Emma Stone has revealed she struggled to play Bella Baxter in the 2023 film Poor Things.

She was chatting with her Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos for Variety that was released on Wednesday.

The 35-year-old actress was the main star of the film, which was based on Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel of the same name and also starred Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef and Willem Dafoe.

Stone – who is currently in talks to work with the filmmaker for the fourth time – detailed her anxiety.

‘I felt like I was failing her in the first week, and failing Yorgos. It was just difficult. I could talk to him about it,’ she said.

Stone went on to state that she had a set idea about how she would portray Baxter and that she felt as if she was not living up to her own standards.

Emma Stone has revealed she struggled to play Bella Baxter in the 2023 film Poor Things. She was chatting with her Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos for Variety that was released on Wednesday

The 35-year-old actress was the main star of the film, which was based on Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel of the same name and also starred Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef and Willem Dafoe

She has been Oscar nominated for her role in Poor Things

‘I think because I had lived with her in my mind for so long and I was so deeply in love with Bella, it terrified me not to live up to her as a character,’ she recalled.

However, the Cruella star remarked that she was able to voice her concerns to Lanthimos, with whom she collaborated on the 2018 feature The Favorite, and that his style of working helped her regain her confidence.

She stated: ‘I could talk to Yorgos about it, and we were able to discover as we went. And because it’s a safe environment, it doesn’t feel rushed.’

The Academy Award-winning performer then opened up about what attracted her to the role of Baxter, a young woman whose brain was replaced by that of her unborn child following a suicide attempt.

‘I think that’s why I was so crazy about her. It’s the idea of not living with that self-judgment or shame, as you say, or the social contracts that you make as a child growing up,’ she said.

Stone went on to discuss her close working relationship with Lanthimos, 50, and opened up about how he selected his cast based on their personality.

‘Yorgos feels like a lot of his process of working with people or putting people in his films has to do with who they are as a person. It’s not just performance-based.’

The filmmaker also recalled scheduling ‘weeks and weeks of just playing games, laughing and being comfortable with each other’ in order to build a rapport among the cast members prior to the start of filming.

The performer – who is currently in talks to work with the filmmaker for the fourth time – has since revealed that she was worried that she would not do the character justice while working on the movie

Stone then admitted that she started off filming on a bad note, as she quickly began second-guessing her portrayal of Baxter

Stone went on to discuss her close working relationship with Lanthimos, 50, and opened up about how he selected his cast based on their personality

Poor Things premiered during the 80th Venice International Film Festival, and it was released in the United States in December of last year.

The movie was met with widespread critical and commercial success, and it currently holds a rating of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Poor Things was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, while Stone and Lanthimos have been put up in the Best Actress and Best Director categories.

The feature received a total of 11 Oscar nods in various categories, including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design.