Poor Things star Ramy Youssef says film is “unhinged in the best way”

In an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com towards the end of 2023, Youssef spoke about the "inspiring" experience of working with Lanthimos on a film that "feels really wild and weird".

He explained: "When he's working on it, he's just really clear, and he's not pushing anything too hard. He's really organic with how he shoots... like he'll watch us act it and then kind of maybe make an adjustment. But if it's feeling natural, he'll just shoot around how we did it.

"I think when you think about the concept of auteurs, you kind of imagine someone who has every single thing in their head and is micromanaging. And I think when you watch Yorgos work, I was really inspired by how he's really clear on the question he's asking, on the feeling it needs and where it's gonna go.

"Everything's incredibly thought out, like every set piece – I mean, the set design was so inspiring – and at the same time, he lets it live. And so that balance is really cool."

The film won the Golden Lion when it premiered at last year's Venice Film Festival and picked up the award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes last week, while it is also expected to have a strong showing when the Oscar nominations are revealed later this month.

And Youssef said that talk of awards is always encouraging, especially given that it introduces the film to a whole new audience that otherwise might not have given it the time of day.

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"I think reviews and awards and all of that are exciting in the sense that they point people to watching it," he said. "That's probably the best thing about an award, [it's] not so much the ego thing but almost kind of, like, quite simply just the indicator that says 'this is worth your time'.

"I think attention is probably the most, you know, rare resource of just like someone's brain, so to kind of say it's worth your time to watch this... that's cool."

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.

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