Did Emma Stone really shave her head for ‘Bugonia’?

Emma Stone‘s distinctive look in Bugonia has a lot of people talking, but did she really shave her head for the film? Find out below.

• READ MORE: ‘Bugonia’ review: Emma Stone in la-la land for elite oddball satire

The new Yorgos Lanthimos black comedy stars the two-time Oscar winner as a high-powered CEO who is kidnapped by two conspiracy theorists (Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis) who believe she is secretly an alien who wants to destroy the Earth.

It marks the fourth big screen collaboration between Stone and Lanthimos, after The Favourite, Poor Things and Kinds Of Kindness, and it is based on the 2003 South Korean film Save The Green Planet! by Jang Joon-hwan, with a new screenplay from Will Tracy (The Menu, Succession).

The film received its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in August and was released in US cinemas on October 24 and in the UK on October 31. Watch the trailer here:

NME awarded the film four stars, writing: “While perhaps not as glorious as Lanthimos’ best, Bugonia’s shock and awe prompts a discussion about internet culture that hits worryingly close to home. It’s another win for his ongoing partnership with Stone, who may be abducting another Oscar in a few months’ time.”

Did Emma Stone really shave her head for Bugonia?

In the film, Stone’s Michelle Fuller is forced to shave her head after being abducted by conspiracy theorist Teddy Gatz and his neurodivergent cousin Don, as they believe that she is able to communicate with aliens via her hair.

The scene in which they shave her head in the film was not an illusion – Stone really did lose all of her hair for the role.

The actress spoke to Entertainment Weekly this week about how “afraid” she was to film the scene in one take. “Stay still, that was it,” she said. “I was meditating on stay still, just stay still. Because I am not awake there, I was like, play dead, basically, play dead.”

Reflecting on pulling off the scene, Lanthimos has said: “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.”

The look has become a major part of the film’s public profile, with one screening at the Culver Theatre in Los Angeles being reserved solely for bald people, or people willing to shave their heads for the occasion.

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