At the Venice Film Festival press conference for his eagerly awaited “Poor Things,” director Yorgos Lanthimos expressed his hope for Emma Stone to attend so they could discuss, among other things, the fact that Bella Baxter, the character she plays, has a lot of sex sequences in the movie.
“It’s a shame that Emma could not be here to speak more about it, because it will be coming all from me,” the director said. “First of all sex is an intrinsic part of the novel itself, her freedom about everything including sexuality.” He continued remarking, “Secondly, it was very important for me to not make a film that would be prudish because that would be like completely betraying the main character. We had to be confident Emma had to have no shame about her body, nudity, engaging in those scenes and she understood that right away.”
Lanthimos further commented, “The great thing about me and Emma is that we have made four films together; there is a shorthand and we can communicate without having to explain or talk to much about things. As soon as I started saying something about sex, she would say: ‘yes,’ of course, it’s Bella. We will do what we need to do.”
Elle McAlpine’s appointment as the movie’s intimacy coordinator was another topic Lanthimos discussed. “At the beginning, this profession felt a little threatening to most filmmakers, but I think its like everything: if you’re with a good person, it’s great and you realize you actually need them,” Lanthimos said. “She made everything much easier for everyone.”
A Frankenstein-inspired tale based on Alasdair Gray’s book of the same name, “Poor Things” stars Emma Stone as a young woman who is revived by a scientist (Willem Dafoe) using a child’s brain. The movie also stars Jerrod Carmichael, Ramy Youssef, and Mark Ruffalo. A Frankenstein-inspired tale based on Alasdair Gray’s book of the same name, “Poor Things” stars Emma Stone as a young woman who is revived by a scientist (Willem Dafoe) using a child’s brain. The movie also stars Jerrod Carmichael, Ramy Youssef, and Mark Ruffalo.
The Searchlight Pictures film “Poor Things” is slated to debut in theatres on December 8. The next showing of the movie will be at the New York Film Festival in 2023.