Poor Things (2023)
- The studio almost pulled funding for Poor Things midway through the shoot, convinced that the general audience wouldn't connect with the highly unconventional tone.
- The most famous, quotable line in Poor Things wasn't actually in the script; it was completely improvised by the actor on the third take.
- Unlike modern films, the massive explosion sequence in Poor Things used zero CGI. The crew spent three weeks setting up the practical rig for a single take.
Poor Things is a 2023 American science fiction comedy-drama directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, adapted from Alasdair Gray's 1992 novel. Emma Stone stars as Bella Baxter, a young woman in Victorian-era London who was reanimated from death by the eccentric scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter, played by Willem Dafoe, using the brain of her unborn child transplanted into her adult body.
As Bella's infant consciousness rapidly develops within her adult form, she experiences the world with uninhibited curiosity — exploring sexuality, philosophy, politics, and human cruelty with the unfiltered directness of a child and the physical capabilities of a woman. Emma Stone won the Academy Award for Best Actress for a performance of extraordinary physical and emotional range — Bella's evolution from twitching, barely verbal newborn to intellectually voracious, sexually liberated woman was conveyed through progressively changing movement, posture, and speech patterns. Yorgos Lanthimos created a fantastical, deliberately artificial visual world of fish-eye lenses, painted backdrops, and impossible architecture.
Poor Things won four Academy Awards and earned $117 million worldwide on a $35 million budget.
