Yorgos Lanthimos is back with yet again another one of his quirky, offbeat films. The greek director is famous for making films inspired by Greek tales and giving them a modern twist. His catalog includes films like The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Dogtooth, and The Lobster. The director is now making a film starring Willem Dafoe and Emma stone, which is titled And. Dafoe is always a brilliant actor in just about any film and showcases a great range in his films. Emma Stone also has a formidable talent, which is probably why the director has cast both of them for not one but two of his upcoming projects. So what conspired on the set of And?
Stone and Dafoe
Dafoe is a beautifully motivated actor. Lanthimos admitted that the actor would even come to set when he wasn’t needed. He would immerse himself in the film’s overall story and experience to bring out his character and polish his connection with the film itself. Of course, over a career that spans decades, the actor has picked up ways that can only be highlighted by the long string of awards he has.
In one of the scenes, Stone ended up slapping Dafoe 20 times to make the scene look more realistic. The most interesting part? Dafoe was meant to be off camera, but the actor showed such great motivation just to make sure the scene fits right in its place.
Emma Stone herself was awed by the sheer determination Dafoe had and said that it was unlike anything she’s been seeing in actors lately. The star went on to say that Dafoe is the “opposite” of most actors she’s had to work with who try to keep the focus on themselves. Dafoe is all about the process and the film that he’s working on. She said many actors have “this instinct to perform that many actors have — the ‘look at me, look at me!’ kind of performer.”
However, the actress was insightful enough to acknowledge that the filmmaking and acting spheres are continuously changing in Hollywood. She said:
“Maybe it’s changed through the years,” she said. “A lot of actors I bond with have been doing this for a long time, and you know they’ve gone from ‘I’ to ‘We.’”
Clearly, having worked in Hollywood for so long has made both of the actors the masters of their art and people who can reflect upon their work as well. The two have also been cast in another film by the director, which is titled Poor Things. The film revolves around a young woman whose brain is replaced with that of her infant so that she can come back to life. All done by an eccentric scientist. The plot sounds familiar because it is, the story is inspired by the 1818 novel by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein which was published in 1992.
Details regarding the release date of And have not been released so far. The film is being kept a secret from the world until enough progress has been made. The plot details of the film are also unknown, but since it is a Yorgos Lanthimos film, expect the unexpected. However, for Poor Things, it is known that the screenplay is being written by Tony McNamara. Alongside Stone and Dafoe, the cast also includes another Marvel alumni Mark Ruffalo whose role is yet to be confirmed by the film. Stone will be playing the titular character of Belle Baxter.
