SAG Awards: Emma Stone (‘Poor Things’) will win #4
This year’s Best Actress race is tight. It’s a duel between two of the most acclaimed performances of the year: Lily Gladstone (1st in our combined odds) in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Emma Stone (2nd in our combined odds) in Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things.”
Both actors bagged Golden Globes in their respective categories. Gladstone got the better of Stone in the eyes of Critics’ circles, scoring wins from 32 groups. Yet, despite this Stone surprisingly trumped Gladstone at the Critics’ Choice Awards last month. As the industry begins to chime in, with the SAG Awards quickly approaching, Gladstone still leads our odds. Seven of our experts are picking Gladstone for SAG. However, Stone has gained some ground and has the backing of five experts. The momentum is quickly shifting the way of Stone. Indeed, here’s why she will pull off the upset and claim SAG glory:
Stone got her big break in Seth Rogan’s comedy classic “Superbad” at just 18 years of age and in a very short amount of time has built an illustrious filmography. At just 35, her starring roles include “Zombieland,” “Easy A,” “Crazy Stupid Love,” “The Amazing Spiderman,” “The Help,” “Birdman,” “La La Land,” “The Favourite,” “Cruella.” She’s incredibly popular and it’s been reflected in her record at the SAG Awards. She is a proven favourite with a whopping seven bids overall, five of them coming individually. She’s won three times, once for her Oscar-winning role in “La La Land” and as part of the casts of “The Help” and “Birdman.”
“Poor Things” marks Stone’s second collaboration with the Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos after “The Favourite,” which was incredibly well-received and a major awards player. Stone was nominated at SAG in the Supporting Actress category for that film. This second collaboration is a absurdist coming-of-age sex comedy. In it, Stone plays the one-of-a-kind Bella Baxter. On the outside Bella looks like a completely regular woman, but she is a scientific experiment. She has the body of a recently deceased married woman, but the brain of said woman’s unborn baby that was in her womb when she jumped off a bridge to her death. Bella is a walking contradiction and Stone spends the duration of the film portraying the character’s evolution from girl to woman.
Stone gets to play Bella at all stages of womanhood. She is a playful, curious young child, a loud, rebellious, sexually charged adolescen, an independent, free-thinking, boundary-pushing young adult, and then ultimately a fully formed, wholly liberated and deeply intelligent adult. She screams. She sobs. She showcases deep passion. She brilliantly portrays how Bella’s physicality and mannerisms change as she progresses through each stage of womanhood. You can’t compare her performance to any other in the category. It’s so unique and combines floor-rolling comedy with genuine heartfelt emotion.
“Poor Things” has intensely passionate support across the board. In the eyes of the public, the film has an 8.4/10 average rating on IMDb (among the top 100 highest-rated films of all time) and a 4.2/5 average Letterboxd score (inside the top 250 highest-rated films of all time). This is along with an 8.6/10 average rating among top critics on Rotten Tomatoes and an 87 meta score on Metacritic. In the eyes of the industry, Lanthimos’ sixth feature has been received glowingly. “Things” holds 11 nominations at both the BAFTAs and Oscars. As “Poor Things” only holds two nominations from SAG, Stone would be the natural place to channel that passion. After all, she is the film’s beating heart.
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