Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo & Willem Dafoe talk sex scenes and how Poor Things has changed them

I am Bella [Music] Baxter I'm a flawed experimenting person Bella why I keep it in my mouth if it is revolting I must go punch that baby four things which I just I loved so much and I wish I had the time to tell you how much Bella means to me because I just relate to her on such a profound level but I have loved hearing you talk about her and how she inspires you and you know I wondered if being able to play this this woman who is this just this idea of true Freedom if you as an actor does that change your relationship with yourself at all getting to explore that kind of extremity of freedom I think so I think so I found her inspiring in in all ways and I think her her lack of Shame and self- judgment can't help but rub off on you in a way like I I will say that since since playing her this is always stupid to me and no off no offense to any other actors that may ever hear this but I'm always like oh an actor talking about like oh so transformative you know was therapy I don't know why I always find that so kind of silly because it feels like such a lucky job where you're like playing dress up but there really is kind of something that does happen with certain characters where like I do find I I can be a little more for right since playing Bella just because she doesn't really she doesn't really understand why she shouldn't just be able to say what it is she needs or or thinks and maybe that's also just getting older um but there's something so inspiring about how every moment is fascinating to her and the good and the bad are you know hold equal weight and you really realize like life goes by very quickly and she seems to have that in internalized you know it's like in her in her body that memory somehow and so she just soaks it all up in the most beautiful way and has such a hunger for experience and I don't know all of it is just very yeah I think you can't help but have it rub off on you a little bit and to me like the really delicate part of this performance and I talked a little bit to Holly wding him about this is you know you want her she lacks knowledge but she's not infantilized and I wondered you know how you and also maybe how you and your G Together made sure that you never went into that trap yeah we were it was very important to us we I mean it's interesting because just because she's learning everything for the first time doesn't not make her the wisest person in the room um because she is just telling the truth she doesn't have this need to possess other people she doesn't have this need to Lord over anyone or have this power and so like in her in her sort of clarity of self as she's growing I think that a lot of other characters are sort of you know she's a mirror to them she's sort of you know she their egos get rocked or or they have the need to grasp on to her and and hold her because she has this sort of you know mix of Purity and wisdom deep wisdom about her so um but in terms of playing her in a literal sense that was something that very much was not what what we were going for it it was um you know the references for her were like none at all like not even you know looking at like young people or anything like that or like videos of toddler's walking or anything like that it was very much like trying to invent this creation of sorts um and have it feel you know unique and not and not derivative of like a kid um in any way cuz she cuz she's a medic metaphor so might as well make it up I I found Godwin really moving because I think the thing about his character is that he both is Frankenstein and Frankenstein's monster kind of contained in one person and obviously aliser Gray's novel you know has a very direct link to the book but I wondered if William if you actually went back to Mary Shell's work to kind of explore the character through that you know not while I was doing that and since then I have and it was interesting because you forget you think of Frankenstein and you think of it being a horror movie but that character was very sensitive and very he wasn't social conditioned either he was just curious and pure feeling and pure experience but the world rejected him that's the big difference where Emma Bella goes out in the world and everybody's come here come here lovely you know uh so that's a big difference but um I didn't think about it so much because that's kind of the setup and then this whole Fantastical world is another thing but the setup is important the whole re animation uh but there are lots of differences certainly yeah absolutely but I I found him a moving character because he's he's got such a dark uh conflicted uh he's been wronged so much but uh he turns all that bad feeling into something positive by reanimating her and giving her hope giving her a new life and also giving himself hope in love yeah yeah and Mark you are so funny in this movie and the thing that is so funny to me about Duncan is that he obviously presents himself as this great lover but Bella doesn't really have anything to compare him to and I was actually quite curious in your head like the reality of Duncan we on the scale of like dynamite in the sack and just like truly tragic is he actually because you kind of it's sort of implied in the movie but it's not conclusive I would say I think he's probably a fairly game lover she does go to the brothel and she does have sex with another man and she does come back and she does say but it was a little dry the sex that she had so I do think it's still questionable but I do think he he must have had some success in that area to feel it is uh you know as um as confident as he does but ultimately he's he's probably mostly in it for himself cuz he's so insecure about it I he so insecure about a little bit of a yeah oh yeah you scratch the surface and that guy's like just has a paper you know he sorry he just falls apart is that a mixed metal I just made that yeah but you you get the sense right I'm working on this yeah I'm going not a lot of substance there okay it's all in the F it's all in the F can you cut that that can you cut those three minutes out I mean I love it though I'm going to take it out into the world I'm going to Workshop it yeah yeah she see with the boss is running up the ladder I also really loved your character because I feel like he is ultimately a good man but he's