Emma Stone defends ‘honest’ sex scenes in ‘Poor Things’

Hollywood star Emma Stone has responded to criticism of the graphic sex scenes in her latest film, “Poor Things,” telling the BBC that sex is a crucial part of her character’s storyline.

Hollywood star Emma Stone has responded to criticism of the graphic sex scenes in her latest film, “Poor Things,” telling the BBC that sex is a crucial part of her character’s storyline. The uproarious, frequently filthy adaptation of Scottish writer Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel follows Stone’s character, Bella Baxter, a deceased woman reanimated with the brain of an unborn child. Sex plays an important role in the film as one way Bella learns to understand her body, and how others covet it. There’s a sex-positive, third-wave feminism to her, taken to extremes when Bella learns she can profit from the activity she loves and turns to prostitution to fund her studies. “We are our own means of production,” she jokes. Though the film, which was released on December 22 in the US and January 12 in the UK, has mostly received positive reviews, its frank and abundant sex scenes have proved too much for some movie-goers and critics. BBC Radio 4 host Samira Ahmed addressed the themes of sex and prostitution in Tuesday’s interview, saying the scenes were “quite graphic,” adding “I think it’s fair to say unusual these days in Hollywood.”