"It's A Comedy!" - Emma Stone Plays A Pharma Exec And Suspected Alien In "Bugonia"

[Applause] Welcome back everybody. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm happy to say my first guest tonight is a two-time Academy Award winner. You know from La La Land, Poor Things, and The Favourite, and Birdman. She now stars in the new film Bugonia. Here's what's going to happen. And I want to be clear, I'm not threatening you. Or you. But the following is my best guess as how the next 48 hours are likely to transpire. The police and sooner after the FBI will begin a statewide manhunt using all of the methods at their disposal and the combined resources of neighboring jurisdictions. My company is a key job creator and economic engine of the region. I am crucial. Think of it like you abducted the governor. But worse. That's the level of bureaucratic urgency you're contending with in all humility. I can say that. I'm also a high-profile female corporate executive. Does that add a certain, you know, politicized optics to this? I would say absolutely. I would say that's a tremendous factor for you to consider here. Please welcome back to The Late Show, Emma Stone. [Applause] [Music] Oh. Hello. Hi. Hi. There we go. Nice to see you again. >> Good to see you. Uh you know, I we've talked about this before that your your Emma is a stage name for you. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And that your your your your your given name is Emily. >> Yeah. >> What is lovely Emily Stone? It's a lovely name. What I hadn't haven't asked you before and I'm really curious, what were what was in competition for Emma? Did you try anything else? Cuz when I was younger, like young actor, I thought like I'll go with Xerxes. Like what was Did you actually go with Xerxes? >> No idea. I I I went I changed Colbert to Colbear. That's all I did. But >> you still Does your family say Colbert? Some of us say Colbert and some of us say Colbear. But enough about me as fascinating as I am. Tell me more. >> get it. I get it. You're so good at this. >> We'll talk. >> 100,000%. know. you want to host the show for the rest of the year? Go right ahead. I'm joking. No, thank you. >> So, Um what was in competition with Emily? It Okay, so not only was it in competition, but I actually adopted a stage name for I would say like 6 months at because it's Screen Actors Guild it's like business bureau like you can only have one person with that name. >> on any name. Exactly. And so I decided I was 16 and I decided I wanted to be Riley for like 6 months. So I was Riley Stone, which a beautiful name, but I did an episode like a guest part on Malcolm in the Middle and they kept going like Riley Riley and I had no idea who they were talking to. Truly. And I was like I can't I cannot be right like it's such a it came out of nowhere. I was just like cool name. I'll just be Riley. So I then changed it to Emma because it's close enough to Emily. >> It triggers it triggers something in your cortex. Exactly. Yeah, something happens. Well, the new film was called Bugonia. Yes. >> Uh directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, starring you, Jesse Plemons, uh Aiden Delbis. For the people who don't know, tell tell them what's it about. Um well, Or don't. Or don't. If you don't want to, we'll just freeball this. >> pitch. Elevator pitch. >> I'll try an elevator pitch. There are two ding dong There are two uh men who are very This is what our logline is. So I'm trying to just do it from memory. Two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company convinced she is an alien from outer space. And it's a comedy. Hey. It's really funny. >> It's a classic story. >> Yeah, yeah. It's a tale as old as time. New York City, you're a suspected alien. You're a suspected alien. There's a lot of people a lot of people who suspect there are aliens among us these days and I'm curious of of the people that you've worked with in in our industry that we call showbiz, um are who do you think would make a good candidate for a secret alien? Willem Dafoe. 100%. You did not It's like >> have to think about that very long. It's so it's so simple. I mean, don't you Of course. Like if if it was like a Wil Willem Dafoe was actually an alien, everyone would be like yeah. >> Yeah. Ob- obviously. And a great one. Like if they're all like Willem, then bring That's fantastic. Yeah. Land upon Earth, please. You know? >> in a very well-fitted man suit. >> That's right. Ugh. Um this is your this is your fifth ti- fifth time I like fifth. fi- fifth This is your fifth time working with Yorgos Lanthimos Um I got to imagine I love the Greek accent so much and I got to imagine that you've nailed a Yorgos impression at this point. Here's the thing is I've worked on speaking Greek. I've worked on reading Greek. But doing a Greek accent is not my forte. Oh. But can't you do a Yorgos? