Despite finding great success as a filmmaker over the past decade and becoming a regular on the awards circuit, Yorgos Lanthimos admits he still has very mixed feelings about the promotional aspects of the job.
Speaking at a special talk at the BFI London Film Festival on Saturday with Succession creator Jesse Armstrong, the director was asked how he felt about the film’s commercial success.
“I hope so, but it doesn’t turn out the way I want it to,” he said with a smile. “I want people to get their money back. I want people to see the movie. But I don’t want to be paraded around the world like a freak because I have to explain the movie.”
Lanthimos said he spent six months filming the movie, six months editing it, and then had to spend another six months on the promotional tour.
“And being photographed and telling people something is not my passion,” he said. “So I’m wondering if there’s another way. As I sit down with my guys and talk about this interview and that interview, I wonder if you could pull out some of it. In every interview, I end up saying the same thing a thousand times. And I don’t remember what I said, and I get confused. But that’s a big part of it.”
The director also pointed out that thanks to technology, his words can be amplified no matter where he is. “So why do we need to run it a million times? I don’t understand it, but apparently it’s still a system.”
But he joked that technology might be able to help him, and that AI could help him “create an avatar” to send out for interviews in his place.
Lanthimos also discussed the filmmaking process with the actors, giving them the freedom to try different things. Although he admitted that he gave himself a lot of freedom when it came to his performance, he said he was particular about “knowing what doesn’t work” and pointing out when something doesn’t feel “right.” With this in mind, he pointed out that there was some behavior on set that bothered Emma Stone.
“I’m just copying her bad takes,” he said with a laugh. “I think you said this…and she’s like, okay, no need to make an impression! But it annoys her so much.”
The night before, the UK premiere of Bugonia took place at London’s Royal Festival Hall, where the director shared the stage with stars Stone, Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delvis, as well as several executives and camera staff from Elements Pictures, including producers Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe, cinematographer Robbie Ryan and screenwriter Will Tracey.
“Bugonia,” Lanthimos and Stone’s fourth collaboration, had its world premiere in Venice in August. The film is a typical absurdist comedy directed by Stone, in which she plays a powerful CEO of a large corporation who is kidnapped by Plemmons’ conspiracy theorists and his incompetent cousins who trick her into thinking she is an alien bent on destroying humanity. The film is an English remake of the 2003 Korean film Save the Green Planet and is scheduled to be released on October 24th by Focus Features.
