Emma Stone is awaiting her second Oscar for Best Actress as she has been nominated for the film Poor Things. The actress had previously won the award for Damien Chazelle’s musical romance La La Land. Stone stars in the film as Bella Baxter, a resurrected woman who sees the world in a new light as she begins to understand it again.
Stone mentioned how she had to prepare extensively for the role as she had to be extremely comfortable with every other co-star in the film. She also mentioned how they had to film the movie in virtual sets during the scene where Bella and Mark Ruffalo’s character Duncan Wederburn go on a steamship journey. Stone mentioned that the moving VFX caused her nausea.
Emma Stone-Starrer Poor Things Was Filmed On Soundstages And LED Screens
The Yorgos Lanthimos directorial Poor Things is a period film set in Victorian London and follows the story of Emma Stone’s Bella Baxter, a dead woman who was resurrected by a brain transplant. The film then shows how Bella learns about the world as a newborn and how the people around her try to control her.
The film also stars Ramy Youssef, Willem Dafoe, and Mark Ruffalo in pivotal roles. Ruffalo plays the role of Duncan Wedderburn, a lawyer who first meets Bella to annul her marriage. Duncan and Bella begin a romance and a journey of debauchery while the latter learns more about the world. The two also go on a steamship journey, where Bella meets more people and learns more bout the world.
The steamship journey was reportedly filmed on a soundstage with an LED screen behind the ship to emulate the seas and the sky. The visual depiction of these backgrounds was more idiosyncratic and colorful as director Yorgos Lanthimos wanted to show how Emma Stone’s Bella saw the world. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Lanthimos said,
“We just wanted to build this world that represented the way Bella, the main character, sees and experiences the world. So we thought it would be interesting to build every set…inside a studio and then we would control the lighting and background, and we would manage to get the non-realistic feeling for the entire film.”
The LED screens would reportedly play most of the VFX that was created for the background while they were filming and then some extensions would be added in post-production.
Real-Time VFX On Poor Things Caused Emma Stone Nausea
The team at Poor Things reportedly decided to take the help of visual effects supervisor Tim Barter, creative director Simon Hughes, and virtual production supervisor Adrian Weber to perfect the LED screens required for the shoot. According to Weber, cinematographer Robbie Ryan and director Yorgos Lanthimos decided to go for an LED screen instead of a greenscreen because of the surreal look the screen gave to the set. He said to ASC Magazine,
“The main reason they decided to shoot with virtual production and not greenscreen was that the ship had lots of glass and other reflective surfaces. They knew an LED volume would give them an excellent visual starting point they could extend out with additional effects, as needed.”
The film reportedly did not want to emulate reality but wanted the visuals to look a bit aged and surreal as it was a period film seen from the eyes of Emma Stone’s childlike character. Tim Barter mentioned that they tried to make the visuals as surreal as possible to give the look that director Lanthimos wanted. He said,
“We were intentionally trying to mimic a filming style of early cinematography, where a model looks like a model. The water needed to look somewhat surreal — not completely realistic, but not modern CG water, either…so the style was a little like lava lamps or ink undulating in water…Ultimately, we created nine different LED skies: six settings, three with nighttime variations.”
While the LED screens gave a beautiful and creative visual direction for the film, the presence was not entirely comfortable for Emma Stone. She mentioned to Vanity Fair that the moving skies and water while filming the steamship scenes emulated the actual feeling of being on the sea as she found the movements to be very nauseating.
When Lanthimos mentioned that the background would move while filming, Emma Stone said “Which gets a little nauseating sometimes, to be honest.” The LED screens have been used in many big-budget productions such as The Mandalorian and The Batman.
