Emma Stone at the NYFF screening of ‘Bleat’.Photo:Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
Emma Stonesurprised audiences when she made an appearance at the New York Film Festival (NYFF) on Wednesday.
The actress, 34, attended the premiere screening of director Yorgos Lanthimos’Bleatat Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York City, where she called the 30-minute silent film a dream come true.
She elaborated, “I’m being serious. It’s my favorite thing to not have to speak. I wish often [that] we could cut many lines of dialogue because I think people can say a lot more without speaking.”
Bleat, which sees Stone playing a mourning woman opposite Damien Bonnard, marks the third time the actress has worked with Lanthimos, 50, since their first collaboration, 2018’sThe Favourite.
Their other project isPoor Things, which had a screening at the NYFF days prior. There, Lanthimoscould speak aboutthe feature-length movie but Stone was unable to amid theongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. However,Varietyreported thatBleatsecured an interim agreement with the union, allowing her to talk with the director about the short film during the festival’s screening and Q&A.
According to the outlet, Stone apologized for feeling “pretty nervous” during the conversation, acknowledging how long it’s been since she’s been in the spotlight. “I haven’t done this in a while. I’m sorry!” she said.
Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos at NYFF.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
Of working together again, the pair joked that Lanthimos’ projects, includingThe LobsterandThe Killing of a Sacred Deer, always explore themes related to sex, death and goats — andBleatis no exception.
“It’s, like, nonstop, every day. He calls me and he’s like, ‘Goats — what do you think? Death?’ I’m like, ‘OK, still? We shot this three years ago,' ” Stone said, perVariety.
Set on the Greek island of Tenos,Bleatfollows a mourning woman inside a simple house, where “reality blends with dreamy imagination, and tradition with insidious desires,” according toIMDb.
Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone at NYFF.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
Although they didn’t talk about their other film,Poor Things, Lanthimosspoke about Stone’s characterin the graphic, fantastical thriller at both the Venice International Film Festival premiere and NYFF screening.
“It was very important for me to not make a film that was going to be prude, because it would be completely betraying the main character. So we had to be confident,” the director said in Italy. “The character [had to] have no shame, and Emma had to have no shame about her body, nudity and engaging in those scenes, and she understood that right away.”
AsPEOPLE previously reported,Poor Thingsis based on Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel of the same name. And while the film features several unflinchingly graphic sex scenes, Lanthimos praised Stone’s ability to tackle her character’s sexuality sans inhibitions.
“There was a script but, for the sex scenes especially, we sat down with Emma and decided: ‘So what kind of position should we do here, what kind of thing should we do there, what is missing? You know from the experience of sex and the different desires people have, what do we need to portray to make this complete and make it enough of a representation of human desire and its idiosyncrasies, and all these kind of things,'” he said.
The crew also hired intimacy coordinators to ensure a safe and comfortable environment for Stone and her costars. “She made everyone feel very comfortable,” Lanthimos said of one of the intimacy coordinators, Elle McAlpine.
Emma Stone in Paris.Francois Berthier/Getty
Francois Berthier/Getty
Poor Things, which is slated to premiere in theaters on Dec. 8, also starsMark RuffaloandWillem Dafoe.
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Stone’s character ends up running off with “Duncan Wedderburn [Ruffalo], a slick and debauched lawyer” on an adventure across continents. Free from “the prejudices of her times,” she discovers her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.
source: people.com
