‘Poor Things’ Director Yorgos Lanthimos Says Sex Scenes Were ‘A Little Too Much’ for Some Execs When Pitching Film

EXCLUSIVE: Ahead of Focus Features‘ February 23rd release of Drive-Away Dolls, the road-trip caper marking her first collaboration with Academy Award winner Ethan Coen, Margaret Qualley has been set to star in Honey Don’t!, the filmmaker’s latest for the same studio.

The sister of renowned Scottish author Alasdair Gray has insisted that he wouldn't be furious that every trace of Scotland was wiped from the Hollywood movie based on his book.

Poor Things.The film—which has already earned Stone a best actress statue at the , where the film also won best musical or comedy motion picture—sees Stone's character Bella Baxter brought back from the dead by a scientist who replaces her brain with the brain of a baby. Based on the 1992 Alasdair Gray novel of the same name and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, the film follows Bella's “fantastical evolution” as she embarks on a journey of discovery.The film is raucous and unflinchingly candid, but has drawn criticism for its graphic sex and masturbation scenes, which show Bella learning her body and its power.Stone defended the scenes in an interview with BBC Radio 4, in which host Samira Ahmed described them as “quite graphic,” adding: “I think it’s fair to say [these sorts of scenes are] unusual these days in Hollywood.”Stone replied, “So much of this was about being true to Bella's experience.

Perfect magazine in a recent interview. “I’ve never done anything like [‘Poor Things’] before.” “So, like, the sex scenes,” continued Ruffalo. “Am I too old to be doing that kind of stuff? Does anyone want to see that?”In a second Instagram post, the “Spotlight” actor, who appeared nude from the waist up in the cover shoot, mused that Hollywood is currently “in this prudish time for films.” “Sexuality is so deeply connected to the psychology of a character.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In “Poor Things,” Willem Dafoe plays God, bringing his devilish grin to the role of an ethically unbound surgeon who grafts body parts from one creature onto another, blending ducks and geese with dogs and goats — and, in the case of Emma Stone’s Bella Baxter, implanting a spare brain in the corpse of a drowned woman. The Dr. Frankenstein-like character is just the latest leap of faith for an actor who spoke to Variety, apropos of receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Mark Ruffalo, Emma Stone and Ramy Youssef are celebrating!

Mark Ruffalo tells me he has, until now, kinda shied away from playing the villain of the piece. He licks his lips as he declares that it’s “so much fun to finally get to play the bad guy.”

Jon Burlingame Sometimes directors don’t want you humming the music as you leave their film. More than ever, filmmakers are seeking fresh musical approaches, especially when the subject matter is dark or fantastic. Three late-2023 releases demonstrate this with music that catches the ear in unusual ways.

Poor Things looks set to be one of the major films of the 2024 award season.Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite, The Lobster), the sci-fi black comedy follows young woman Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) who, after dying by suicide, is resurrected by a scientist and runs off with a debauched lawyer on a journey of self-discovery.The film is based on a novel of the same name by Alasdair Gray. Alongside Stone, the cast includes Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, Kathryn Hunter, Jerrod Carmichael, Hanna Schygulla and Margaret Qualley.At the wedding ceremony between Bella Baxter and Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), Alfie Blessington (Christopher Abbott), the ex-husband of Bella’s mother, interrupts and implores Bella, who he believes is her mother Victoria Blessington, to return with him.Bella abandons Max at the altar, keen to learn of her mother’s past life with Alfie.

lead actress in ‘Poor Things’?Emma Stone is a really big “Jeopardy!” fan. So much so, that the Oscar winner applies to the game show every single year.“I apply every June,” she said during Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast on Thursday. “I don’t want to go on ‘Celebrity Jeopardy!’ I want to earn my stripes.”She continued, “You can only take the test once a year with your email address, and I’ve never gotten on the show.”If she by chance ever gets the call to join, she will be well prepared.“I watch it every single night, and I mark down how many answers I get right,” the 35-year-old exclaimed.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Emma Stone has a dream, and not one you’d expect. The “Poor Things” star, coming off a Golden Globe win this week, tells Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast that she wants to be a contestant on the classic game show “Jeopardy” — and no, not the “Celebrity” edition. “I apply every June,” she says.

It was only a matter of time before Willem Dafoe worked with Yorgos Lanthimos, and the result is everything you might expect and more. In Poor Things, the actor plays Dr. Godwin Baxter, a Scottish scientist given to sewing dog’s heads onto chickens, and we meet him after completing the most important experiment of his life: by transplanting an infant’s brain into the skull of its dead mother, he creates the anarchic and wholly unpredictable Bella (Emma Stone). It may sound creepy, most likely because it really is, but Dafoe brings a surprising sadness to the role. Here, he reflects on the film’s strange, unique world, raises the curtain on 2024, and talks a little about his recent festival hit Inside, in which he plays a clueless thief who becomes trapped in the apartment of a wealthy art collector.

The Directors Guild of America has nominated Barbie‘s Greta Gerwig, Oppenheimer‘s Christopher Nolan, Poor Things’ Yorgos Lanthimos, Killers of the Flower Moon’s Martin Scorsese and The Holdovers’ Alexander Payne for the top feature film prize at its 76th annual DGA Awards. See the full list below.

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with Yorgos Lanthimos‘ Poor Things, the darkly comedic genre-bender penned by Tony McNamara that marks a reunion of the Greek filmmaker with McNamara and star Emma Stone after 2018’s Oscar-nominated The Favourite.

Emma Stone’s new film Poor Things includes a sex scene that had to be edited in order to fit in with UK law.The film, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite, The Lobster), includes a scene so contentious that if left uncut would have contravened the UK’s Protection of Children Act 1978.The darkly comedic fantasy film sees Stone’s character being brought back to life by Willem Dafoe, who plays a Frankenstein-like scientist in the film.In the scene in question, two young boys watch Stone’s Bella Baxter working as a prostitute, after their father has hired Bella to teach them how to have sex.The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), which is responsible for the classification and censorship of all films and video works exhibited in UK cinemas or released on physical media, is clear that the film could not have been shown, even with an 18 certificate, unless the scene had been modified.“We originally saw this film for advice. We informed the distributor we would be likely to classify the film 18 on condition that changes be made to one short sequence depicting sexual activity in the presence of children,” said a BBFC statement.“This is in accordance with the Protection of Children Act 1978.

As film fans around the world slowly begin to calm down from the hype of this year’s Golden Globes, many casual viewers have been left intrigued by one of this year’s winners, Poor Things. The sci-fi film, which stars Emma Stone won big at this year’s Golden Globe ceremony, when it took home the award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, as well as bagging Emma an award for Best Actress herself.

In recent years, the line between TV and film has really blurred. No longer is TV storytelling seen as “less than.” Often, the very best acting, writing, and directing is seen in episodes of TV.

“It’s a very different film,” Yorgos Lanthimos said Sunday about his next movie with Emma Stone, titled Kinds of Kindness,which he’s currently editing. It marks the third time the pair have worked together.

Golden Globes, broadcast on CBS for the first time, the news of the night was that, save for one or two genuine shocks, everything unfolded pretty much as had been widely predicted. First-time host Jo Koy presided over the telecast, which took place, as always, at the Beverly Hilton.

Yorgos Lanthimos celebrated his Golden Globes win by giving a shoutout to Bruce Springsteen.