Emma Stone has already won two Oscars.
The Poor Things actress took home the top title for her latest collaboration with author Yorgos Lanthimos. Stone already won the best actress award in 2017 for “La La Land,” by Damien Chazelle. Stone has already received Oscar nominations for "Birdman" and Lanthimos' "The Favourite".
"Poor Things" marks Stone's third collaboration with Lanthimos. The pair will work together on the upcoming films "Kinds of Kindness" and "Save the Green Planet," a remake of Jang Joon-hwan's 2005 sci-fi satire.
Stone plays Bella Baxter in "Poor Things". Bella is a reanimated (and renamed) woman who comes back to life with the brain of her unborn child after committing suicide during pregnancy. Bella explores her world at the turn of the century and travels through 19th century Europe. The film is based on Scottish author Alasdair Gray's 1992 novel about a woman who drowns herself to escape her abusive husband. The novel was adapted by “The Favourite” author Tony McNamara.
"Poor Things" premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival and won the Golden Lion there. Stone has already won the Golden Globe as best comedy actress for her role as Bella.
Together with Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer", "Poor Things" leads the 2024 Oscars with the most nominations. Stone also produced "Poor Things," which would make him a nominee for a third Oscar if the film wins best picture.
The Director Lanthimos said at the Venice Film Festival that Stone's performance was completely free from modern social norms and reflected the state of mind of Bella's character. Therefore, Stone had no "shame" evident in his entire character.
It was an essential part of the novel itself, its freedom in everything, including sexuality," Lanthimos said. “Secondly, it was very important for me not to make a modest film because it would completely betray the main character. It was necessary to trust and, once again, love the character without being ashamed.
According to Lanthimos, Stone"There was no reason to be ashamed of her body, her nudity or her participation in those scenes, and she understood it immediately. "The best thing about me and Emma is that we made four films together. shortcut Like this When I started to say something like what I just said, she said, "Yes, of course, I understand, I'm Bella." We'll do what we have to do." Lanthimos later told reporters, "It was very important to stay true to the character of Bella, and it's very important that she not be ashamed of anything, not just sex, but also her interactions, her relationships, and the way she perceives the world. , in this way he wants to experience the world, all of it. The sexual aspect was the same. We had to approach it the same way we approached everything else. Otherwise it would be very bad for the character. And that's what which is." That's what Emma thought too and that's what we did. We can only be guided by our perception of what is right, [whether it is] violence, sex, comedy, drama or music."
Meanwhile, Stone said the sex scenes were the "easiest part" of filming "Poor Things." The actress said during a panel discussion at the Best Motion Picture Producer nomination ceremony in Los Angeles (via People magazine) that "we knew exactly what we were doing because of the choreography of every censored sequence."
Instead, it is a physical comedy that Stone's most convincing performance.
“Understanding when you can walk or eat 60 Portuguese sweets, the first bite is delicious, but by the end you just feel like throwing up,” Stone said. "Or see death and decay for the first time, something much more difficult than nudity, which is all people seem to want to ask me."
Stone also told Variety that he was initially "freaked out" thinking about how to play Bella.
“I have lived with her in my thoughts for so long. and I was so in love with Bella that I was afraid I couldn't do her justice as a character,” Stone said. “I felt like I let them down the first week and Yorgos. about it, but I couldn't tell him about it."
He continued: "It was just a gradual comfort. I was able to talk about it with Yorgos and we were able to understand it over time. And because it's a safe environment, there's no rush. His sets don't feel like, "Oh, we have to figure this out." and move on, even if I don't want to." » Or at least he doesn't tell us.
Stone described Bella as her favorite character to date due to the completely liberating nature of the role.
"I was so mad at him. It's the idea of not living with this self-criticism, this shame, or these social contracts that we make when we're children. And something like that. The nature of fear is “always looking out for yourself,” Stone summarized. “In a way, it's terrible to say, it's a very selfish state. It's not about offending others out of fear (I always do that), but it's because you think about yourself a lot. You think: “What will happen to me?” What I said? What have I done?" While Bella's approach to the world is all about experience. It's simply about how she perceives things."
