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Emma Stone as Bella Baxter
Image © Searchlight Pictures
From filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and producer Emma Stone comes Poor Things, the tale of the fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe).
Willem Defoe as Dr. Godwin Baxter
Image © Searchlight Pictures
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. The film is based on the novel Poor Things: Episodes from the Early Life of Archibald McCandless M.D., Scottish Public Health Officer by Scottish writer Alasdair Gray.
Emma Stone (Left) as Bella Baxter and Mark Ruffalo (Right) as Duncan Wedderburn
Image © Searchlight Pictures
"Alasdair Gray’s novel is immediately something very visually striking and complex – the themes, the humor, and the complexity of its characters and language. I've never read anything like it before, I was very taken by it," says Lanthimos. "Gray was a painter and he’d done illustrations with the text. It was, overall, a story about a woman’s freedom in society. The path was open to tell a story like this."
Director Yorgos Lanthimos (Left) and Emma Stone (Right) as Bella Baxter
Image © Searchlight Pictures
In early 2020, Lanthimos asked Stone to join him as a producer on the film, along with award-winning producers Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe and their company Element Pictures. While he and Stone had both been in extended conversations about her playing Bella since 2017, they also discussed thoughts on the script, cast, and crew, and it became clear that she would be a huge asset as a producer – she agreed to join them. Guiney and Lowe have produced all Lanthimos’ English language films. Their first collaboration together was on The Lobster in 2015, and Stone and Lanthimos had also more recently collaborated on his black and white, silent short film Bleat, shot in 2020, on the island of Tinos in Greece.
Guiney recalls their early conversations about POOR THINGS: "Yorgos mentioned Gray’s book, which he had long-nurtured a desire to turn into a film, and had been in touch with the now-deceased author about it. He was incredibly passionate and connected to the story even at that early stage. I think Alasdair felt that Yorgos really understood his novel and that it was in good hands."
"My Father and Yorgos met in Glasgow and toured the city, visiting locations associated with the novel," recalls Gray’s son, Andrew Gray. "He had previously turned down other offers to produce the novel. Alasdair was impressed that Yorgos had taken the time to meet with him personally. It was my dad’s favourite way to converse — walking and showing the city he lived in all his life."
Emma Stone as Bella Baxter
Image © Searchlight Pictures
He continues, ‘Alasdair had purchased the Dogtooth DVD, which he thoroughly enjoyed. I believe it was this film that he based his opinion of Yorgos’ talents.’ Lanthimos sent the novel to screenwriter Tony McNamara following their successful collaboration on Academy Award® winner The Favourite. McNamara had not come across the writing of Scottish author Gray until POOR THINGS, but instantly saw what drew Lanthimos to the material.
‘It was intellectually clever, dark, surprising and humorous – that’s the most important thing for Yorgos and I,’ McNamara explains, ‘The book is packed with ideas about gender, identity, and even Scottish nationalism. You’re in this incredibly rich philosophical and political world, all while being tremendously funny.’
‘Yorgos is a great comedy director, even though people wouldn’t describe his films as comedies,’ Guiney adds. ‘He’s one of the few filmmakers that can pivot from outrageous violence to high comedy in the space of a scene.’
While the book is told from numerous points of view, for the script, the filmmakers wanted to give Bella the central one. 'We made it more open to the world,’ explains Lanthimos. ‘The novel itself is also very Scottish and has many other themes and layers from the ones that we're exploring. That made it a little bit more niche whereas I was more interested in Bella's point of view.’
Emma Stone as Bella Baxter
Image © Searchlight Pictures
‘It’s Bella’s coming-of-age story, and it lives in a dystopian version of a Merchant Ivory film, with the idea of a grand tour,’ McNamara explains. ‘From being trapped at home, she goes to Lisbon on a ‘romantic’ voyage with her lover. On the ship, she is met with a constant desire to escape. Then Alexandria are her younger years, where she sees the world as a messed-up place. Paris is her exploration of sexuality where she pushes herself as far as she can before she returns home.’
Lanthimos and McNamara were also interested in making a version of the Frankenstein story, inverting the classic story by making the ‘monster’ a very perceptive, beautiful woman, and her love interests potential monsters.
‘The script pulls on different mythologies and story tropes, mixing them into an incredibly original, heady cocktail,’ Guiney elaborates. ‘Yorgos has built a profile as a one-of-a-kind master filmmaker and people really want to get behind his vision.’
Watch the Official Trailer here:
Searchlight Pictures presents POOR THINGS
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite, The Lobster).
Writer: Tony McNamara (The Favourite) based on the novel by Alasdair Gray
Producers: Ed Guiney p.g.a. (The Favourite, Room), Andrew Lowe p.g.a. (The Eternal Daughter, The Souvenir: Part II), Yorgos Lanthimos p.g.a. and Emma Stone p.g.a.
Starring: Emma Stone (The Favourite, La La Land), Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight, Foxcatcher), Ramy Youssef (‘Ramy’, ‘Mr. Robot’), Christopher Abbott (Black Bear, Possessor), Jerrod Carmichael (‘The Carmichael Show’), Hanna Schygulla (The Edge of Heaven), Kathryn Hunter (The Tragedy of Macbeth), and Margaret Qualley (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, 'Maid')
Director of Photography: Robbie Ryan, BSC, ISC (The Favourite, C'mon C'mon)
Production Designers: James Price (Judy) and Shona Heath
Costume Design: Holly Waddington (Lady Macbeth, War Horse)
Hair, Make-up & Prosthetics: Nadia Stacey (The Favourite, Cruella)
Original Score: Jerskin Fendrix
Editor: Yorgos Mavropsaridis, ACE (The Favourite, The Lobster)
Set Decorator: Zsuzsa Mihalek (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)
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