Inside the shocking kidnapping conspiracy thriller, 'Bugonia'

In Bugonia, Emma Stone steps into one of the most unnerving roles of her career — a powerful CEO who is kidnapped and interrogated by two conspiracy-obsessed men, convinced she is an alien, here to destroy humanity.

- By Manjusha Radhakrishnan

It’s a premise that borders on absurdity, yet it lands with piercing relevance in a world grappling with disinformation, technological anxiety, and a fractured sense of truth. Stone, who reunites with visionary director Yorgos Lanthimos after Poor Things and The Favourite, becomes the mirror through which audiences confront this collective paranoia.

“I'd never seen me like that either,” Stone says of the physical demands of the role in an exclusive roundtable interview with Gulf News.

“Hadn't ever really been tied to a cot before. No, it was definitely physical ... but it was fun, dare I say, interesting, and ... was challenging, but felt new.”

CONSPIRACY THEORIES

While Bugonia delivers claustrophobic tension and psychological pressure, Stone makes it clear that the true thrill was in the charged dialogue with costar Jesse Plemons.

“The thing that I was most focused on throughout all of the physical aspects ... was these scenes that we were able to do together — all of this dialogue and the back and forth ... that was really what was so sort of exciting.”