The unstoppable duo of Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos

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Emma Stone, left, and director Yorgos Lanthimos pose for a portrait photograph for the film 'Kinds of Kindness' at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Saturday, May 18 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

CANNES ā€“ Before a journalist has even lobbed a question, Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos spit out a string of overlapping answers.

ā€œWe have a great relationship,ā€ begins Lanthimos. ā€˜ā€œWe just love working together,ā€ adds Stone. ā€œIt was cool to do a modern-day piece.ā€ ā€œGoing back to some of the early stuff,ā€ says Lanthimos. ā€œA throwback,ā€ says Stone. ā€œOur relationship has evolved over time,ā€ Lanthimos adds.

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ā€œTotally,ā€ says Stone.

Stone and Lanthimos have by now honed their patter. They're just barely removed from the Oscar campaign for ā€œPoor Things,ā€ which culminated in four Academy Awards, including best actress for Stone. Just two months later, theyā€™re back together at the Cannes Film Festival with ā€œKinds of Kindness,ā€ their third feature together and fourth film, counting the 2022 short ā€œBleat.ā€

ā€œWe do have a bit of a double act going on,ā€ 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 ā€œBugonia.ā€

Opposite as they may seem ā€” one a 35-year-old star from Arizona, the other a 50-year-old arthouse filmmaker from Athens ā€” theyā€™ve rapidly formed one of the moviesā€™ 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 isnā€™t so different than the one she does with Nathan Fielder, the darkly deadpan comedian of ā€œThe Curse.ā€

ā€œI donā€™t say this lightly even though I know itā€™s easy to use this word flippantly: Theyā€™re both geniuses," says Stone. ā€œThey are. I think itā€™s just an innate thing. It canā€™t really be taught or described. Itā€™s just a way of seeing society and people. Youā€™re 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?ā€

You can grasp a similar attitude in Lanthimos and Stoneā€™s 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 ā€œThe Favourite." Bella Baxterā€™s childlike experience of social mores in ā€œPoor Things.ā€ In ā€œKinds of Kindness,ā€ a triptych of extreme tales of controlling relationships, Lanthimos, working again with screenwriter Efthimis Filippou, continues his idiosyncratic examinations of social conformity.

ā€œI got inspired by reading ā€˜Caligulaā€™ by Camus,ā€ Lanthimos says. ā€œI just started thinking about one manā€™s control over other peopleā€™s 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.ā€

ā€œKinds of Kindness,ā€ which Searchlight Pictures will release June 21 in theaters, was an opportunity for Stone (aside from ā€œBleatā€) to work with Lanthimos in the style of his earlier films (ā€œThe Lobster," ā€œThe Killing of a Sacred Deer" ) with Filippou.

ā€œIt was the chance to finally be in that version of Yorgosā€™ mind,ā€ Stone says. ā€œBefore I met him, obviously, those were the only ones I had seen.ā€

The two had discussed making ā€œKinds of Kindnessā€ before ā€œPoor Things,ā€ but shot it in the aftermath of their Oscar-winner during its lengthy post-production process due to the filmā€™s large amount of special effects.

ā€œDo you remember we made this as fast as we could because we were like, ā€˜I donā€™t know what the hell is going to happen on ā€œPoor Things?ā€™ā€ Stone reminds Lanthimos.

ā€œEveryday after work, weā€™d talk about it. How was it? Did you watch the rushes? What do you think?ā€ continues Stone. ā€œAnd heā€™s like: ā€˜This is a disaster.ā€™ Every single day. And I'd go, ā€˜OK, thatā€™s what I thought.ā€™ā€

Alternatively, ā€œKinds of Kindness,ā€ Stone says ā€œwas free and happy and everyoneā€™s going to love this.ā€

That might be surprising for anyone's who's seen the three-hour ā€œKinds of Kindness,ā€ 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, ā€œKinds of Kindnessā€ extends a run of daringly unconventional projects, including ā€œThe Curseā€ and Jane Schoenbrun's ā€œI Saw the TV Glow,ā€ which she produced, at a time when Stone could, by herself, help greenlight nearly anything.

ā€œThe common denominator of the things Iā€™ve been a part of are that theyā€™re things I want to watch,ā€ Stone says. ā€œThatā€™s the only gauge that I have. If itā€™s not something that I would be like, ā€˜I gotta go see this the day it comes out,ā€™ then itā€™s probably not a good fit for me.ā€

But she and Lanthimos may be shifting the bar for what constitutes ā€œmainstream.ā€ The brutal extremes of ā€œKinds of Kindnessā€ have led to some, in comparing it to ā€œPoor Things,ā€ referencing their last one ā€” an unabashedly profane coming-of-age tale about a dead woman reanimated with a childā€™s brain ā€” like it was some kind of all-audiences crowd pleaser.

ā€œItā€™s so funny to hear people talk about ā€˜Poor Thingsā€™ like the conventional film that we made,ā€ says Lanthimos, smiling. ā€œI get a little bit irritated but then I go, no wait, itā€™s great that people consider ā€˜Poor Things,ā€™ like, a normal thing. We couldnā€™t get it made for 12 years.ā€

Yet at this point, Stone and Lanthimosā€™ collaboration is so continuous that the projects can bleed into each other. Take Stoneā€™s already viral dance in ā€œKinds of Kindness,ā€ a moment splashed through the filmā€™s trailers. That was initially just something Stone was doing in between scenes on ā€œPoor Things.ā€

ā€œShe would put on a song and dance like crazy,ā€ says Lanthimos. ā€œI was like, ā€˜I want you to do this in ā€˜Kinds of Kindness.ā€™ā€

___

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP


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