Emma Stone has declared that she believes in aliens.
The Poor Things star, 36, explained that she was inspired by the scientist and astronomer Carl Sagan, who felt that believing humans were alone in the “vast expansive universe” was “narcissistic”.
The subject is at the heart of her forthcoming film Bugonia, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival this week.
Stone plays Michelle Fuller, the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company, who is kidnapped by conspiracy theorists who believe she is an alien masquerading as a human in a ploy to destroy Earth.
Asked at a press conference in Venice whether she believed there was an “ultimate intelligence looking down on us”, the actor replied: “I don’t know about looking down on us, but one of my favourite people who has ever lived is Carl Sagan and I fell madly in love with his philosophy and science and how brilliant he is.”
The Guardian reports that she continued: “He very deeply believed [that] the idea that we’re alone in this vast expansive universe – not that we’re being watched – is a pretty narcissistic thing,” she said. “So, yes, I’m coming out and saying it: I believe in aliens.”
Pitched as a dark comedy, Bugonia is a remake of the 2003 Korean film Save The Green Planet! and also stars Jesse Plemons as Teddy, a conspiracist and beekeeper.
Director Yorgos Lanthimos said he would not call the film “dystopic”.
“If anything, this film says this is happening now,” he explained. “Humanity is facing a reckoning very soon, people need to choose the right path in many ways otherwise I don’t know how much time we have – with technology, with AI, with wars, and [with] the denial of all these things, how desensitised we’ve become to them.”
Stone drew critical acclaim and an Oscar for Best Actress for her portrayal of Bella Baxter in Lanthimos’ Poor Things in 2023.
Her other credits include an Oscar-winning performance as an aspiring actor in the musical La La Land in 2016, and Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress in Birdman (2014) and The Favourite (2018).
Bugonia is set to be released in cinemas across the UK on 7 November this year.
