Awards season is really heating up, and at the center of many conversations is Emma Stone. The actress earned rave reviews for her performance in Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things, for which she’s already won a Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award. Stone’s performance as Bella Baxter is one that she’s described as very important to her, but there’s one particular quality about this character Stone was adamant to safeguard.
In a recent interview with BBC Radio 4, Stone defended the sex scenes included in Poor Things. “So much of this was about being true to Bella’s experience,” she said in the interview, per Glamour. “[Sex] is obviously a huge part of her experience and her growth, as it is, I think, for most people in life. But I see it as just one aspect of many; her discovery of food, philosophy, travel, and dance. Sex is another aspect.”
Emma Stone’s look at tonight’s #CriticsChoiceAwards is a must-see! https://t.co/HO2KXAt2qC
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Poor Things follows Bella Baxter after she is brought back to the life by scientist Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). But instead of having a mature, adult brain, Godwin gives her a baby’s brain. Bella undergoes a rapid transformation as she discovers ideas related to philosophy, gender roles, her past, and sex. For Stone, it was essential to have the latter quality of her character’s journey handled with honesty and care.
“One of the things that we had talked about from very early on and I thought was extremely important was that Bella is completely free and without shame about her body,” Stone said. “She doesn’t know to be embarrassed by these things or to cover things up or not dive into the full experience when it comes to anything.” Stone further noted that for the “camera to sort of shy away from that, or to say, ‘OK, well, we’ll just cut all of this out because our society functions in a particular way’…felt like a lack of being honest about who Bella is.”
The Oscar winner added that while she’s “not a person that just wants to be naked all the time,” she is “someone who wants to honor the character as fully as I possibly can. That’s part of her journey, so who am I to say that should be shameful?”
This isn’t the first time Stone has opened up about playing Bella. Prior to the film’s release, she spoke about how much “fear” she had upon approaching the role. It’s clear, though, that this performance remains an incredibly transformative moment in Stone’s career.
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