you’re really trusting Yorgos to find that world.”
What Is Yorgos Lanthimos’ Next Movie?
Lanthimos and Stone already have another movie in the works: Kinds of Kindness.
Kinds of Kindness was filmed last October in New Orleans and is now in the midst of post-production, so fans won’t have to wait too long to see Lanthimos’ next movie. The upcoming film will also feature Poor Things‘ Margaret Qualley and Willem Dafoe and The Favourite‘s Joe Alwyn in addition to Lanthimos first-timers Jesse Plemons (Killers of the Flower Moon), Hong Chau (The Whale), and Hunter Schafer (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes).
Kinds of Kindness was helmed by Lanthimos who co-wrote the script with Efthimis Filippou. The screenplay was developed by Element Pictures and Film4, and it’s being produced by Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element in addition to Kasia Malipan and Lanthimos. Ollie Madden and Daniel Battsek are executive producing for Film4, which co-financed the movie.
“Working with Yorgos continues to be a highlight for us at Searchlight, and this is yet another truly original project that sets his work apart,” Searchlight Presidents David Greenbaum and Matthew Greenfield previously said in a joint statement. “Working again with Emma, Willem, Jesse, and Margaret as well as Element and Film4 is just the icing on the cake.”
“This is our fifth film with Yorgos and we are delighted to re-unite once again with Searchlight and Film4 on this brilliant script by Yorgos and Efthimis. Yorgos has drawn an incredible cast and crew and we are dying to get started,” Element’s Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe added.
Currently, the plot for Kinds of Kindness is unknown. Poor Things is now playing in select theaters, and opens wide on December 22nd.
