Yorgos Lanthimos says his actors must be prepared to feel ridiculous

In the new anthology film Types of KindnessGreek surrealist director Yorgos Lanthimos tells three stories with the same group of actors Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, and more. He recasts each of them in each segment: Plemons as a down-and-out office worker, a paranoid cop, and a cult investigator; Stone as a glamorous optometrist, a missing marine biologist, and a cultist in a crisis of faith (or some sort of crisis, anyway), and so on. Lanthimos moves these famous actors around in roles that contrast or complement each other, exploring different facets of their personalities.

It’s an extension of the way Lanthimos likes to work. Much of the cast, with the exception of Plemons, has previously appeared in his films. This is the Stones' third consecutive film with him; previous, Poor thingswon her the Oscar for Best Actress. And they're about to win four in a row. Lanthimos' next film, Bugoniascheduled for release in 2025 and based on the Korean sci-fi comedy Let's save the green planet!will once again feature Stone. Plemons is also expected to appear in this film.

The actors clearly enjoy working for Lanthimos. This is what the English actor Joe Alwyn (Conversations with friends), who appeared with Stone in Lanthimos The favourite and has some funny passages in the first two Types of Kindness stories before playing a larger role in the third as the ex-husband of Stones' character.

It's like a theater troupe, and it was very playful, Alwyn said in an interview alongside Lanthimos. Being on set for The favourite And Kinds of Kindness I didn't feel like going to work like sometimes I do, or sometimes I do. I felt like I was going to play. And it's such a nice feeling, as an actor, to hang on as much as you can. It comes from the material, of course, and also from the way Yorgos is on set, and his rehearsals, and every element, and every department. It's rare to feel that as much as I did with these two films. It's really just a joy.

It sounds fun, but there's also courage in participating in a Lanthimos film. He likes to film his characters doing bizarre, humiliating, intimate or disturbing things, in a frank and unblinking manner. In Types of KindnessDafoe cries in a swimming pool while wearing a Speedo, Stone gives a long speech about a society of sentient dogs, and Qualley sings a Bee Gees song while accompanying himself on a toy piano, all with a completely straight face.

What characterizes an actor who fits perfectly into the particular world of Lanthimos? I think you just have to have an open mind, said the director. And be generous with other actors, and trust them when they see that this trust is required. Be prepared not to take things too seriously. And try things that might make you uncomfortable, and you might feel ridiculous in front of others!

Watching Kinds of Kindness “It's a bit like going through a decade of a director's work in one go: you notice the same themes being approached from different angles, and you see the familiar, star-studded actors portraying characters that contrast with each other. others, or echo each other poignantly. Beyond that, there is nothing that connects the stories together, apart from their alienated, sinister and darkly comic atmosphere and the figure of RMF, a bearded man (played by Lanthimos' friend Yorgos Stefanakos). which appears in every story. We just decided that it would be more interesting if it wasn't main characters who reappeared in all three stories, but someone who only appears for a brief moment, but their presence is somehow essential to the stories.” , Lanthimos said of the character.

Lanthimos is casual about how he casts the actors and selects their roles for each story. You figure out what works for each one to play rationally sometimes, sometimes against type, whatever that may be. But he suggests that it's the recurring cast that creates the chemistry between the three plots and makes Types of Kindness more than the sum of its parts.

“You kind of carry something with you from one story to the next, just because there’s a familiarity of having seen that actor play a character before. I think you can’t help but carry certain things over to the next story. Even though the characters themselves don’t have nearly as long an arc as a feature film, you kind of make up for it because you’ve seen the actor before, and you kind of bring a sense of that person to the next story, and then the next story,” he said.

So, in a way, the characters are enriched without it being very literal. But above all, thanks to this feeling of familiarity, this feeling of recognizing that this is a film and not real life, we can let go and approach the next story in a more open way.

But what does all this mean? Lanthimos won't elaborate on this, but Alwyn is extremely clear. Reflecting on his character in the third story, who tenderly reaches out to his ex-wife early on before a shocking twist, Alwyn offers an insightful summary of the unifying theme of Kinds of Kindness.

Everywhere you have people reaching out to you with perceived kindness and benevolence, whether it’s a boss offering structure and reward to an employee in search of purpose, or cult leaders offering a home to a woman whose life has recently changed by offering, you know, what she thinks is love. But in reality, while it may be kindness on paper, if you write it down, it’s much more about control or coercive control, manipulation, power imbalance. As gnomic as Lanthimos is, his actors clearly know exactly what he’s doing.

Types of Kindness is in theaters now.