Emma Stone has already picked up a Golden Globe for her performance in Yorgos Lanthimos's new film Poor Things – and the star is very much in the running to also secure her second Oscar, following the one she won for La La Land in 2016.

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Poor Things is based on Alasdair Gray's 1992 novel of the same name and sees Stone take on the central role of Bella Baxter, a woman brought back from the dead in a bizarre experiment by a strange Scottish scientist named Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe).

And Ramy Youssef – who appears as key character Max McCandles in the film – has revealed how he was "blown away" by Stone's performance, describing his co-star's portrayal as "genius" during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com.

“I mean, she was just so good at balancing the growth of everything and kind of being able to arc Bella's character so well," he explained.

"And then she's also producing, so I was really kind of blown away by how much she was balancing and being able to step into – and for me, it was really fun to just play off of her because she's so fast and so funny.

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He added: "And I thought it was genius, the way that she really grew her physicality as well... because it's not just about speech. She really worked on how she was going to move her body and grow her movement from walking to posture to sitting and it was really nice.”

Emma Stone in Poor Things trailer
Emma Stone in Poor Things. SearchlightPictures/ YouTube

Youssef shares several scenes with Stone throughout the film and asked to pick out a highlight he chose the pair's very first scene together, which he explained led to a few rather smelly complications later down the line.

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“Our first scene we shot was really special," he said. "We were sitting at the table and she's spitting kippers out at me. That was really fun, just because it was the first one we'd ever done.

"And then, according to Yorgos, I smelled like kippers for the whole film. He said it never really got out of the wardrobe. So anytime I wore that wardrobe, he said 'you still smell like kippers', which was encouraging!"

Poor Things is released in UK cinemas on Friday 12th January 2024. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.

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