The cast spent one take trying to nail Yorgos Lanthimos’ new production.
‘Bugonia’ Trailer: Emma Stone Takes Wild Adventures in Dark Comedy
In the dark comedy “Bugonia,” a prominent CEO (Emma Stone) is kidnapped by conspiracy theorists who believe they are aliens trying to destroy Earth.
If you’re going to shave Emma Stone’s head in front of the cameras, it’s best to do it right the first time.
The two-time Best Actress Oscar winner brought back the bald issue in a big way with Yorgos Lanthimos’ dark comedy Bugonia (in select theaters October 24th and nationwide October 31st). Following previous collaborations on The Favourite, Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness, Stone stars in the new film as Michelle Fuller, the powerful CEO of a biomedical company who believes her conspiracy theorist cousins are aliens bent on world domination.
Early in the film, Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and Don (Aidan Delvis) forcefully kidnap Michelle, and Teddy forces Don to shave his head so that he can’t communicate with the mothership.
Michelle is unconscious at the scene. In real life, Stone was “just kind of sitting there meditating, telling myself to stay still because if I opened my eyes or flinched, I would be in trouble,” the actress says.
However, Stone and the director made a point of filming this scene. Lanthimos knew he had “one chance to get it right,” so he installed four different cameras in the car “to make sure none of them jammed,” he says. Stone said the time it took to set up “gave me a little cold feet.”
“They kept saying, ‘We’ll be ready in 10 minutes. No, it’s actually 30 minutes. No, it’s actually one hour,'” Stone recalled. “I was sitting there getting my hopes up, so I was a little nervous at the last minute, and then Yorgos came over and we talked and I was like, ‘Okay, it’s going to be great.'” And I really liked it. ”
Lanthimos added: “I tried to convince her to keep it because it looked great.”
Plemmons, Stone’s co-star in Kinds of Kindness, admits that he was “maybe more nervous” than Stone. “Wow, Emily’s working really hard here, so I better do my job,” he said with a laugh. (Stone uses her real name, Emily, to friends and co-stars.) “You better get it. It’s about time.”
Stone had done one important preparatory task in advance. “It’s not that scary. It’s a huge change,” Stone said, making sure her four-year-old daughter Louise Jean was “well prepared” to see her bald. “I just said, ‘I’m going to shave my head. I’m going to take my hair off and it’s going to grow back. Isn’t that so silly and fun? We can do whatever we want with our hair! That can change anytime.’ She was like, ‘OK,’ and was totally cool after that. ”
Mr Plemmons suspects that his two sons, Ennis, 7, and James, 4, probably took some time to get used to the longer-than-usual hair on Bugonia. “It took myself “For a while, I didn’t know how to take care of it, and I think it’s obvious when you watch the movie,” he says.
The Oscar-nominated actor began work on Alejandro Iñárritu’s next untitled film immediately after Bugonia, but the director wanted Plemons to dye his hair more red. “It was quite bouffant and also had a strong hair look,” he says. When I got home, I had a hard time washing my hair and getting it back to its natural hair color. “Even after all the treatment, it started to heal, but a week later it would come back. It’s like a virus.”
Stone agrees: “Yes, red is brutal.”
Plemmons’ children “knew I was insecure about my hair, so they did a lot for me,” he says. “It’s like when I’m in public, Ennie lifts my hat and says, ‘Why is your hair so red?’
