NEED TO KNOW
Emma Stone knew all along how she wanted to reveal her shaved-head transformation for Bugonia.
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the actress — who plays high-powered pharmaceutical CEO Michelle Fuller in the fourth collaboration with director Yorgos Lanthimos — says she disguised her look to maintain an element of “surprise or an interesting moment,” despite not having loved wearing beanies for three months to keep the dramatic change a secret.
Atsushi Nishijima/Focus Features
“Because one of the great things that happened with Poor Things [the 2023 Frankenstein-inspired film Stone worked on with Lanthimos] was nobody had seen pictures of [her character] Bella’s look, that really long black hair. It was fun when the trailer came out for that, and it was like, ‘Whoa.’ It’s nice when it’s revealed later.”
Stone, 36, also said since there were “no pictures or candids from set” while Bugonia was in its filming stages, she thought, “Why not keep this up for a little bit?”
After production for the movie wrapped, Stone had come to love her new look. It took some time to get there, though.
During a Sept. 3 Q&A event for the film, Lanthimos confirmed that Stone got “cold feet” before actually taking the plunge, which ended up having to be filmed in one take, leaving no room for error.
“It was a year and a half I knew that I was going to be shaving my head, and then the day of — they were setting up four cameras, because we had to get it in one shot and we were shooting on VistaVision for the most part, which is a gorgeous but very moody camera that will shut down a lot — so they were setting up, and it was taking a long time to set all the cameras up. And I just started kind of panicking about that,” she explained.
Emma McIntyre/WireImage
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Remembering her mother Krista’s experience with hair loss after undergoing chemotherapy treatment for her 2008 diagnosis with triple-negative breast cancer “really brought her back to Earth,” said Lanthimos.
“So it was actually one of the greatest experiences of my life, very freeing, and it’s just hair. I thought it would be longer by now, but it’s just hair!” added Stone.
Due to her commitment to keeping her transformation close to her chest, Stone actually never made her bald look red carpet official, opting to wear a wig for the premiere of A Real Pain during the 62nd New York Film Festival last October and debuting her grown-out pixie cut this past March at the 2025 Golden Globes.
Bugonia will premiere with a wide release on Oct. 31.
