Poor Things is an unforgettable film.
As with most Yorgos Lanthimos projects, you may not always love what you seen onscreen, but you’re definitely always aware that you’re seeing something grand, something important. His projects always stem directly from his vast imagination and slightly skewed way of looking at the world. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences seems to finally be catching onto his vibe starting with 2018’s The Favorite and most recently Poor Things, or at least it’s feeling that way. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Poor Things stars Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, a woman reanimated by scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). After exponential growing in intellect and skill, Bella embarks on a journey of knowledge and self-discovery with suitor Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo). It takes her on a journey that is often described as an “acquired taste,” yet the wholly original film, inspired by the novel of the same name by Alasdair Gray, continues a uniquely vision of life, independence, and humanity.
It’s also incredibly funny.
This is not the first time producers Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe have worked with Lanthimos. Through their production company Element Pictures, the producing team partnered with Lanthimos on such high-profile projects as The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and The Favorite. With Poor Things, they have an opportunity to again return to the Academy Awards after Guiney’s involvement on The Favorite saw Olivia Colman win Best Actress that year. (Guiney also co-produced 2015’s Room for which Brie Larson received Best Actress.)
Here, Guiney and Lowe talk about working with Lanthimos and how they support the artist’s vision in any method they can. They also talk about forming their production company and their drive to work with those whose films they admire most. Finally, they talk in detail about their experience on Poor Things and its potential future… without getting ahead of themselves.
Awards Daily: The two of you formed Element Pictures in 2001. Since then, I’m looking at the list of the films that you’ve produced or co-produced, and several are auteur-driven films. Was that your initial goal for forming a production company?
Ed Guiney: It was to work with people whose films we really admire. We’re probably first and foremost film fans and love the movies. We run arthouse cinemas in Ireland as well. So, it was really about trying to work with people whose films we love, and that probably veers towards the arthouse, specialty, or prestige — whatever you want to call it. Very much a reflection of our tastes.
Awards Daily: You’ve worked with Yorgos Lanthimos a few times now. What in your collaboration with the director makes the partnership so successful?
Ed Guiney: As you say, we’ve worked with him on all his English language films. Our journey together started with the script of The Favorite. I guess when you’ve worked with someone that long on so many films, you just find a modus operandi that hopefully works for him primarily. Although, we don’t take anything for granted. Every time we come on to a new film, we obviously want to do the very best job possible for him. But we love his films. We love him as a person and as a filmmaker. It’s a total pleasure, really, the whole thing.
Awards Daily: When he brought Poor Things to you, what were your initial reactions to the film?
Andrew Lowe: We learned over time, as Ed described in the way that we work with Yorgos, that we trust him implicitly. He’s very precise about what he wants to focus on, and once he decides he wants to do something, that’s it. He told us about the book. We read the book, and we all loved it. He went off and met Alasdair Gray who gave us his blessing to go off and adapt it.
There’s a level of trust there, whatever he decides he wants to do. We’re delighted to do that and trust that he will figure it out in a way that makes total sense. You can see the appeal to Yorgos from reading the book. Bella Baxter is an extraordinary character in the book, very fresh and unique. The film, in many ways, feels very modern, even though it’s a period film. I think it’s because of the unique point of view you have with Bella and her journey in the world. So, it was just a very exciting prospect.
Ed Guiney: Just to add, Film4 in the UK has been involved in developing all of the films that we’ve done with Yorgos to date. Way back when, probably about eight years ago, when he first mentioned Poor Things, they graciously agreed to develop it. Then, Tony McNamara came on as the screenwriter, and they backed all of that activity. So just to acknowledge that.
Awards Daily: What is your typical involvement from a producing standpoint when you’re working on an auteur-driven film like Poor Things?
Andrew Lowe: We very much see our roles as helping Yorgos build the world he wants to build for each film that we make. Our job is to make that as smooth a journey as possible, make sure he’s got the best people around, and they have the resources they need to do the job that is required. Yorgos is keen to build a troupe of people who he trusts himself and heads of department who he’s worked with on more than one occasion. Increasingly, our job is just to make sure that we are choosing the right partners, both in terms of distribution and production, so that we’ve got all the best people involved who can support Yorgos and ensure that he’s able to do his best work.
Awards Daily: When you look at something as location and craft-driven as Poor Things, how do you keep the budget in line considering the combination of period and special effects?
Ed Guiney: Well, first of all, we actually shot everything in Budapest and everything in Hungary. I don’t know the exact percentage, but probably 90 percent of the scenes are on sound stages or on set. There are very few actual location shots in the film. Yorgos is a very disciplined shooter, but this was very challenging because it’s first time that we’d all worked on sets like this together. To date, he’s never worked on a set. It’s always been location. There were way more lights and way more moving parts in this film than we’d ever had before in anything else we’ve done.
There’s a team of us, our colleagues at Element, who are all over it in terms of helping to plan and build that look at different countries and different studios and run different budgets. Then, we have a great line producer, Kasia Malipan, who’s totally on the case. So, there’s a team of people at every stage interrogating how we go about it. It’s a lot of trying to keep everyone on course and everyone with their eyes on the prize. Like all hopefully functional films, it’s a lot of conversation and a lot of mutual respect.
Andrew Lowe: We were all very conscious that this was a world building exercise. We were really lucky in that Film4 was fully supportive of the idea that we would pull together very early, even before we’d start pre production, to start a kind of concepting phase. So, we had a dedicated art department team working in London, pulling together, doing a lot of research, and putting together design concepts. That really helped us when it came to actually getting up and running.
Awards Daily: Ed, what was your experience in taking The Favorite to the Oscars in 2019?
Ed Guiney: It was great fun. In fact, the first time we really did it was with Lenny Abrahamson’s film Room. Probably because it was the first time, it was maybe the most fun, just your first time doing that. Then, to get to do it again with The Favorite with a different filmmaker was wonderful. In both cases, we came out with awards for Best Actress, which was a pretty good outcome. So, we’re hopeful that maybe there may be a similar journey for Poor Things, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We’ll have a go.
Awards Daily: Do you think the Academy is ready to embrace something like Poor Things?
Ed Guiney: On the evidence of the screenings we’ve had so far, and I don’t want to be presumptuous because it’s not for us to say, but the film did seem to land. There were Q&A’s with Emma and Yorgos and Tony McNamara, and people seemed to respond very well to that. But I think you’re right. When you look at recent successes as you say Parasite and also Everything, Everywhere, it feels like there is an openness. As the Academy has become more diverse in terms of its membership, it may be that Poor Things will speak to maybe more of the diverse membership.
Poor Things is a film about a woman’s self-actualization, very much a creative collaboration between Yorgos and Emma. It’s something that they’ve built together. The two of them very much side by side and building the film and putting it out into the world. It is a film ultimately about hope. It’s optimistic. It’s a comedy. There’s also a level of escapism inherent in the film because of the crazy amazing sets and the world building. Hopefully, it’s something that people will dive into and enjoy. Despite some eccentricities, in the middle of it, there’s a very humane beating heart that I think is very inclusive and hopefully very fun for people to experience.
Poor Things is now playing in select theaters. It opens nationwide Friday, December 22.
