'Poor Things': Why Bella Baxter is Emma Stone's favourite character ever

With a second and third Oscar potentially within reach, Emma Stone chats about her roles as star and producer of 'Poor Things'

Emma Stone at a screening of 'Poor Things' at London's Barbican Centre.  Picture: Eamonn M McCormack

Emma Stone is being tipped to win her second and possibly her third Oscar this awards season.

The US star looks set to feature in the best actress and best picture categories at the 96th Academy Awards for her roles as star and producer of Poor Things.

Emma previously won the Best Actress Oscar in 2017 for her performance in La La Land.

Poor Things is a black comedy directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (director of The Favourite) and written by Tony McNamara. It is based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Alasdair Gray.

Its plot focuses on Bella Baxter (Stone), a young Victorian woman who, after being crudely resurrected by a scientist following her suicide, runs off with a debauched lawyer to embark on an odyssey of self-discovery and sexual liberation. Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, and Jerrod Carmichael also star in the movie.

At a recent Q&A in LA, Emma spoke about how this project came about and what she likes about working with Lanthimos.

She also talked about why Bella Baxter is her favourite ever character, her move into producing and more.

So Emma, congratulations on your performance in this. Did you discuss this project while you were working with Yorgos Lanthimos on The Favourite? Also, when did you sign on as producer as well as star?

So, after we made The Favourite — we made that at the beginning of 2017 — and he and I had dinner and I think I was just asking him what he was thinking about doing next. And there were multiple things that he was thinking about.

And one of them was Poor Things. And he sort of told me the premise of the book and I immediately was like, “That’s great”. Like, “When do we start?” [laughs] But he wasn’t pitching it to me … [laughs] But we had gotten to know each other, we had met a couple of years before The Favourite and so we had gotten to know each other a bit.

And then working together was so wonderful and I knew I really, really wanted to get the chance to work with him again, if I could. And then the combination of this story and this character and him was just so beyond exciting to me.

Emma Stone said working with Yorgos Lanthimos was 'so wonderful and I knew I really, really wanted to get the chance to work with him again'. Picture: Dia Dipasupil/Getty

So we actually talked about it for a while before I even read a draft of the script, like a couple of years. And in that process, he was telling me about how it was coming together. I read it and then we were talking about all the different departments and what it would look like and what it would feel like, the cast, all of that.

I think actually he asked me to be a producer before that, but he asked me to be a producer at a certain point. And from then every facet we would discuss and it was amazing.

And it was wonderful to feel that kind of, I think it would have been this way either way, because of our relationship, but just in title alone, it’s really nice to have that kind of agency and that ability to express yourself in many circumstances. But again, I mean, even if I hadn’t been a producer, I think it would have felt like that because of the way we discuss everything.

Obviously you are working with Yorgos again, but what would you say was the unique aspect of making this film?

Well, she’s my favourite character ever, like hands down, by a mile — she’s incredible. I know that I probably will never ever get to even touch a character like Bella ever again, which is heartbreaking to me, but also incredible because to be so lucky to get to play a character like her.

And so that is precious to me, Bella is precious to me. Beyond that, the dynamic we felt really protective of. Yorgos and I made a short film in between The Favourite and Poor Things at the beginning of 2020, right before the pandemic. And that was a very small crew, we were on an island in Greece for two weeks, I think.

And it was very pared down and straightforward. And we could just experiment and do what we wanted to do. And that energy felt really good to both of us, that was kind of how he made films in Greece at the beginning.

They were made by everyone, everyone was collaborating, and it was small and they were all participating — it felt more like that. And so that energy, I think, is very important to both of us that no matter how big it is — and this film is really big in scale — all the sets and a large crew and many actors, whereas our short film only had two actors. I think that that energy, hopefully, remains.

And it felt very intimate and very trusting and like a safe place to kind of do all of these things, very protected in that way, but also small and like everyone’s making the same thing. So I guess that. Also, shooting on film woo!

Can you talk about how you approached playing Bella, especially when she is literally being an eight-year-old at certain moments in her mind? What sort of conversations did you have with Yorgos?

First, when it comes to her age, it was very important to both of us in talking about it that none of it was literal. As we moved through the different stages, we weren’t putting a certain number on where she is. Because she grows so rapidly and because it is — believe it or not — not based on the true story [laughs].

Actually, it’s like a metaphor — I know it feels very realistic! [laughs]. So, so much of the fun of it was the fact that it wasn’t comparable to anything and there was so much to kind of experiment with, in terms of her physicality and her language and her evolution. And so Yorgos and I worked on her physicality quite a bit in Budapest because we were there like a month before we started shooting.

We had a rehearsal process but we would also have solo rehearsals where we’d pretty much just work on her walk and her physicality and her kind of speech. But then we created stages, like one to five of where she is, because at the very beginning of the shoot, we were in Baxter’s house, and we only had that house for the beginning.

