Ramy Youssef and Emma Stone had plenty to say about filming “Poor Things” with director Yorgos Lanthimos, and all of it is good. In an interview with Letterboxd, Youssef said the experience “felt like you were just in this fun house.” He added, “It was… the whole thing was like this epic field trip.”
Youssef showed the Lanthimos film “The Killing of the Sacred Deer” to his dad, who had a mixed reaction.
“He’s just like, ‘Huh,’ you know — like my dad was just talking about the lighting a lot. He was like, ‘Good lighting,’ ‘natural lighting,’ you know?” Youssef laughed.
Lanthimos’ 2017 psychological thriller is about Steven Murphy, a cardiac surgeon with a wife and two children who all become sick after meeting the 16-year-old son of a patient who died on Murphy’s operating table.
“I was just really fascinated by the way that he can kind of reframe what relationships look like on screen. He brings that subconscious hum that a dynamic might have between two people into the forefront,” Youssef added. “And sometimes things just feel really uncomfortable or feel really odd.”
Both Stone and Youssef were effusive in praise for Lanthimos. Youssef said, “For me, obviously Yorgos’ films, I’ve really always been a huge fan of — like, organically were in my Letterboxd before even getting to work with him.”
Stone said that she watched a number of movies that are in the “Poor Things” wheelhouse to prepare for the role. These included 1983’s “And The Ship Sails On,” 1967’s “Belle de Jour,” 1968’s “Faces” and 1989’s “The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, & Her Lover.”
“I mean, lots of amazing films that don’t… those four were sort of in the world of ‘Poor Things,’ but also just many, many other films were on the list of things that, you know, Yorgos was kind of interested in watching,” she added.
“Poor Things” is one of several Stone and Lanthimos have worked on together. The actress said she was in rehearsals for “La La Land” when the two first connected. They filmed “The Favourite” together in 2018, which was followed by “Bleat,” a black-and-white short that has only been shown a handful of times, because it has to be screened with a live orchestra in-house.
The movie also stars Mark Ruffalo, who told “Hot Ones” host Sean Evans of his role, “I don’t get to play many parts like that. Honestly, I was scared of it. He’s a real Casanova and he’s not in control. Getting to do it, it was just so free.”
Ruffalo added, “People have all these expectations on you, and you sorta get stuck in these boxes. At 55, I’m sick of that, and so it was just kind of an explosion, of radical creativity for me.”
“Poor Things” hit theaters on Friday, Dec. 8 after it premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 1.
Watch the interview with Stone and Youssef in the video above.
