Emma Stone Shaved Head in One Take and Wore Weird Cream for Months

Emma Stone shaved her head in a single take while filming director Yorgos Lanthimos’ black comedy Bugonia, portraying Michelle Fuller, a pharmaceutical CEO suspected of being an alien. The intense scene captures her kidnapping by Teddy, played by Jesse Plemons, who believes Michelle is an extraterrestrial sent to destroy Earth.

During this pivotal moment, Teddy and his cousin Don, portrayed by Aidan Delbis, ambush Michelle at her mansion, rendering her unconscious before the unusual act of shaving her hair off, which the kidnappers think is a communication device with her mothership. This moment was performed flawlessly in one continuous shot, reflecting the high stakes and pressure Stone faced on set.

One Take and High Stakes: The Hair-Shaving Scene

Stone revealed to Entertainment Weekly that while Don shaved her head in the backseat of her car, she was focused solely on remaining still. She said,

“Stay still. That was it. I was meditating on stay still, just stay still.”

Emma was so terrified of blinking or moving that she had to “play dead” to maintain the scene’s integrity.

“Because I am not awake there, I was like, play dead, basically, play dead,”

she explained.

There was no opportunity for a retake, though four cameras were employed to capture the moment perfectly. Lanthimos praised Stone’s commitment, noting she embraced the drastic look early on. The director remarked it wasn’t difficult convincing her to go through with the shave, as it was scripted, though she did feel a flutter of nerves beforehand.

“She read it first, and she had the slightest hesitation just before, not hesitation to do it, but she had kind of a knot in her stomach. But it happened. Thankfully, we did it. We only had one shot to achieve it. And then she felt great. She saw herself and she really loved it, and she felt very free.”

A Bold Look and Lingering Challenges During Filming

Lanthimos admired Stone’s new appearance so much that he encouraged her to keep the shaved head, but she declined because hiding it during months of filming became tiresome. Beyond losing her hair, Stone endured another unusual challenge meant to suppress her character Michelle’s alleged alien powers. Teddy’s character attempts to weaken her by coating her body with thick layers of lotion on a daily basis.

Stone described the painstaking process of testing various creams to find one that would remain effective given human skin’s temperature of 98.6 degrees, which causes lotions to melt or absorb quickly. She stated,

“It was a combination of [creams] and there were many tests of all different ones because it goes through all different layers,”

adding,

“And turns out human skin hovers around 98.6 degrees, and that’s a melting point for a lot of creams. So making that stuff last all day — tricky. The pores take it in, it thins out. So it was a combination of things, depending on the day, different foundations, moisturizers. It was a fun test, though.”

Hair and make-up designer Torsten Witte was credited with crafting the unique lotion mixture, which Stone applied daily for months, joking that after a point the line between cream and blood blurred.

“Yeah. It was either cream or blood.”

Complex Characters with Conflicting Motivations

Stone found her character’s dynamic with Teddy deeply intriguing. She observed the two as heroes in their own right, each driven by vastly different backgrounds and motivations, locked in a tense standoff but potentially capable of mutual understanding if circumstances allowed. Stone said,

“It feels truly like [Teddy and Michelle] are two heroes unto themselves that are both here to save the world in completely different ways and from completely different backgrounds clearly, and from totally different viewpoints that have this tension against each other, but could really teach each other a couple of things potentially if they were able to hear each other or if it was a circumstance that wasn’t so kidnap-y.”

Describing Michelle’s personality, Stone noted her glazed, polite exterior masked a hollow facade of corporate jargon and empty reassurances. She found this portrayal both tragic and humorous, especially in how Michelle uses polished language to negotiate under high stress. As she explained,

“I found her so fascinating because she’s sort of glaze-y, everything’s lovely and everything’s fine, but it’s all just an empty word salad-y exercise,”

and,

“It is always interesting to me to hear people who are the heads of these companies that are like, We need to say this specific set of things. And her using those tactics to then negotiate with Teddy in this really intense situation in a basement – I found it really, really funny and sad, and it was just true in so many ways.”

Upcoming Release and Anticipation

The film Bugonia, featuring this unique blend of absurdist humor and intense psychological drama, is set to premiere in theaters nationwide on Friday. Emma Stone’s bold dedication to the role, including the instant head shave and enduring daily physical trials, underscores the transformative process behind bringing this complex character to life.

This film promises to engage audiences with its volatile character dynamics and unsettling storyline, as Stone’s portrayal anchors the tension-filled narrative with a nuanced performance.