CANNES, France (AP) 鈥 Before a journalist has even lobbed a question, Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos spit out a string of overlapping answers.
鈥淲e have a great relationship,鈥 begins Lanthimos. 鈥樷淲e just love working together,鈥 adds Stone. 鈥淚t was cool to do a modern-day piece.鈥 鈥淕oing back to some of the early stuff,鈥 says Lanthimos. 鈥淎 throwback,鈥 says Stone. 鈥淥ur relationship has evolved over time,鈥 Lanthimos adds.
鈥淭otally,鈥 says Stone.
Stone and Lanthimos have by now honed their patter. They're just barely removed from the Oscar campaign for which culminated in four Academy Awards, including . Just two months later, they鈥檙e back together at the with their third feature together and fourth film, counting the 2022 short 鈥淏leat.鈥
鈥淲e do have a bit of a double act going on,鈥 shrugs Stone.
Their collaboration has by now become so regular, and the talking points so scripted, that it would be easy to take it for granted. Minutes before they sat down for an interview in Cannes, a press release went out with the news that Lanthimos and Stone will soon begin shooting another movie together, titled 鈥淏ugonia.鈥
Opposite as they may seem 鈥 one a 35-year-old star from Arizona, the other a 50-year-old arthouse filmmaker from Athens 鈥 they鈥檝e rapidly formed one of the movies鈥 strongest director-actor partnerships, a collaboration based on a shared sense of absurdity and a willingness to go, full-tilt, to some very strange places.
For Stone, the connection she feels with Lanthimos isn鈥檛 so different than the one she does with Nathan Fielder, the darkly deadpan comedian of
鈥淚 don鈥檛 say this lightly even though I know it鈥檚 easy to use this word flippantly: They鈥檙e both geniuses," says Stone. 鈥淭hey are. I think it鈥檚 just an innate thing. It can鈥檛 really be taught or described. It鈥檚 just a way of seeing society and people. You鈥檙e actually both drawn to themes of: Why is this social structure like this? Why do we have these rules? How are we supposed to function within them?鈥
You can grasp a similar attitude in Lanthimos and Stone鈥檚 opening volley of answers to unasked questions, disarming the regular rhythms of an interview. Or in how Stone, every bit the movie star, constantly undercuts herself with self-deprecating sarcasm.
But you can most see it in their movies together. The aggressive period farce of Bella Baxter鈥檚 childlike experience of social mores in 鈥淧oor Things.鈥 In 鈥淜inds of Kindness,鈥 a triptych of extreme tales of controlling relationships, Lanthimos, working again with screenwriter Efthimis Filippou, continues his idiosyncratic examinations of social conformity.
鈥淚 got inspired by reading 鈥楥aligula鈥 by Camus,鈥 Lanthimos says. 鈥淚 just started thinking about one man鈥檚 control over other people鈥檚 lives. Then I thought it would be interesting to explore on a more personal level how that would feel, having someone be in total control over your life, even in the most minute detail.鈥
鈥淜inds of Kindness,鈥 which Searchlight Pictures will release June 21 in theaters, was an opportunity for Stone (aside from 鈥淏leat鈥) to work with Lanthimos in the style of his earlier films (鈥淭he Lobster," ) with Filippou.
鈥淚t was the chance to finally be in that version of Yorgos鈥 mind,鈥 Stone says. 鈥淏efore I met him, obviously, those were the only ones I had seen.鈥
The two had discussed making 鈥淜inds of Kindness鈥 before 鈥淧oor Things,鈥 but shot it in the aftermath of their Oscar-winner during its lengthy post-production process due to the film鈥檚 large amount of special effects.
鈥淒o you remember we made this as fast as we could because we were like, 鈥業 don鈥檛 know what the hell is going to happen on 鈥淧oor Things?鈥欌 Stone reminds Lanthimos.
鈥淓veryday after work, we鈥檇 talk about it. How was it? Did you watch the rushes? What do you think?鈥 continues Stone. 鈥淎nd he鈥檚 like: 鈥楾his is a disaster.鈥 Every single day. And I'd go, 鈥極K, that鈥檚 what I thought.鈥欌
Alternatively, 鈥淜inds of Kindness,鈥 Stone says 鈥渨as free and happy and everyone鈥檚 going to love this.鈥
That might be surprising for anyone's who's seen the three-hour 鈥淜inds of Kindness,鈥 which uses largely the same company of actors across all three stories. (Among them: Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley.) The three parts take stories of work-life balance, spousal suspicion and sexual abuse to severe, surreal lengths.
For Stone, 鈥淜inds of Kindness鈥 extends a run of daringly unconventional projects, including 鈥淭he Curse鈥 and which she produced, at a time when Stone could, by herself, help greenlight nearly anything.
鈥淭he common denominator of the things I鈥檝e been a part of are that they鈥檙e things I want to watch,鈥 Stone says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the only gauge that I have. If it鈥檚 not something that I would be like, 鈥業 gotta go see this the day it comes out,鈥 then it鈥檚 probably not a good fit for me.鈥
But she and Lanthimos may be shifting the bar for what constitutes 鈥渕ainstream.鈥 The brutal extremes of 鈥淜inds of Kindness鈥 have led to some, in comparing it to 鈥淧oor Things,鈥 referencing their last one 鈥 an unabashedly profane coming-of-age tale about a dead woman reanimated with a child鈥檚 brain 鈥 like it was some kind of all-audiences crowd pleaser.
鈥淚t鈥檚 so funny to hear people talk about 鈥楶oor Things鈥 like the conventional film that we made,鈥 says Lanthimos, smiling. 鈥淚 get a little bit irritated but then I go, no wait, it鈥檚 great that people consider 鈥楶oor Things,鈥 like, a normal thing. We couldn鈥檛 get it made for 12 years.鈥
Yet at this point, Stone and Lanthimos鈥 collaboration is so continuous that the projects can bleed into each other. Take Stone鈥檚 already viral dance in 鈥淜inds of Kindness,鈥 a moment splashed through the film鈥檚 trailers. That was initially just something Stone was doing in between scenes on 鈥淧oor Things.鈥
鈥淪he would put on a song and dance like crazy,鈥 says Lanthimos. 鈥淚 was like, 鈥業 want you to do this in 鈥楰inds of Kindness.鈥欌
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