Emma Stone Got ‘Cold Feet’ on the Day She Was Supposed to Shave Her Head for ‘Bugonia’

Emma Stone was hesitant about one element needed for her latest film, Bugonia.

Stone, 36, and director Yorgos Lanthimos chatted about the new film at a Q&A on Wednesday, Sept. 3, in New York City. There, the Oscar-winning actress confessed she was apprehensive about one particular request.

In the forthcoming film, Stone stars as a high-powered pharmaceutical CEO who is believed to be an alien sent to destroy Earth, and is kidnapped by a pair of conspiracy theorists (Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis). Due to the nature of the film, she had to shave her head on the camera, leaving no room for error in one take. 

“From the moment I read the script, I knew I’d have to shave my head, because there was just never going to be any other way,” Stone said during the recent Q&A, per IndieWire.

Lanthimos then quipped, “You did have cold feet once.” Stone then confirmed that it was “right before” they filmed the scene.

“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.

Despite her anxiety about the transformation, Lanthimos, 51, spoke with her and eased her concerns.

What “really brought her back to Earth” was recalling her mother’s chemotherapy treatment, Stone said. “She did something legitimately hard and she lost her hair. And the first thing she said was, ‘I am so jealous, I want to shave my head again.’ ”

Stone’s mother, Krista, was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in 2008.

“And I was like, I’m shaving my head because I get to do what I love, and my mom was there with me, and I was like, ‘What a gift! It’s hair,’ ” Stone continued. “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!”

Stone’s longtime friend Jennifer Lawrence told Vogue that Stone “pulled [the look] off.” Adding, “Honestly, she looked beautiful.”

“I really didn’t want her to shave her head,” Lawrence, 35, confessed to the outlet. “I had already lived through the Billie Jean King haircut,” the Silver Linings Playbook star continued, referencing Stone’s 2017 role as the iconic tennis player in Battle of the Sexes.

Stone’s latest film is the actress’ fourth collaboration with Lanthimos. The pair previously worked together on The Favourite (2018), Poor Things (2023) and Kinds of Kindness (2024). Poor Things earned Stone won her second Best Actress Academy Award for her head-turning role. (Her first was for La La Land, in 2017.)

Bugonia stars Plemons, Delbis, Stavros Halkias and Alicia Silverstone. Written by Will Tracy, it is a reimagining of the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet!

The film is co-produced by Stone and Lanthimos, as well as Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Ari Aster, Lars Knudsen, Miky Lee and Jerry Kyoungboum Ko.

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Bugonia is in limited theaters Oct. 24, and opens wide Oct. 31.