Mark Ruffalo, Emma Stone, and Willem Dafoe attend the UK gala screening of 'Poor Things' at the Barbican Centre in London, on Thursday. Picture: Eamonn M McCormack/Getty/Walt Disney Studios

So she was just stage one and stage five within that house. And then each big event happens and it sort of kicks her into a different stage, but we didn’t shoot that until after we had done kind of the beginning and the end — so that was extremely helpful to have that.

And then in terms of what I was pulling from or something, I think in any other job that I’ve done — to call this a job is crazy, this is like a joy — in any other project that I’ve done it’s a person with history, whether you’re playing a real person or a character that has been written, you find that sort of natural — if you’re playing an adult - they’ve been through all kinds of things in their lives.

And they’ve had all kinds of traumas or wonderful things happen and it all builds up to that point. And so you think about that to an extent, I’m more instinctual than that a lot of the time — but you do think about those things.

Bella in 'Poor Things' is 'my favourite character I’ve ever played', says Emma Stone.

But with Bella, it was unlearning, it was just being able to get to a place of pure joy and curiosity and a lack of shame and judgement about myself, my body, my experiences in the world, seeing everything anew for the first time. And whether it’s food or sex, or money, or suffering, or whatever it may be — all of that got to be brand new.

Which is why she’s my favourite character I’ve ever played, because what it required of me was just to like shed, rather than add. And it was like the greatest gift to be able to do something like that, because she is so joyous — until she’s not and she learns things, but even still, she has such a resilience to her and in her and it doesn’t bog her down, it just propels her forward. I found it so inspirational the way that she functions in the world.

Your subtraction, as you put it, looked surgical — it felt so authentic watching you.

Well, I mean, that also speaks to the, like imperative, the biggest, biggest, biggest thing about being able to do this was Yorgos — truly. Because like there’s so many times where as an actor, you know, if you’re given the gift of choosing parts rather than just taking what is coming to you, which is the majority of the time as an actor — and I know this is a very limited timeframe where I’m able to have that level of choice in the things that I take on — it’s like, of course, I want to do this with him, because I trust him so deeply, I admire him so deeply.

And when you don’t feel like you need to be like a co-captain of the ship. Because one of the hardest things, for me, as an actor, I know a lot of actors are able to do this with much more grace than I can, but when I feel like I don’t have full trust in who’s steering it, everything is affected by it. Because I feel like, ‘Oh if I do that in this take you’re gonna fucking use it. I know you are!’ So like, ‘You’re asking me to do this. And I know this is what you’re gonna put in there.’ [laughs] You have to trust this person so deeply and for a role like this that requires all of these things, it would be impossible without him.

So in all of these things I could experiment, I could like dial it up or down or whatever and he’s able to just sort of like look at me or say like ‘No’ or like ‘Yes, OK.’ And it’s such a shorthand at this point but that’s a testament to him and to our relationship and the amount of faith I have in him as a filmmaker.

Which is like, understandable when you see his films why, in my opinion, he’s not for everybody but he is for me! [laughs]

The film felt very limitless and just endlessly transgressive. Was there ever a moment in the book or in the filmmaking that you felt that you actually went too far?

I never felt that way. Like we went too far.

You talked about being able to choose your projects. You’re a producer and actor on this as you are on The Curse, which just came out. What specifically do you look for in projects that you  want to produce that are also acting in?

That’s a newer thing. Thank you for that question. That’s newer over the past couple of years. I moved to here [LA] when I was 15 and started auditioning for things when I was 15. So it’s been now 20 years, which is really surreal, that I’ve been sort of working or things have gone on.

And I think as time has gone on, it was sort of what I was talking about before. As an actor, I’ve been in circumstances where I don’t feel like I really get to — and I definitely do not have these incredible opinions that everyone’s got to hear, not at all — but the best thing about producing is the kind of ability to hopefully help bring people together.

Like, that’s one thing that I really love about that is like, find people that are really wonderful to work together and that you trust. I think that’s something that Yorgos does as a director and a producer as well.

For his department heads, he puts a lot of faith and in his cast, he puts a lot of faith in that what these people are doing is they’re there for a reason.

And I think that’s a really beautiful part of getting to have that sort of voice as a producer is to say like, I really feel strongly that this person would be a good addition to this and that you can sort of create the environment a little bit more and you’re not just sort of left to like, whatever is happening or other people are deciding.

It’s been a really great process in that way. But then you also, I learnt, have to watch like a million cuts of things and do notes, and that sucks! [laughs].

There’s all this other stuff they don’t tell you about [laughs]. But that’s also good because you learn that in any job, there’s a reason that you do it, which is mostly that you love it.

If you’re in a creative profession, hopefully, you’re in it because you love it. And then you start to do it professionally and you’re like ‘A lot of this sucks’. But it’s so worth it because of the part that’s so amazing. So that’s what I’ve learnt about producing! [laughs]

Poor Things is due for release in Irish cinemas next month