“Bella is completely free and without shame about her body,” the Oscar winner said of her re𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 character on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Front Row’
Searchlight Pictures
Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo in Poor Things (2023)
Emma Stone is all about commitment to her craft.
In Poor Things, the 35-year-old actress plays Bella Baxter, a grown woman resurrected with the brain of her un𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥. As she matures unnaturally quickly, her discovery of womanhood includes plenty of uninhibited 𝓈ℯ𝓍 — including with a lecherous lawyer named Duncan Wedderburn, played by Mark Ruffalo.
Stone touched on the “honest” nature of the 𝓈ℯ𝓍 scenes in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Front Row this week, saying of her work on the Yorgos Lanthimos-directed film, “So much of this was about being true to Bella’s experience.”
“[The 𝓈ℯ𝓍] is obviously a huge part of her experience and her growth, as it is, I think, for most people in life,” the Academy Award winner explained, adding later, “So for the camera to sort of shy away from that, or to say like, ‘Okay, well, we’ll just cut all of this out because our society functions in a particular way’ … it felt like a lack of being honest about who Bella is.”
“I’m not a person that just wants to be nɑƙeɗ all the time, but I am someone who wants to honor the character as fully as I possibly can. That’s part of her journey,” Stone explained.
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Searchlight Pictures
Emma Stone in Poor Things (2023)
Sex is “just one aspect of many” in terms of Bella’s character though, Stone noted, which also includes “her discovery of food, philosophy, travel and dance.”
“Bella is completely free and without shame about her body,” the actress told Front Row. “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, who previously won a Best Actress Oscar for her lead role as Mia Dolan in the 2016 musical romance film La La Land, has been sweeping awards season again.
She has already nabbed acting honors at both the 2024 Golden Globe Awards and Critics Choice Awards this month, and was announced Thursday as a nominee for leading actress at the upcoming 2024 BAFTA Awards. Poor Things also won best picture, musical or comedy, at the Globes.
20th Century Studios
Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo in Poor Things (2023)
As for Ruffalo, 56, he recently said in an interview with Perfect Magazine of his role, “I didn’t know if I could pull this off. … I’ve never done anything like [Poor Things] before.”
“So, like, the 𝓈ℯ𝓍 scenes,” the three-time Oscar nominee said of acting opposite Stone in the film. “Am I too old to be doing that kind of stuff? Does anyone want to see that?”
Also during Ruffalo’s interview for Perfect, which included multiple skin-baring snaps of the actor in its accompanying photo shoot, he discussed politics, social media and the depiction of 𝓈ℯ𝓍 on screen.
“I feel like we’re in this prudish time for films,” Ruffalo said. “Sexuality is so deeply connected to the psychology of a character. And it should be explored in that sense, too.”
Poor Things is now playing in theaters.
