Emma Stone reveals she lacked confidence to play ‘Poor Things’ character

LOS ANGELES — Actress Emma Stone, who plays the titular character in the acclaimed Yorgos Lanthimos film ‘Poor Things’, revealed that she initially doubted that she would be able to live up to the part.

The film, which is based on the novel by Alasdair Gray, talks about a young woman named Bella Baxter in Victorian London, who comes to life through a brain transplant and embarks on a journey of self-discovery.

“I think because I had lived with her in my mind for so long and I was so deeply in love with Bella, it terrified me not to live up to her as a character. I felt like I was failing her in the first week, and failing Yorgos. It was just difficult,” Emma told Variety magazine.

The actress, who was feted with the Best Actress in a Leading Role at the BAFTAs, talked about how she was eventually able to overcome her concerns with support from the director.

Emma shared: “I could talk to Yorgos about it, and we were able to discover as we went. And because it’s a safe environment, it doesn’t feel rushed. His sets don’t feel like, ‘Oh, we have to get this, and we’ve got to move on, even though I don’t want to.’ Or at least he doesn’t communicate that to us.”

The 35-year-old actress also gave insight into the director’s approach to rehearsals and the way the process made the cast bond in a “more intimate way.”

“For ‘La La Land’, we did a ton of rehearsals for a very long time, but it was very specific, dancing and singing. But when Yorgos was talking about rehearsal, I didn’t know exactly what that entailed.”

“And it turns out that his rehearsals, they have nothing to do with what you’ll ultimately do on the day. But what it does, I think, subconsciously or in a subterranean way, is it lets everybody feel very comfortable with each other. You’re playing a lot of games… I loved it.”

The actress shared that she realised by the time that they were on set, they all felt very close to each other.

“We had all gotten to know each other in a much more intimate way than we would’ve if we’d just been blocking and saying our lines over and over,” she concluded.