Emma Stone: “God has had the worst image campaign in the world”.
London, Nov 6 (EFE)
Emma Stone returns to Yorgos Lanthimos’ cinematic universe with ‘Bugonia’, a film that tackles conspiracy theories with humor and social criticism, and reflects in an interview on the idea that has been sold about religion and how God has had “the worst image campaign in the world”.
In the film, which arrives in Spanish cinemas this Friday, the American actress plays Michelle Fuller, the director of a pharmaceutical laboratory who is kidnapped by the conspiracy-fanatic Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) and his neurodivergent cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) convinced that she is an alien who threatens to destroy the planet.
Coffee in hand, during a round table in London with a group of journalists, Stone commented that, in his opinion, conspiracy theories have existed “since the dawn of humanity with the arrival of religion”.
“I think there’s no worse image campaign in the world than the one God has had. In my opinion, this idea that there’s a guy you wouldn’t even want to date; that he’s someone you have to worship on your knees and tell every day that he’s the best thing in the world or he’ll condemn you to hell… I’d tell you to break up with him immediately,” the actress reflects.
“If it is a ‘He,’ if he exists, I can’t imagine that he isn’t a loving and generous person and that there isn’t love, understanding, or empathy there (…) Without meaning to offend anyone who is religious, but I think that’s what bothers me, that that’s the story that has been told for a long time,” he points out.
Lanthimos’s ‘church’
If cinema were a religion, Lanthimos would probably be the god Stone would pray to. ‘Bugonia’ is the fourth film in which he has worked under the direction of the Greek filmmaker, after ‘The Favourite’ (2018), ‘Poor Creatures’ (2023) – which earned him his second Oscar – and ‘Kinds of Kindness’ (2024), and the chemistry between the two, sitting side by side, is also evident during the conversation.
Stone says that when she first met Lanthimos more than a decade ago, she had only seen ‘Dogtooth’ (2009) and loved it, but when they met in person for the first time, she thought he was someone she would get along with, someone she could trust, and who was attracted to “the same kinds of stories and worlds,” a feeling that has been reinforced by working together.
Plemons, also present at the interview, also seems to be a devotee of Lanthimos’s ‘church’, as he appears for the second time in one of his films, after ‘Kinds of Kindness’, and highlights the “creative and intuitive” methodology of the Greek director.
“There are specific things that Yorgos knows with a certain degree of certainty and many others that are not so typical, and the most interesting way to approach them is by giving them a name. So there’s a level where everyone, the actors and the crew, reads the script and then goes on their own and discovers what it awakens in them,” the American actor describes.
Are we all conspiracy theorists?
In the case of ‘Bugonia’, a modern adaptation of the South Korean film ‘Save the Green Planet’ (2003), Lanthimos explains that Will Tracy’s script (‘Succession’) captivated him from the beginning and he did not hesitate for a second to accept the project, although he made some “adjustments” to adapt it to his liking.
“It was a very easy, exciting, entertaining, and complex read—you know, all the things I try to do when I develop something. And yes, I was immediately excited about the idea of participating,” the Greek director recounts.
If there is one thing that characterizes Lanthimos’ filmography, it is his particular style, often surreal, explicit and with touches of black comedy.
‘Bugonia’ bears the signature of the Greek director, but despite the intergalactic absurdity surrounding the plot, it is one of his most believable films, as it deals with very current themes, such as climate change, corporate negligence – and how some take justice into their own hands in the style of Luigi Mangione – or misinformation on the internet.
Along these lines, Lanthimos says that the film gained relevance as he worked on it, but he considers it a “bad or unfortunate consequence” that the current state of the world is literally reflected in some of its dialogues and scenes.
“People construct lies. Many. And especially now with technology and advances in artificial intelligence, it’s very difficult to know what is real and what is not. You need to investigate a lot to believe in something, until it becomes something natural (…) but in that way we all become conspiracy theorists,” says Lanthimos.
