FILM · 2023 · IRELAND
Poor Things
23 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
23 Interesting Facts About Poor Things
Interesting Facts (15)
- #001
Willem Dafoe described the makeup process: "Four hours in, two hours out every day - I come in at three in the morning, sit in the chair, meditate and try to get through staying still. You can't sleep because it's so complicated that you have to work with the people applying it. It's a torment, but I loved working with a mask on there - literally a mask."
- #002
- #003
Mark Ruffalo was initially hesitant about the role of Duncan Wedderburn after first reading Tony McNamara's script for "Poor Things." "I said to [director Yorgos Lanthimos], 'I don't think I'm right for this,'" Ruffalo said. "And he just laughed at me and he's like, 'It's you.'".
- #004
Director Yorgos Lanthimos wanted Mark Ruffalo to have a bird-like silhouette, specifically that of a puffed-up pigeon. The costume designers created a padded chest piece for Ruffalo to wear, but found it too distracting. Instead, they exaggerated his shape with large shoulder pads and a corset.
- #005
Mark Ruffalo admitted that he normally never enjoys shooting sex and nude scenes, but confessed that playing most of these scenes with Emma Stone made them much more fun, given her sense of humor and her ability to joke between takes.
- #006
At a press conference held during the 2023 Venice Film Festival, director Yorgos Lanthimos praised his star Emma Stone for her commitment to shooting the film's highly sensational sex scenes. He said: "It was very important for me not to make a prudish film, because that would have been a complete betrayal of this main character. We had to make sure that Emma was not ashamed of her body, of her nudity, of being in those scenes, and she understood that immediately. When I started saying something about sex, she would say: 'Yes, of course, Bella. We'll do what we need to do.'".
- #007
The production designers built huge, immersive sets on sound stages in Budapest for the London mansion, the winter Paris square, the passenger ship and the Lisbon streets. Because of its size and scale (170 feet long and 60 feet high), the Lisbon street set had to be built separately at the nearby Korda Studios.
- #008
- #009
- #010
To shoot the hybrid animals, one of each real animal appeared on set and the other half of the animal was added later in editing. Emma Stone named a goose 'Goose Willis' (a play on Bruce Willis) and the sheep 'Meryl Sheep' (a play on Meryl Streep).
- #011
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Behind the Scenes (2)
Characters & Cast (2)
- #018
Mark Ruffalo on taking on the role of Duncan Wedderburn: "I'm 55 now and you start thinking, 'Okay, in a way I'm on the downhill side of this and there's a limit to how long this goes and how much my body can take.' And honestly? I was starting to get a little bored with myself as Mark Ruffalo," he added. "I was actually trying to get the ship as close to the reef as possible without running aground. There's a recklessness in that that I normally wouldn't have." "I was like, 'Fuck it, I really don't care if I give a terrible performance.' [But] I think it was the best time I've ever had on a film," Ruffalo continued. "Playing this character, doing all the physical comedy, doing the language and creating the story he creates was so crazy and so exciting. One foot on a banana peel, the other in the grave."
- #019
Easter Eggs & References (1)
Deeper Meaning (3)
- #021
Color is used strikingly to symbolize the protagonist's progression throughout the film. This also coincides with the scenes in which Bella is still under Godwin's curfew, symbolizing her lack of freedom. When color is introduced, it moves from the vivid Lisbon and dramatic skies of the journey toward a less saturated, wintry Paris, and ends in very realistic colors in London in the final scenes, reflecting how the childlike woman sees the world on her path to maturity.
- #022
On the deck of the boat, as Bella discusses philosophical matters with Harry Astley, who was earlier described in the film as a "cynic," Duncan Wedderburn appears and confronts Bella. He then asks her to stay out of the sunlight. This is a direct reference to Diogenes (5th-4th century BC), one of the founders of cynical philosophy. According to legend, when Alexander the Great was in Corinth he tried to meet the famous philosopher and found him resting in the sun. When Alexander stood before Diogenes, the philosopher asked him to stay out of the sunlight. Bella's words mark her engagement with cynical philosophy and its way of life from this point in the film onward.
- #023
Describing how she defined the character of Bella, Emma Stone was drawn to the idea of playing a woman reborn with a liberated mindset, free of social pressures: "It's a fairy tale and a metaphor - obviously this couldn't happen in reality - but as a woman, the idea that you could start over as an already formed body and see everything for the first time and try to understand the nature of sexuality, power, money or choice, the ability to create. Make choices and live by your own rules, not by society's rules; I thought that was a really fascinating world."
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
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