having to fight through this like patrio Veil that really compels him to infantilize Bella to to kind of objectify her in a really weird way and I wondered kind of how in your head I guess you rationalized his perception of her and also how that shefs over the course of the film yeah I think that he you know the max character for me is he he loves Bella's curiosity I think she's curiosity personified as a person and he's really curious It's why he's into the sciences and it's why he's into Godwin right to to begin with and so what she offers I think he's he's really Enchanted by but he starts off with that desire to control that a lot of the men in the film have I think every man in the film is exhibiting a different part of control and I also think I would argue all the men in the film are in every man you know we all have these parts uh and Max I think is is the embodiment of um the part of you that gets to choose to let that go and and and he gets kind of expanded by love which I think is why their relationship is really beautiful to me God I really I really love how you phrase that I so agree yeah and you mentioned like his curiosity about Godwin and I found it so interesting that it feels like he almost purposefully alienates himself from the other Medical students because he wants to enter this almost Outsider realm that Godwin inhabits and so I wondered like how how does he see himself does he see himself as an outsider does he want to be an outsider what's his sort of thinking there I think he's an outsider I think he's viewed as that he's obviously the poor student and uh he is there really you know I kind of felt the dynamic with all the other students maybe they it's kind of like that classic higher institution thing where a lot of people are born into it and then some people claw their way in and I felt like that was him and I think that uh in that same frequency he sees someone like Baxter and he sees another Outsider who's quite visibly one obviously because he's been experimented on and he looks so strange and um but he's he's fascinated by by not just the kinship he thinks they have but what he has to offer so I know you know women tend to get asked this question a lot so I thought I'd bring it to the boys but there is this debate online that I see a lot which I find a bit silly this idea that you know sex on screen has no narrative purpose but I feel like does poor things obviously shut that down part huge part of the story cuz it's a it's a it's a you know woman growing from very early on through her teens up to a fully realized I mean and how many of us in our teens all we really cared about was sex you know I was like if we could do what Emma and Duncan did and our teens some of us probably more lucky than others did get to do that but uh it's such an important part of our all human development I mean the idea that you would leave that out but on the other hand there is a lot of gratuitous uh sex scenes in movies you all of a sudden you're in a sex scene you're like why am I and it feels weird as an actor cuz you're like why are we why are we I know why we're in this you know it's like just to get a certain audience in here which is fine but uh this do this is not does not smack of that at all no but I think a lot can get accomplished with those six scenes yeah I mean I even the gratuitous on yeah a lot gets accomplished I mean as a writer you're a comic and I feel like a big part of that is you know a developing your own voice and also kind of creating a world for yourself to inhabit and then I feel like yogos slos like he has his own world and I feel like it's quite precise one so I wondered kind of when you're trying to move into that world is it a bit like learning a second language you know it it was I didn't learn a second language I learned an accent but I do think that I was so excited to just fully submit into someone else's world and I think that's where acting is is really fun and and like you said I've always been kind of creating my own worlds but then do um um to jump into his someone who's so exacting and so clear on what he wants it was uh it was expansive you know and and and it was uh it opened up that part of me of wanting to do that more and you mentioned I I saw an interview that you mentioned that you are a big yogos fan and that you showed your dad killing of a sacred deer and I made the mistake as well and it was even worse in my case because he didn't say anything like the credits rolled and there was silence yeah and then he just got up and left but on the flip side he said that the favorite was okay which in his language means it's a masterpiece said parasite was okay as well so I'm like and okay from your dad is that's that's how like the gamblers know going to do Academy the academy yeah but I really want him to see poor things and I wanted to ask you like what how should I mentally prepare him I think it's best that you don't you know I think you just let him go in raw cuz I think if you prep him in anyway uh I mean I prepped my parents but I was just saying you know I said and I'm in it so it's different but I was I said listen there's going to be a lot of Filth but I keep my clothes on and they like that you know I said I said I'm I'm going to be clothed the whole film no one else will be and they said okay and then uh I was actually they came to the premiere in New York so we were watching it together and and I I put a friend of mine between us I didn't want to be right next to them so my buddy Dave was between me and my mom just so I could have a little barrier of safety just for integrity's sake but they were laughing a lot I looked over I was like I'm going to put a friend in between me and my dad that might be the best I feel like that's the way to do it put a friend just and then if there's awkward like resent cuz I feel like he resented me for showing it'll go to your friend it'll reflect her and then you yeah it was and then you're so [Music]

Channel: Digital Spy

Views: 143,666

Keywords: Movies, Reviews, Spoilers, Entertainment, Celebrities, TV, digital spy, emma stone, emma stone golden globes, emma stone graham norton, poor things, poor things dance, poor things scene, willem dafoe, willem dafoe drip, willem dafoe interview, mark ruffalo, mark ruffalo spoils, ramy youssef, poor things soundtrack

Id: WQfA6liFEiQ

Length: 14min 9sec (849 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 08 2024