Interview: Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe on ‘Kinds of Kidness’
Brash, bold and brilliant, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness is probably one of the most audacious films in a career and filmography that is chockfull of them. Throughout its 2 hour and 45 minute runtime, the film unfolds like a scroll painting of absurdity, combining moments of stark human vulnerability with Lanthimos’s signature dark humor and surrealism.
Billed as a “triptych fable,” Kinds of Kindness is an anthology film made up of 3 loosely connected stories: one, following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; another, a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and third, a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.
Each of the film’s cast members, including Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn and Mamoudou Athie, play 3 very different characters (some even 4), showcasing their versatility and acting skills throughout the course of the film. “I’m not going to say because I resist having preferences,” answers Dafoe when asked if he has a favorite of the three stories. Stone, on the otherhand, says it’s “hard” to pick a favorite. “It also changes,” she says. “I’ve seen it quite a few times and I really loved this one this time, and then I’m in a different mood, in a different place and I’m really drawn to this other one. So it’s hard to choose a favorite.”
Kinds of Kindness had its world premiere at the 2024, where it was met with critical acclaim. It also sparked an online frenzy of sorts not once, but twice: a scene of Stone dancing to the song “Brand New Bitch” by COBRAH, taken from the film’s trailer, went viral on the internet, amassing hundreds of millions of views on TikTok, Instagram and X, and taking on a life of its own. “I didn’t know they were going to use it for a teaser trailer,” she says of the scene, which she completely improvised. “So I didn’t expect it to take off as much as it did.”
The other moment that sparked an online frenzy was a meme that Alwyn posted on Instagram comparing his and Stone’s characters to two very blue-eyed, extremely wide-eyed cats. “I’ve seen it before and we had laughed about it before,” says Stone of the photo. “And then he put it up on his Instagram and I thought that was very funny.”
Kinds of Kindness marks Stone’s fourth and Dafoe’s second collaboration with Lanthimos; Stone previously worked with the filmmaker on The Favourite, short film Bleat and Poor Things, while Dafoe had a supporting role in the latter as well. “He gives you fun things to do,” says Dafoe of his decision to reunite with the director. “We love being around him. I love his work. He brings wonderful people to the project. I’m very happy when I’m on his set and in his company. And of course, working with Emma Stone is a big bonus!”
“I couldn’t say it better than what Willem just said,” agrees Stone. “That’s exactly how I feel. It’s just one of those things; you’re drawn to somebody, you like their work, you like the way that it is on their set. I had such a great experience on The Favourite. I really felt so bonded to that cast and the crew. I remember people seeing us when we were promoting Poor Things. One of my friends saw Mark [Ruffalo], Willem, Ramy [Youssef] and I all together, and they were like, ‘What kind of set is that? You guys are not here to work!’ We’re just loving on each other and we feel so close. To have that kind of energy on a film set really makes you feel alive. It’s very inspiring. I think you do better work when you feel that level of of community and trust, it feels like theater.”
Co-written by Lanthimos and frequent collaborator Efthimis Filippou, Kinds of Kindness also challenges societal norms and explores the complexities of human relationships, all filtered through a daring and unapologetic gaze that will leave viewers simultaneously unsettled and enthralled by its bold, audacious vision. Much like Lanthimos and Filippou’s earlier films, specifically Dogtooth, The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, the film is a tough one to swallow and may take repeat viewings to truly register for audiences, unlike The Favourite and Poor Things, both of which were much more accessible in comparison. For Dafoe and Stone, however, the absurdity and boldness of the script was never an issue either before or during filming.
“Whenever I read a script, I always say, ‘What am I doing with this? Do I want to do these things? Is it interesting to me? Is it something that I know so well that I want to do it or is it something that’s so far away from me, I want to learn about it? It’s like that,” says Dafoe. “It’s about the doing. You really look until there’s so much that you can’t anticipate, and I don’t want to anticipate because once you decide certain things, sometimes you lose the life of discovery, so it’s good to be a little stupid sometimes. It’s good to be educated or to be engaged through the experience of doing, and that’s very essential. So when I read a script, [my thoughts on it become] kind of secondary. A good script is a beautiful thing to have, but I look around who’s in the room and where it’s going to be, what kind of character I’m gonna play. I don’t even decide who the character is. It’s like, ‘This has turned me on,’ and that’s it.”
Kinds of Kindness is in select theaters on June 21 before expanding nationwide and releasing in the UK on June 28.