Emma Stone: Why there was nothing off limits in Oscars favourite Poor Things
She has played some memorable women, but Emma Stone tells Kerry Parnell her latest – and strangest – role as Bella Baxter in Poor Things is her favourite character.
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She’s played some of the most memorable women, including Cruella, La La Land’s Mia and The Favourite’s Abigail, but Emma Stone says her latest – and strangest – role as Bella Baxter, in Poor Things, is her favourite character.
“I’ve gotten to play roles I deeply love,” she says. “But this character is my favourite, because she’s so one of a kind – unlike anything else.”
She’s not exaggerating. Bella is a woman in a kind of fantasy, steam-punk-esque 19th century London who, after jumping off a bridge, is reanimated by mad doctor Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) with her unborn baby’s brain. Yes. She then learns to navigate the world by running off with sleazy Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) and embarking on a sexual quest, guided by her burgeoning moral compass.
The movie, based on the novel by Alasdair Gray, is directed by The Favourite and The Lobster’s Yorgos Lanthimos and, Stone admits, could have gone either way with its storylines.
As she spends much of the second half of the movie naked, in a brothel and under another director, you get the sense the film could have had a very different outcome.
It’s all about trust, Stone, 35, says, talking to Insider in a hotel suite in London.
“As an actor, there’s no better feeling than being able to just let go and explore,” she says. “And I can only do that if I have full trust in the director. Mark (Ruffalo) said, ‘It’s on a knife’s edge, this could go either way’. I don’t think I would have wanted to do this with anybody else,” she says.
Poor Things has been lauded by critics, nominated for seven Golden Globes, including Best Actress for Stone, Best Movie (Comedy or Musical), and Best Director for Lanthimos. It’s also tipped to sweep the Oscars. So how does that feel?
“It’s deeply special,” Stone says, adding she’s mainly excited she’s now able to spend more time with her co-stars again after the actors’ strike delayed promotional tours. “It’s been really amazing. There was all this time we weren’t able to go out and support the film, so it’s extra-meaningful to get the chance to be together now,” she says.
Stone, who co-produced the movie, has worked with Lanthimos four times and likens their bond to a theatre group.
“We work really well together. It feels like every time he tells me one of his concepts, I’m like, ‘Well yeah, that sounds amazing’,” she says. “We align really closely on the material we’re drawn to.”
Her on-screen chemistry with Ruffalo – who is also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor – is apparent.
“It was so much fun,” she says. “Yorgos really cultivates this. We do weeks of rehearsal and that’s so rare on a film – you do that for a play. You really feel like you bonded and now if you see all of us together, we’re like, crazy people. We love each other so much,” she says.
Stone, dressed in a Louis Vuitton green voluminous jacket and miniskirt, is no stranger to fabulous fashion on and off-screen. In Cruella, she wore Vivienne Westwood-esque gowns by Jenny Beavan, and in Poor Things, Bella sports wild Victorian creations by costume designer Holly Waddington.
“Oh, they’re amazing. Holly is just brilliant,” she says, explaining Bella’s wedding dress is one of the favourite costumes she’s ever worn. “I almost cried when I put it on,” she says.
But as astonishing as the frocks are, the shocks are too.
So how were some of the more confrontational scenes, to shoot?
“It was definitely a new experience for me, but it was the environment we had created – we had worked on and talked about this for over four years – so I was very prepared that this was what we wanted to do,” Stone says.
“Bella doesn’t have shame about herself or her sexuality, so why would we? We also had a tiny, pared-down crew when we shot those scenes and an intimacy co-ordinator who was incredible. It’s so choreographed; she was imperative,” she says.
So, was anything off-limits?
“I didn’t feel there were any things, where I was like, ‘Hell no, this can’t be there’,” she says. “I believed so deeply in her story and what she’s experiencing that there wasn’t – clearly – too much that was off-limits.”
Stone’s next movie is also with Lanthimos – an anthology film, Kind of Kindness, where the actors play multiple roles – and co-stars Dafoe and Margaret Qualley. It’s also expected Cruella 2 will go into production soon.
With one Oscar under her designer belt, for La La Land, how does she pick a winner?
“It’s all about the filmmakers,” she says. “It’s an instinctual feeling.”
Her movie-making compass is clearly working.
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