Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos on Poor Things and creative disagreements

When Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone do interviews together, they form an unlikely comedic double act: Lanthimos dodges questions with deadpan remarks, Stone fills the silences with anxious, self-deprecating humour. It’s obvious why the duo have collaborated four times: they’re total opposites who impulsively finish each other’s sentences, giggling as they do it.

On paper, it’s not an obvious match-up. One is the 50-year-old Greek auteur whose breakout feature, Dogtooth, was about incest and imprisoned children, while the other is a 35-year-old Hollywood A-lister whose crowdpleasing credits include La La Land, Easy A, and The Amazing Spider-Man. Yet, on 2019’s The Favourite, Stone’s natural charisma proved an ideal counterpart to Lanthimos’s provocative sensibilities. Since then, the pair have shot a short film, Bleat, and another two features, Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness.

“What happens when we disagree on something, Yorgos?” says Stone.

“We talk it out,” says Lanthimos.

“We’re very direct with each other,” says Stone. “I don’t know if I even look at him terms of being a director. It’s more as people.”

Do they have specific examples to share?

“No,” says Lanthimos.

If they think of something later, I’d love to know.

“We’ll call you,” says Stone, following it with a cackle.

The pair are speaking to me the week Poor Things finally reaches UK cinemas. Adapted from Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel, the audacious sci-fi comedy stars Stone as Bella Baxter, a woman in Victorian London who’s brought back to life by a scientist (Willem Dafoe) after she drowns; as Bella was pregnant at the time, the brain of her unborn foetus is inserted into her skull. Subsequently, Bella discovers the world as a child in an adult’s body – sex, food, and the constraints of living in a patriarchy.

For Stone, the role’s lack of backstory was a rarity. “Usually you think about how they became the person they are, and why they speak the way they do,” she says. “But with Bella, it was an invention. It was freeing. There was no right or wrong.”

Before Gray passed away in 2019, the novelist gave Lanthimos a tour of Glasgow and granted him the rights after watching Dogtooth on DVD. I point out that Dogtooth, like Poor Things, is about a woman’s delayed adulthood. “I didn’t think of the parallels until we were actually making the film,” Lanthimos insists. “I saw it as a very different story.”

When I spoke to Lanthimos for The Killing of a Sacred Deer, I speculated that Colin Farrell’s character, a surgeon, was an artist who played God with his patients. Likewise, Poor Things depicts a scientist who believes in advancing the human race through biological experiments, often involving animals. Again, Lanthimos denies any through-line – even before I raise similarities with The Lobster. “I read the novel 12 years ago, and wanted to make it before we wrote The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” he says. “I’m happy people make connections, but I just find a story I’m interested in, build the world, and find the characters.”

Whereas The Favourite utilised natural light and a real country house, Poor Things unfolds on elaborate, otherworldly soundstages with LED walls, miniatures, and matte paintings inspired by Powell and Pressburger. The conversation turns to how, in preproduction, Lanthimos used Unreal Engine and explored the sets via VR.

“VR?” says Stone, utterly baffled.

“Yes,” says Lanthimos. “She didn’t know, as you can hear from her voice.”

“You monster!” she says, laughing. “I was not given that opportunity.”

“This was a very large-scale build,” he says. “It was important to know what the possibilities were.”

“Oh, was it?” she says, dialling up the sarcasm. “Was it useful?”

“Very useful,” he says.

“Well, it could’ve been useful for me!” she exclaims. “Remember when you wanted an example of a disagreement? Well, here you are.”

“Usually you think about how they became the person they are, and why they speak the way they do. But with Bella, it was an invention. It was freeing. There was no right or wrong” – Emma Stone

Also expanding from the cinematography of The Favourite is the range of lenses in Poor Things, sometimes shifting multiple times per scene, and an uptick in dramatic zooms. Stone claims she tried not to overthink her performance when it came to lenses. “Unless it’s the four, which is the one he uses to punish the actors,” she says. “If it wasn’t going well, he’d go, ‘The four!’ And then it’d be the widest-angle lens that looks like a bubble. It looks really far away from you, even when it’s close up to you. You go, ‘Ah, shit! Now the four’s coming out.’”

What makes Lanthimos bring out the 4mm lens?

“Bad acting!” says Stone.

“No!” says Lanthimos. “It’s when it needs a large shift in perspective. It’s very instinctual.”

Before the SAG strike, Poor Things was scheduled to hit UK cinemas in September 2023. In the intervening months, though, it’s become an unlikely Oscar contender. A few days prior to our interview, the film nabbed two Golden Globes; on stage, Lanthimos thanked Bruce Springsteen, pointing out they share a birthday. (I bring out my passport to show Stone that we have the same birthday. She promises to thank me in an acceptance speech, too.) An accidental side-effect of the strike ending in November is that the film now has a very awards-friendly January 2024 release.

Subsequently, the film is under extra scrutiny. The week of our conversation, IndieWire published an article claiming that Poor Things was re-edited for its UK release – specifically a scene where Bella, who later works in a brothel, has sex with a man in front of his two children. As soon as I mention this news story, Stone interjects: “No, no, no.” She explains that the reported alteration was made a long time ago. “The final cut of the film is the same worldwide.”

“We didn’t cut a scene out,” says Lanthimos. “It was changing a wide shot or something. Very tiny, little details.”

Right now, Lanthimos is editing Kinds of Kindness, an anthology feature that was called And until a few weeks ago. Stone claims to have no disagreements on the early cuts. Does that mean they agreed on the title change?

“Well, And was a terrible title,” says Stone, bursting into hysterics. “Sorry! It had to change!” As Lanthimos starts laughing, Stone laughs even harder. “You agree?”

“Conceptually it was a good title,” he says. “There were practical difficulties.”

As for their potential fifth collaboration, both are reluctant to provide any scoops. On further questioning, Lanthimos reveals he’s no longer attached to The Man in the Rockerfeller Suit, he’s still working on a script with Ottessa Moshfegh for My Year of Rest and Relaxation (Stone declines to answer if she’ll act in it), and he confirms a rumour that he might direct an Ari Aster-produced remake of Save the Green Planet! “There are a number of projects I’m looking at, and [Save the Green Planet!] is one of those.”

“You have to find people that take you to this other place that you’ve never been” – Yorgos Lanthimos

Speaking to Dazed, Moshfegh referenced difficulty writing for Lanthimos as it meant adapting to his cinematic voice. Would the director prefer people acclimatise to him, or does he seek collaborators who share his vision?

“It can never be exactly the same, but you need to see certain things in a similar way,” Lanthimos says. “You have to able to utilise their personality, and that enriches your creativity as well, because otherwise you’d just do things yourself. You have to find people that take you to this other place that you’ve never been.”

As they do more films together, will it become easier or harder to find those surprises?

“Both,” says Stone. “It’s easier in that we have a shorthand. But it’s harder in the sense that we want to find new realms and ways of doing things. And so…” She pauses. “That’s not harder. It’s easier.” She laughs. “It just gets better!”

She adds, “I’ll do anything with Yorgos.”

“I’ll do anything with her,” he responds.

Poor Things is out in cinemas now