Willem Dafoe made Emma Stone slap him 20 times for a scene in an upcoming film.
The actor stars opposite Stone in the anthology film And, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Favourite). In a profile interview with Dafoe by The New York Times, it’s revealed that Dafoe asked to be slapped repeatedly for a scene where Stone slaps his character, despite him being off camera in the shot.
The interview described how Dafoe “insisted that the move would look more genuine if he were actually being slapped,” and that he took the staged hit 20 times.
Lanthimos said of Defoe’s commitment: “That’s what you want from actors. To want to be part of it in any way.”
Meanwhile, Stone also noted her praise for Dafoe. “There’s this instinct to perform that many actors have — the ‘look at me, look at me!’ kind of performer,” she said. “He’s the opposite of that. Maybe it’s changed through the years. A lot of actors I bond with have been doing this for a long time, and you know they’ve gone from ‘I’ to ‘We.’”
And also stars Jesse Plemons, Hong Chau, and Margaret Qualley. It went on the floors last year in October. Searchlight Pictures is distributing the film.
The film has the backing of Searchlight Pictures, which previously released Lanthimos’ The Favourite in 2018. The film earned $95 million worldwide and scored 10 Academy Award nominations, including best picture.
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