Total Film has debuted new stills from Emma Stone's Poor Things, a Frankenstein-esque surrealist film that sees Emma Stone starring as a deceased woman named Bella Baxter, who's brought back to life by a mad scientist, played by Willem Dafoe.
The stills are from the latest issue of the magazine, where Stone reveals that she actually made a mistake with her hair that altered the production.
"Well, I remember I dyed my hair too dark and we had to kind of go with that," said Stone in the issue that hits newsstands on August 17.
In the interview, director Yorgos Lanthimos also discussed his desire to play with expectations one might have when viewing a tale about a Frankenstein-like monster and how Stone's hair color plays a factor.
"That was an idea, that she’d be almost ahead of her time – a reactionary of sorts. But childlike and natural, and all these things. So we felt like, 'It’d be a great idea to dye her hair dark.' But then Emma went ahead and became jet black. And I was like, 'Alright.'
Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster) are reunited following their collaboration on The Favourite, which won multiple accolades at the 75th Venice International Film Festival, the 72nd BAFTA Awards, the Golden Globes, and the 91st Academy Awards in 2018.
Poor Things is a surrealist science fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos from a screenplay by Tony McNamara (Cruella). The film is based on a 1992 novel of the same name, written by Alasdair Gray.
Recently, Poor Things had its domestic theatrical release delayed from September 8 to December 8, 2023, due to the SAG-AFTRA strike and the guild rules that prohibit actors from promoting their films. It's thought that Searchlight Pictures would like to make an awards season push for the film, which would obviously be hampered by this limitation.
Poor Things Official Synopsis: From filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and producer Emma Stone comes the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe).
Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.