Poor Things Interview: DP Robbie Ryan On Emma Stone Departing From Her Usual Roles

In Poor Things, a young woman named Bella is brought back to life by the eccentric scientist Dr. Gowin Baxter. The film follows her unbelievable evolution, free from the preconceptions and prejudices of the world. Eager to learn about the world, she runs away with Duncan Wedderburn on a fantastical adventure where she discovers her purpose in life.

Poor Things was directed by Yorgos Lanthimos from a screenplay by Tony McNamara based on Alasdair Gray’s book of the same name. Poor Things features a star-studded cast led by Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, and Jerrod Carmichael. Stone and Lanthimos also produced the movie, along with Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe.

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Poor Things: Release Date, Cast, Story, Trailer & Everything We Know

Poor Things is the eighth movie from The Lobster director Yorgos Lanthimos. Here’s everything you need to know about the adaptation of the 1992 novel.

Screen Rant interviewed director of photography Robbi Ryan about his new movie, Poor Things. He discussed working with Stone and how she had to jump between the different evolutionary stages of Bella Baxter. Ryan also shared his experiences collaborating with Lanthimos on this and other movies, as well as the interesting filming techniques they used to create this world.

Robbie Ryan Talks Poor Things

Screen Rant: The movie is stunning from start to finish, I was amazed by how it looked.

Robbie Ryan: Oh, great. Well, this should be an easy interview then.

I was told that the decision to include the black-and-white scenes in the movie came late in the game. Did that impact how you actually shot the movie at all, or is that something that comes after the movie is filmed?

Robbie Ryan: No, no, we shot it on black and white film stock. So yeah, it wasn’t like we shot it on color and then we’d go to black and white. So yeah, I think Yorgos had seen the way the set was working out, and he was maybe thinking how best to incorporate the set for the film. And he loves black and white film anyway, so I think he saw the opportunity to kind of maybe make it work.

And then when you watch the film you go, “Oh yeah, it totally makes sense,” because she kind of goes on this journey and her life becomes colorful, and then she brings the color back to the same sort of beginning anyway. So it all seems like totally makes sense. But I guess because it was a late decision that people like producers and production designers maybe got a little bit like, “Oh shit, okay, what are we going to do?” But from my perspective, I was like, yeah, let’s go. This is great. I love it.

I know you’ve also worked with Emma Stone before on The Favorite. Did knowing her style or process kind of help with this kind of movie, because of how different she is in each scene?

Robbie Ryan: Well, I think for her, this film was kind of like a departure for most of her other work as well. So it was kind of just being able to give her as easy a time as possible to create that. And she totally trusted Yorgos, he totally trusted her, and we just sort of had so much fun watching her go through all these levels of Bella. And the thing is, we shot it obviously by a set by set basis.

So if you think about it, the beginning of the film starts in Dr. Baxter’s house, but also the end of the film. So she goes from being super young Bella to sort of Bella 2.0 within three weeks of filming it. So she had to change back and forth all the time. And that is not an easy ask as an actor. Shooting consecutively is a great thing, but that was so not consecutive. We were literally filming the end of the film on our second week. So I can’t say enough about how impressive Emma is on set.

She’s just a fun person. She’s kind of really, really vivacious, full of life person, and she brings it to the next level for things, really. And it’s such a shame that she never gets to promote it. We’re doing all the promotions for her. So fingers crossed soon you’ll get to chat to her about it.

I can’t even imagine that because I was already extremely impressed. But going from one week to the other with that?

Robbie Ryan: Yeah, can you imagine? It’s just insane, isn’t it? So her and Yorgos had a bit of a log line of different stages of Bella, and they were able to have a laugh with each other about, “Oh, that Bella is…” It’s always done through a humorous kind of way, but still massive undertaking for her to try and drop in and out. And I think we were always there trying to make sure that that was as smooth a transition as possible.

Because she has such an evolution in this movie, did the different stages of Bella change how you shot Bella in each scene?

Robbie Ryan: Ironically, no, because we kind of set up how we were… The way Yorgos films is he kind of does a lot of testing, and then we get down to a lens choice that we’re going to use for the film. And with Poor Things, we only had maybe five different lenses we were going to shoot with. And it’s always one camera, it’s always on a dolly and track, so it’s either a static or it’s moving a bit. And so, all of those techniques didn’t change from day one to the last day.

So I think it’s this sort of magic of cinema that you think there’s an evolution in the way we shot, but not really. It’s all kind of like we tended to use the same lenses in every scene and use all of them in each scene. So it’s just the way it’s edited and it’s a beautifully edited film. And obviously her performance and the actors sort of like performances, and the world kind of evolves because of the nature of her going to these different locations. But from the camera’s point of view, it’s doing the same thing. It’s just what’s in front of the camera becomes more and more elaborate.

Yeah, and a lot of the shots really, to me, they felt like a painting. It felt like a portrait. Did you guys look at art styles, or specific paintings when figuring out the shots?

Robbie Ryan: I think James, Sean and Yorgos definitely referenced a lot of things. And from our perspective, we shot on these old portrait lenses that were from 1910. They were projector, it used to be projector lenses that would project all these old projectors, but they’ve rehoused them and made them possible to shoot on as a camera lens. And they’re called Petzval, and they have this beautiful way of creating a soft, full, shallow focusness, and a bendy, it’s called a crazy Boca, or whatever it’s called.

It’s a Japanese term, but they evoked a lot of early photography in a way, in my opinion, because they come from that old, it makes me feel that we were connected a bit to the old world of photography in that way, and almost painterly. But I do remember them mentioning Hieronymus Bosch a bit, quite a bit in the prep for their stuff, but I didn’t talk so much about paintings with them. You’d have to ask Sean and James.

Can you talk to me a little bit about collaborating with Yorgos and how he stands out from other directors that you’ve worked with?

Robbie Ryan: Yeah, this is a tricky question. He’s a very singular director. There’s not many people who direct like him. So I think he’s got a lot of taste and he knows what he doesn’t like, and he’ll filter that out, and he’ll get to where he wants to get on all levels of craft as much as he can. And I think he tends to push people in their own craft to limits that they probably didn’t know they had. So you really know you’re working towards something that’s going to be very interesting.

And I think that’s what makes him stand out, that he pushes people in that respect. And it’s not an aggressive thing, it’s just sort of like, because he’s got so much taste and knowledge of his own, that you try and keep up with them and go, “Okay, that’s amazing.” And you research things, and you look things, and you try and get it to a level, which you never achieve, of where he’s kind of coming from. But you think you’re great as you’re doing it.

Were there any techniques or styles from this that you would want to take into future projects?

Robbie Ryan: Well, every time you finish on the Yorgos stuff, the next thing you do after, you tend to try and bring a few of the things you’ve just done, and it’s like it doesn’t work the same. So it’s like, oh, it only kind of really settles into his world. So I have been shooting with Petzval lenses on the last job I just did, and then the next job I’m doing, I’ll get them to shoot on ektachrome films.

So yeah, I guess I am bringing things forward from the last job, because you just go, “Wow, you should have seen this. It looks amazing.” Then the directors that you work with next go, “Oh, that does sound good. Could I have a go of it?”

And you’re like, “Oh, okay, let’s try it.” And then the producers get back to you and go, “Oh, why did you say that?” Because ektachrome is quite an expensive way of going. Anyway.

About Poor Things

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.

Check back for our other Poor Things interviews:

• Holly Waddington
• Mark Ruffalo & Willem Dafoe
• Tony McNamara
• Ramy Youssef
• James Price & Shona Heath
• Emma Stone