Interview: Chatting About the Wild Madness of ‘Poor Things’ with Writer Tony McNamara

Ever since the Telluride Film Festival, I’ve been fairly obsessed with Poor Things. It’s just such a mad work of genius, from top to bottom. As you’ve seen, I’ve already spoken to some of the talents behind it including Willem Dafoe (here) and the duo of Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone (here), but one conversation I was keen to have was with writer Tony McNamara, who re-teams with Yorgos Lanthimos for their best collaboration yet. I was tickled pink by the movie, so getting to talk with McNamara was a real pleasure. Today, you get to join in on the fun!

In my rave review out of Telluride, found here, I wrote about the filmmaking like so:

Director Yorgos Lanthimos and writer Tony McNamara make an excellent team. Working again with cinematographer Robbie Ryan, Lanthimos and McNamara take the genius of The Favourite and one up it at all turns. Visually, this is one of the most unique looking films of the year, beautiful and singular. Lanthimos directs the hell out of it, almost always seemingly with a smile on his face. McNamara’s script is brilliant, getting the humor to always hit, the feminism to click, and the sexual exploration to never feel like exploitation. Lanthimos and company walk a tightrope for two hours and twenty minutes, but they never fall. It’s a daring achievement, to be sure.

Below, you can see my chat with McNamara. We talk about working with Lanthimos, the wild sets, and just seeing these words on a page turn into giant sets and actual performances. He’s as tickled by it as the audience, which is incredibly charming. Besides that, he’s just one of the most creative and singular screenwriters out there, so this was a pleasure, much like his film. As you experience Poor Things, you’ll understand why.

Here now is my interview with Poor Things writer Tony McNamara. Enjoy:

Poor Things is currently playing in theaters!