Emma Stone Actually Finds Poor Things' Controversial Sex Scenes 'Clinical & Funny'
Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos' 2023 film "Poor Things" has received a lot of critical acclaim, but it's also been the subject of a fair amount of backlash. The Golden Lion winner tells the story of Bella, a woman who dies only to be revived and have her brain replaced with that of an infant by a twisted scientist, in turn setting her on a journey of self-discovery (read: sexual exploration). Due to this complicated subject matter, "Poor Things" has been roped into a larger discourse about sex scenes in cinema.
More reactionary critics have been quick to slam the film's off-beat comedy and have taken serious issue with its subject matter. Other critics have slammed the film for being pedophilic since Bella is technically at the mental age of a child when she begins having sex. But one person who didn't criticize Lanthimos for including sex scenes in the movie was Emma Stone, who earned a Critic's Choice Award and a Golden Globe for her performance as Bella.
Following the #MeToo movement, audiences have been much more critical of intimacy in entertainment settings. However, Stone assured audiences that her sex scenes in "Poor Things" were shot with her enthusiastic consent.
"[The shoots] were very comfortable," she told GamesRadar+. "It was a really small room every time, it was very few people, and we had an amazing intimacy coordinator, Elle McAlpine. In some ways, those scenes were kind of easier than the other ones because they were so choreographed and so straightforward."
'It felt completely necessary to Bella's journey'
Not only has Stone worked with Lanthimos before, having also starred in his 2018 film "The Favourite," she was also signed onto "Poor Things" as a producer. If she didn't already have enough sway as an accomplished lead actor at the top of the bill, her status as a producer certainly earned her the right to determine whether or not she would participate in sex scenes.
However, it's a testament to Stone's performance that audiences were so moved by the scenes. The actor herself was very conscious of their "choreographed" nature.
"Even though most people are reacting to those [scenes] a lot because they feel more intense, they actually were completely fine," she continued. "I was very prepared that those were going to occur because it felt completely necessary to Bella's journey and growth and they feel very clinical and often very funny — to me, at least."
The clinical and comical tone of the film is perhaps what alarmed audiences most, but it should have tipped them off to what the reality of the shoot was like — professional and emotionally removed. When the time came to get naked on camera, Stone made sure only a skeleton crew of trusted individuals were in the room.
"Robbie Ryan, our cinematographer, looks at me like I'm a table or a lamp," she told her "Aloha" co-star Bradley Cooper for Variety: Actors on Actors. "It was amazing. He was just like, 'Whatever.'"
The director didn't want Poor Things to be 'prudish'
The sex scenes in "Poor Things" were more than just a tolerable part of shooting, they were also instrumental to the narrative. Some people have criticized hypersexual shows like Sam Levinson's "Euphoria" or "The Idol" for including unnecessary nudity that bears no apparent function in the plot However, Bella having sex is a key part of her development.
More than that, the inclusion of sex in the story was not Lanthimos' choice alone. He was adapting a novel by Alastair Gray, in which sex is heavily featured — something for which the book also experienced backlash.
"First of all, sex is an intrinsic part of the novel itself, [Bella's] freedom about everything including sexuality." the director explained at a press conference for the Venice Film Festival, per Variety. "Secondly, it was very important for me to not make a film that would be prudish because that would be like completely betraying the main character."
Including sex scenes in "Poor Things" was ultimately the creative choice of the director, but he knew that Stone had to be equally on board with nudity before he agreed to adopt such a sex-filled story.
"We had to be confident Emma had to have no shame about her body, nudity, engaging in those scenes and she understood that right away," Lanthimos added. "The great thing about me and Emma is [...] there is a shorthand and we can communicate without having to explain or talk too much about things. As soon as I started saying something about sex, she would say: 'Yes, of course, it's Bella. We will do what we need to do.'"
Stone requested to go topless in The Favourite
Playing Bella Baxter wasn't the first time that Stone went naked in front of Lanthimos' camera lens, and it probably won't be the last. "Poor Things" was the second feature-length collaboration for Lanthimos and Stone, who first worked together on "The Favourite." They have since collaborated on the 2022 short film "Bleat" and the feature film "Kinds of Kindness," which will likely be released in 2024.
As a Hollywood actor best known for starring in rom-coms, Lanthimos was an unconventional right turn in Stone's career, but their creative relationship couldn't be more symbiotic. The star started taking huge risks as an actor in the very first Lanthimos film that she starred in. Stone even encouraged the Greek filmmaker to insert an unscripted nude scene in "The Favourite" — even though it would be her first time appearing topless in a film.
"I had the sheet up around me," she recalled. "And as we were shooting it and we did a few takes, I said, 'Can I please just be [naked]?' I think it's going to give [Rachel Weisz's character] Sarah something to look at when she sees that I'm not just under the sheet covered up. [My co-star] Olivia [Colman] was like, 'No, don't do it!' Yorgos was like, 'Are you sure that's what you want to do?' And I was like, 'Absolutely.' I chose to do it. I was like, this makes sense to me. It's an absolute [Stone flips the bird] to Sarah."
Like any good actor, Stone prioritizes the emotional life of her character in a scene before her comfort zone. However, not every actor is comfortable being nude on camera, and that doesn't make them any less capable. In fact, one of Stone's co-stars in "Poor Things" had a much harder time with the sex scenes than she did.
Ruffalo had a harder time with the sex scenes than Stone
Even though Stone felt right at home shooting her character's sex scenes in "Poor Things," her scene partner Mark Ruffalo was a bit more ill at ease. For one thing, he was concerned about the age gap between him and his co-star.
"I was like, 'Do I have to?'" the "Avengers" alum recalled in an interview for Variety Actors on Actors. "All I can hear is, 'Nobody wants to see your old ass anymore. Maybe you shouldn't be doing movies like that anymore.'"
Despite his insecurities, Ruffalo was able to find the humor in the scenes, just as Stone had done. "I mean, it's my least favorite part of it, but I also saw it as very comedic and also, like, an extension of the physical comedy that we were already finding," he continued. "So it was just another way to tell the story."
Like Stone and Lanthimos, Ruffalo too pushed back against the popular discourse that has shunned nudity in film and television.
"I feel like we're in this prudish time for films," the actor told Perfect Magazine, per People. "Sexuality is so deeply connected to the psychology of a character. And it should be explored in that sense, too."
He and Stone are part of a wave of actors that have spoken out in support of including sex scenes in films. They are joined by "Euphoria" star Sydney Sweeney, who defended the HBO series when it was criticized for including excessive nude scenes featuring the now-26-year-old actor.
Women are often forced to defend their decision to put their naked bodies on camera and are made to insist that they freely agreed with the decision. Is a mentality that was meant to protect women in the entertainment industry now being wielded to question their creative agency?