Much has been made of the graphic sex scenes in Yorgos Lanthimos' critically-acclaimed Poor Things, and even though the movie won't be released until December, images and clips from the sequences in question have leaked online (it's believed that they were recorded from one of the festival screenings).
This adaptation of Alasdair Gray's bestselling novel is expected to lean more into the story's Frankenstein influences, as Willem Dafoe's disfigured scientist resurrects Stone's character, Bella Baxter, via a very familiar-looking experiment.
Bella then embarks on an adventure with Mark Ruffalo's "slick and debauched lawyer," where they embark on said sexual escapades.
Before you get too excited, we obviously won't be sharing the scenes here, but they have been posted on several sites (we're sure you won't have to search too hard if you want to see them), and have prompted a lot of discussion - though probably not for the reasons you might think!
While the shots/footage aren't the clearest, they do indicate that the sex scenes between Stone and Ruffalo will be fairly explicit - given the profiles of the actors involved, at least - but at the end of the day they basically amount to... a man and a woman bonking in various positions.
Part of the hullabaloo seems to have stemmed from the fact that Stone's character Bella Baxter is, technically, a resurrected corpse, but we'd say the "necrophilia" discourse might be pushing it!
Here's what Lanthimos had to say about the film's sex/nudity and Stone's commitment to filming the scenes in a recent interview.
“It’s a shame that Emma could not be here to speak more about it, because it will be coming all from me,” he said. “First of all, sex is an intrinsic part of the novel itself, her freedom about everything including sexuality. Secondly, it was very important for me to not make a film that would be prudish, because that would be like completely betraying the main character."
“We had to be confident Emma had to have no shame about her body, nudity, engaging in those scenes and she understood that right away,” he added.
You can check out the most recent trailer for Poor Things below.
"From filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and producer Emma Stone comes the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation."
The movie has been rated R for “Strong and pervasive sexual content, graphic nudity, disturbing material, gore, and language."
Poor Things is set to hit theaters on December 8.