Poor Things star Ramy Youssef was "blown away" by "genius" Emma Stone
Stone has already won a Golden Globe for her performance as Bella Baxter in the new film from Yorgos Lanthimos.
Emma Stone has already picked up a Golden Globe for her performance in Yorgos Lanthimos's new film Poor Things – and the star is very much in the running to also secure her second Oscar, following the one she won for La La Land in 2016.
Poor Things is based on Alasdair Gray's 1992 novel of the same name and sees Stone take on the central role of Bella Baxter, a woman brought back from the dead in a bizarre experiment by a strange Scottish scientist named Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe).
And Ramy Youssef – who appears as key character Max McCandles in the film – has revealed how he was "blown away" by Stone's performance, describing his co-star's portrayal as "genius" during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com.
“I mean, she was just so good at balancing the growth of everything and kind of being able to arc Bella's character so well," he explained.
By entering your details, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and privacy policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.
"And then she's also producing, so I was really kind of blown away by how much she was balancing and being able to step into – and for me, it was really fun to just play off of her because she's so fast and so funny.
He added: "And I thought it was genius, the way that she really grew her physicality as well... because it's not just about speech. She really worked on how she was going to move her body and grow her movement from walking to posture to sitting and it was really nice.”
Youssef shares several scenes with Stone throughout the film and asked to pick out a highlight he chose the pair's very first scene together, which he explained led to a few rather smelly complications later down the line.
Read more:
- Poor Things star Ramy Youssef says film is “unhinged in the best way”
- Poor Things review: Emma Stone excels in freaky fable with a feminist twist
“Our first scene we shot was really special," he said. "We were sitting at the table and she's spitting kippers out at me. That was really fun, just because it was the first one we'd ever done.
"And then, according to Yorgos, I smelled like kippers for the whole film. He said it never really got out of the wardrobe. So anytime I wore that wardrobe, he said 'you still smell like kippers', which was encouraging!"
Poor Things is released in UK cinemas on Friday 12th January 2024. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.
Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
