Emma Stone has never shied away from a movie role transformation, but her latest one came with a motherly pep talk.
Stone, 36, said she had a chat with her 4-year-old daughter, Louise Jean, so she didn’t shock her upon coming home with a completely shaven head while filming the comedy/sci-fi movie Bugonia, as reported by USA Today on Wednesday, October 23.
The actress portrays Michelle Fuller, a high-powered pharmaceutical CEO that is abducted by conspiracy theorists who are convinced she is an alien determined to destroy Earth, in the film. In order to stop her from fulfilling her master plan — or so they believe — they shave her head to block her ability to get in contact with her mothership.
The star said she wanted her child to be “very ready” to see her bald “so it’s not super-scary” considering it was “such a major transformation.” (Stone welcomed Louise Jean with her husband, Dave McCary, in March 2021. The couple has been married since September 2020.)
As for how Stone delivered the news, “I just said, ‘I’m going to shave my head. I’m going to take my hair off and it’s going to grow back. Isn’t that so silly and fun? We can do whatever we want with our hair! It can change all the time.’ She’s like, ‘OK,’ and then was totally cool.”
Stone also had to prepare herself mentally for the drastic change. Adding to the pressure of it all was the fact that director Yorgos Lanthimos knew he had “one chance to do it properly.”
To ensure there were no hiccups while filming, he had four different cameras ready to go “just to make sure none of them jammed.”
“They kept saying, ‘We’ll be ready in 10 minutes. Nah, actually 30 minutes. No, actually an hour,’ ” Stone shared in hindsight, revealing she did get the “slightest cold feet” as her nerves started getting the best of her.
She added, “I was sitting there, building the anticipation. So I had a little last-minute freak, and then Yorgos came over, we talked, and I was like, ‘I’m going to be fine. It’s going to be great.’ And I absolutely loved it.”
Stone said that was practically in a meditative state while her head was shaved bald, “telling myself to stay still because if I opened my eyes or flinched, it would really mess things up.”
Just two months ago, the Easy A star gushed over motherhood in August, calling Louise the “greatest gift of my life” during an interview with Vogue while revealing that being a parent has impacted the roles she chooses, her zest for her craft and more.
Stone, who previously won an Academy Award for her role as Bella Baxter in Poor Things, previously dedicated her second Oscar win to her daughter.
“I do think it unlocks different things,” she explained during her interview, revealing she experiences deeper emotions. “I feel everything I could possibly feel, because everything has exploded.”
Bugonia hits select theaters on Friday, October 24, and nationwide on Friday, October 31.