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The his most his most well-known phrase famous amongst our circle of people who have worked on multiple films with him is This is not going to sound Greek. This is a disaster. About everything. Really? >> be anything. >> No matter what it is. Yeah, like this coffee is a disaster. This day is a disaster. How's the movie going? It's a disaster. Everything. You're not the only only Stone who's made a real connection with this director. I love this photo. Is this a Is this the Screen Actors? Oh. >> This is you and your mom, Krista, Yeah. >> right there. Yeah. And your mom is a big your mom is a big fan >> of uh of the director of of Yorgos, yeah. >> She She's a huge Yorgos fan. She This is like her exact I I never would have thought, but this is like her exact lane of humor and uh this is this is her kind of thing. Like she was like Bugonia's, you know, it it's really great, but uh Kinds of Kindness was it for me. And I was like wow, it's like a 3-hour triptych film, 3 and 1/2 hours long. Yeah. And she was like it's just so him. And I was like okay. It's amazing. Huge fan. >> how much she loves him? >> He knows and and and strangely like cuz I'm a I was a producer on Poor Things. I was a producer on Bugonia and I took her early on to, you know, early cuts when he was still taking notes for the edit. And I was like maybe this maybe this and he's like I don't know what did Krista think? I was like well, there's this one scene that, you know, I can't give away, but like she thinks that it's too much of this moment it should go like this and he's like okay and then edited it. I was like So your mom is giving notes on feature films now? >> He listens to my mom. Like he really he really respects her taste and he's like well, if Krista said it okay. All right, yeah, I'll change it. I'm like huh. What if we change this? He's like nope. But if Krista thinks so, yeah. Nope. Growing up with your mom and your dad, I suppose, but going up growing up, did you get a sense of like what your mother's taste was? >> Oh, yeah. Cuz she was she was 15 in 1975 when SNL first aired and she would watch it with her family and she introduced me to Gilda >> not not to the person, but to the star that was Gilda Radner. Who is still my absolute hero. Emily Litella. Yeah. Roseanne Roseannadanna. Roseanne Roseannadanna, Dan Aykroyd, Laraine Newman. Um and so she was yes, she was integral in in that kind of uh world of SNL and then my dad also great taste. Steve Martin, Bill Murray, all of it. So that was the You've hosted SNL, right? Five times, Steve. >> Wow. I have a jacket. >> I thought five-timer. I can't stop saying it. Have you Have you brought your folks to SNL to see you host? Oh, yeah. That must be great. >> the best. It's it's so incredible. And yeah, that is SNL is like my my favorite place in the entire world. So Well, thanks for stopping by the Ed Sullivan. This is good, too. >> have no doubt. Yeah, it's pretty good, too. Yeah, no worries. >> here as well. No. Can we do a sketch? Can we do a sketch? 100%. >> Okay, next time. >> Next time. WAIT. HEY. NO. HEY. I'M HERE TILL MAY, BABY. OKAY. >> We'll write it up. We'll send you some pitches. Now you have to do a sketch. >> a sketch with you. I love to. You should One of the things you did for this, you shaved your you shaved your head for the film. >> Yeah. But you wanted to be the audience to be surprised that you'd shaved your head. Yeah. >> So in you know, with what with the the shaved head, you went out in public, but you you wore really good wigs. Oh, that was I only really wore that wig once because we had to go to It was It was a great wig, but the problem is is I'm so unsubtle and just like generally stupid that I was like the wig looked good, but the whole night I was like can you tell it's a wig? To everyone and they're like we're pretty sure she's wearing a wig since she moved it around a lot and kept saying like there was like a lip read video where I was like the wig. So I And this is a wig. It was so I was like Wow. >> be really bad at keeping anything >> being in the intelligence community? >> Yeah, yeah, they were I've shaved my head on camera before. Yeah. How'd you feel about the shape of your head? >> having a shaved head. Did you like it? >> Yeah, I really I really I I looked down and went oh, not no no not too many bumps. >> Oh, I had four moles that I had removed the next day. Well, that's good to know. And Yorgos was like shouldn't this be a match since it's one take, and I was like, they nicked my head. I'm not walking around with four giant moles. Wow. Sorry. >> like the feeling? Cuz I loved the feeling. >> so good. Taking a shower with a shaved head is amazing. And every time you're thinking, you really run your hand over your head, and Wow. I felt like I was in the shower with a stranger. Washing his head. Huh. Yeah. It was really nice. Were Were you? What? Were you? No. I knew I I I knew everybody in there. [Laughter] Intimately. Thank you for Thank you for being here. Thanks for having The film Begonia is in select theaters this Friday and nationwide October 31st. It's Emma, Emily, Riley Stone, everybody. We'll be right back with Alex Wagner. [Music] [Applause]