Poor Things follows the sexual and philosophical awakening of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a young woman created by a Dr. Frankenstein-esque (Willem Dafoe) scientist in an alternate Victorian era. Director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer) captures her hedonistic, globetrotting journey with spectacularly creative visuals. The film transitions from black and white to color with incredible wide angle shots and a blended steampunk production design.

Cinematographer Robbie Ryan collaborates again with Lanthimos and screenwriter Tony McNamara after his Oscar-nominated turn in The Favourite. He extols Lanthimos’ virtues as a director that chooses “every aspect of the film wisely.” The remarkable black and white first act “came in quite late”, about “nine days before the shoot.” Lanthimos had to “ring the producers at Searchlight” for approval because “black and white films don’t necessarily sell.” Ryan relishes the “world of Yorgos” where he’ll “just throw curveballs like that on a whim.”

Poor Things Release Date December 8, 2023 Rating R Runtime 2hr 21min

Poor Things’ second act takes place in a brothel with graphic sexual content. Ryan lauds star Emma Stone as “a kind and brave actress” who “trusted Yorgos completely.” His auteur vision of the film also dictated “the lens choices” as “a cinematographer in his own right.” Ryan jokes that he gets work “because I can operate a camera like he wants me to” and that “if it wasn’t for needing an operator, Yorgos would be shooting these things himself.” Ryan remembers he “sh*t a brick” after accidentally underexposing “the reanimation scene.” Lanthimos didn’t give him “any sh*t about it” but Ryan “felt pretty bad that day.” Read on for our full interview with the acclaimed Robbie Ryan., or watch the video above.

Black and White Curveballs
Searchlight

MovieWeb: Congratulations on a spectacular film. You’re working again with director Yorgos Lanthimos and screenwriter Tony McNamara. What was the initial vision for the film?

Robbie Ryan: Good that you mentioned the script because the script is based on the book, which is pretty wild. I think Tony has concocted a crazy, brilliant script. How do you visualize that kind of madcap? I think Yorgos is such a great director. He’s able to tune into whatever he needs to get to the place he wants the film to go. When they say somebody’s a good director, they really just choose wisely. I think he has chosen every aspect of the film very wisely, and has been able to shape it to where he wants it to go. I feel that a lot of levels of the film work because of that.

MW: The first thing that blew me away was the color palette, starting with the black and white at Godwin’s house. And as Bella becomes more sexually liberated, the transition to color and saturation. Please talk about that process.

Robbie Ryan: The black and white thing came in quite late. I think the production designers were talking yesterday. They said that it was nine days before the shoot that [Yorgos Lanthimos] decided to go black and white for the first half an hour. He had to kind of sell that. I remember having dinner with him. He had to go ring the producers at Searchlight to talk to them. It was touch and go whether they would let him do it, because obviously, black and white films don’t necessarily sell so much. He made it a little bit more palatable by saying I’ll have a color shot at the beginning. Then we go into black and white. That’s the world of Yorgos in a nutshell. He’ll just throw curveballs like that on a whim.

Searchlight

Robbie Ryan: You just ride with the punches. I’m a very big fan of that myself. I’m on record for saying I don’t like prep — I always find you talk about something forever. Then, when you’re there, you do it totally differently. Why did we talk about this for days, we’ve only got half an hour to do it, and we do it differently? But luckily, I did do a lot of prep on this film. It was super beneficial. Because it was on a big scale, we needed to always be full on, ready with everything changing all the time to adapt as such.

Robbie Ryan: I like to talk about the studio we filmed in. We were the only people filming there. We had the whole place to ourselves. It felt a bit like being on a film campus. It was like going back to film school. It was a very collaborative thing. Usually, when I’m doing a film, a lot of people have done work already. This was nice to be at the nascent stage and help as much as I could. I don’t know how much I did help, but at least I could see it take shape. It was really interesting.

Lanthimos’ Phenomenal Direction
Searchlight

MW: I have to congratulate your lens selection. Those wide angle shots at the house, going up the staircases, are absolutely amazing. It brings in all the background art that maybe the primary shot wouldn’t normally focus on. Talk about developing that strategy, and how it made the film look so different.

Robbie Ryan: This is all down to Yorgos as well. He really is a cinematographer in his own right. He dictates the lens choices. I’ll just be hanging on in there, and hoping I can kind of facilitate by making sure the lights are in shot, and that it’s correct. He goes up the stairs. In a nutshell, that’s the craziest wide angle to film. I was trying to keep myself out of the shot. Because it’s such a wide lens, I had to contort myself. He’s like, you’re in the frame. You’re in it again (laughs). The reason why I think I get work is because I can operate a camera like he wants me to (laughs). On that particular occasion, I wasn’t doing very well. But generally, I think if it wasn’t for needing an operator, Yorgos would be shooting these things himself.

Robbie Ryan: He really does know lenses and how to photograph something. He was taking stills pictures on the shoot all the time on this huge large format camera. In between takes, he’d get his large format camera and take a portrait of one of the actors. It was phenomenal to watch this guy work. He’s so prolific. He’d go home, process the negative, and bring it in on his computer the next day. I’m like, where do you find this time? I’m happy to kind of hang on in there and, you know, collaborate as much as I can.

MW: The film takes a completely different turn in the brothel with hyper-sexualized context. Please elaborate on shooting those nude scenes.

Robbie Ryan: Any scene which involves intimacy like that is kind of different. It’s difficult, you always try to keep a very quiet set and those kinds of things. It was Emma Stone and the crew that would always be on those sets. Everybody else would stay outside. We had an intimacy advisor. She was brilliant. You make it feel like a working environment, not in any other way except what we were doing. I felt that was really important. Emma Stone is such a kind and brave actress. She trusted Yorgos completely. This is what Bella’s character would do. We didn’t want to do it in any way that was exploitative. Those scenes can sometimes be trickier in that respect. I think we approached it the right way. The scenes feel really good in the final film.

MW: What was the best and worst day for you as cinematographer on Poor Things?

Robbie Ryan: Definitely one of the worst days was when I got the scene in the reanimation underexposed. I knew that I was going to get into trouble because we were shooting on Ektachrome. I was like, as they say, sh*t a brick. So I remember a bad day, coming in, telling your boss, oh my god that underexposed. He didn’t give me any sh*t about it, but I felt pretty bad that day. It finally worked out. We were able to get another scanner that was able to deal with it. It was retrievable.

Robbie Ryan: The actors were such funny people. Every day was just a joy because it’s a comedy. The comedy spilled out onto the set. Ramy [Youssef], Willem [Dafoe], and Emma would always have this comedic Three’s Company sort of thing going on. We had a lot of fun watching them. There weren’t many bad days, to be fair, just hard work. You’re shooting for 12 weeks. You do get tired as you go along, but generally the humor and the onset bon ami was great.

Poor Things is currently in theaters from Searchlight Pictures.