Emma Stone has said she believes in aliens and that she agrees with astronomer Carl Sagan about the existence of extraterrestrial life.
The actor was at the Venice Film Festival, where her forthcoming film Bugonia premiered. The topic is apt, as Stone stars as Michelle Fuller, a CEO who is kidnapped by conspiracy theorists who believe she is an alien who wants to destroy Earth.
Speaking at a press conference at Venice Film Festival, when asked whether she believed there was an “ultimate intelligence looking down on us”, Stone replied, as reported by The Guardian: “I don’t know about looking down on us, but one of my favourite people who has ever lived is Carl Sagan and I fell madly in love with his philosophy and science and how brilliant he is.”
She later said: “He very deeply believed [that] the idea that we’re alone in this vast expansive universe – not that we’re being watched – is a pretty narcissistic thing,” she said. “So, yes, I’m coming out and saying it: I believe in aliens.”
Bugonia is directed by Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos, and marks the pair’s fifth collaboration, following on from The Favourite, the short film Bleat, Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness. The upcoming film also stars Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis.
Stone said she enjoys working with Lanthimos; “I love the material that he’s drawn to and the worlds he wants to explore, and the characters that he’s been generous enough to let me try my hand at.”
In a four-star review of Poor Things, NME wrote that Stone gave “a physically dexterous, linguistically astute turn, it’s a high-wire act that she pulls off with such panache, you’d think she was born like Bella.”
In other Emma Stone news, Jesse Eisenberg brought her to tears after he paid tribute to her in a speech at the Independent Spirit Awards earlier this year.
The actor and director won Best Screenplay for the buddy comedy A Real Pain, which he wrote, directed and starred in, and he used his speech to shout out his longtime friend and collaborator Stone, herself a producer on the movie.
He said: “I met Emma when we were in Zombieland together in 2009, and since then, I write little magazine articles and little things on McSweeney’s, and she’s the only person – I’m including my mom here – who would take little screenshots of it over the last 15 years and send me things like, ‘This is such a funny line!’”
He described Stone as “the most famous person I know, and yet also the most dedicated to encouraging me as a writer,” and added, “I think about her not as my producer, but like a fairy godmother – that I am riding the coattails of her goodwill.”
As he finished his speech, Stone could be seen getting visibly emotional in the audience.