People can say a lot more without speaking, says Emma Stone

Emma Stone wants to make a silent movie when the Hollywood strikes are over. The 34-year-old actor features in director Yorgos Lanthimos’ new 30-minute short film ‘Bleat’, which has no dialogue and is accompanied by a live music ensemble and full chorus and she admitted it was a ‘dream come true’, reported ‘aceshowbiz.com’.

“I’m being serious. It’s my favourite thing to not have to speak. I often think we could cut many lines of dialogue because I think people can say a lot more without speaking. I mean, sure, sometimes they can say it with words. I like language,” she said at the New York Film Festival for the film’s premiere.

Stone and Lanthimos were able to discuss the project due to an interim agreement amid the SAG-AFTRA strike.

The movie is set on a small Greek island and follows themes of loneliness, death, love, desire and interactions between humans and animals. It follows a young woman (Stone) who is devastated by the loss of her partner - played by Damian Bonnard - but still has ‘an animal instinct for life’.

After hearing how much the actor enjoyed working without dialogue, Lanthimos, who first collaborated with her in 2018’s ‘The Favourite’ and this year’s ‘Poor Things’, which they can’t discuss due to the strikes suggested she should ‘make a silent feature’.

She asked the audience to ‘clap if you like that idea’ and she was met with an enthusiastic response. She teased, “I’ll do it once the strike is over!”

The pair joked that the filmmaker’s movies often return to themes of sex, death and goats, which is true of ‘Bleat’.

NTBI -- The actor quipped, “It’s like nonstop and every day. He calls me and he’s like, ‘Goats - what do you think? Death?’ I’m like, ‘OK, still? We shot this three years ago’.”