Emma Stone told a crowd at Venice Film Festival that she was ‘coming out’ as a believer in aliens.
Stone, 36, revealed her cosmic suspicions at a press conference for Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia, a black comedy in which Stone plays a high-powered CEO who is kidnapped by two conspiracy theorists who believe she is an alien being sent to destroy Earth.
Discussing Cosmos presenter Carl Sagan, Stone proclaimed he was one of her most ‘favorite people who has ever lived.’
She continued: ‘I think he very deeply believed that the idea that we are alone in the vast experience of the universe is a pretty narcissistic thing to think.’
She then said: ‘So yes, I’m coming out with it, I believe in aliens. Thank you!,’ before giving the audience a theatrical pageant wave to laughs from the crowd.
Director Yorgos Lanthimos also shared his thoughts on whether we’re alone in the universe, explaining: ‘I mean, the gist of it is, I have no idea.
‘Yeah, I don’t think my cognitive capabilities are enough to answer that I’ve actually been trying to become a physicist and a neuroscientist, but I’m very early on that journey.
‘So I’m looking for answers too I don’t have them yet. I’ll get back to you.’
Later in the press conference, when discussing if Lanthimos ever asked anything of his actors that ‘went too far’ or if they trust him implicitly, Stone said: ‘Absolutely. No, he’s very, very open and collaborative. But if there’s something where it’s like, no, this is… He’s not crazy!,’ she laughed.
Co-star Jesse Plemons then chimed in, ‘It is kind of fun to imagine what that line would be. I don’t know, I haven’t seen it!
‘But these movies, however you want to classify them, define them, I always pursue them as having a real human quality to it, and so as absurd or dark or humorous or all these other qualities at the core of it, they all seem to be exploring something very human that is interesting.’
Stone, who spends most of the film with a shaved head as her captors believe her form of alien communicates through their hair, stars alongside Plemons and Aidan Delbis, who play her kidnappers, as well as Stavros Halkias and Alicia Silverstone.
Later in the press conference, she said of the drastic haircut: ‘Was it easy for me to shave my hair? Yeah, it’s the easiest thing in the world, you just take the razor and [mimes shaving it off]. It’s so much easier than any hairstyle!’
She went on to explain how she prepared her body for the film: ‘The physical preparation, I did some fight training, I tried to work out quite a lot – I don’t how effective that was – for the beginning of Michelle.’
Plemons chimed in with how he prepared, stating: ‘It’s so easy to read a script where it’s like, “Teddy’s running.” Oh okay. But Teddy is running a lot, Teddy runs for pretty much the last act. I always looked at Teddy as a sort of wiry guy. I grew my fingernails out, that sort of stuff.’
This is Lanthimos and Stone’s third movie together since the 2024 Oscars triumph, Poor Things, and the haunting anthology movie, Kinds of Kindness earlier this year.
This science fiction black comedy is a remake of the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet!
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