Yorgos Lanthimos may be warming up to artificial intelligence at least when it comes to dodging press tours.
The Oscar-nominated director of The Favourite, Poor
Things, and Kinds of Kindness joked during a Saturday conversation
at the BFI London Film Festival that he’d gladly send a computer-generated
version of himself to handle publicity obligations if it meant avoiding the
grind of promotion.
Lanthimos appeared alongside Succession creator Jesse
Armstrong the day after the U.K. premiere of his latest film, Bugonia,
a darkly comic thriller starring Emma Stone as a tech mogul kidnapped by
two conspiracy theorists (played by Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis)
who believe she’s an alien bent on destroying Earth.
When asked whether he cared about box office results,
Lanthimos admitted that promotion isn’t his favorite part of filmmaking. “It’s
not my passion to be photographed and talk endlessly,” he said. “You spend
months making and editing a film, then another six months promoting it often
saying the same thing over and over. By noon, I can’t remember what I’ve said
to whom.”
Lanthimos then mused about a high-tech solution: “Why not
just create an avatar of me and send it out? That sounds very against my
principles, but still maybe AI could help,” he quipped, drawing laughter from
the crowd.
Armstrong playfully replied, “First you want a dictatorship,
and now you want an AI clone to promote your movies,” referencing Lanthimos’
earlier tongue-in-cheek remark that the world might need a “benevolent
dictator” to counter the global rise of far-right politics.
Lanthimos elaborated, “The people doing harm seem to have
all the power. Maybe we need someone who takes responsibility to do good things
instead.”
The conversation also touched on Lanthimos’ early filmmaking
years amid Greece’s 2008 economic crisis and how relocating to the U.K. allowed
him greater creative freedom.
Meanwhile, Bugonia which marks his latest
collaboration with Emma Stone is already generating early awards buzz,
just two years after her Oscar-winning turn in Poor Things.
Subscribe by Email
Follow Updates Articles from This Blog via Email
No Comments