LOS ANGELES – A hot favourite for the Oscars in March, Poor Things is about a woman who embarks on a journey of self-discovery after being brought back from the dead.

The quirky science-fiction comedy reunites American actress Emma Stone and Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, who collaborated on Oscar-winning historical comedy The Favourite (2018).

The pair spoke at a recent screening of the film in Los Angeles, the same week it took home the Golden Globe on Jan 7 for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and, for Stone, Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

The film is being released at The Projector as part of its Freaks & Greeks: A Yorgos Lanthimos Showcase and has a limited run from Jan 20 to 30.

Lanthimos – who received Best Director and Best Picture Oscar nominations for The Favourite, and whose films are known for their dark humour and unconventional storytelling – explains why he was drawn to this oddball tale.

Adapted from Alasdair Gray’s award-winning 1992 novel of the same name, Poor Things is set in the 1800s and follows a young woman, Bella, who dies but is brought back to life by mad scientist Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe).

But she now has the brain of an infant implanted in her head, and approaches the world as a child would, free of prejudice, and proceeds to evolve in unexpected ways.

Lanthimos, 50, says he had never encountered a character like her.

“I fell in love with her immediately,” says the film-maker, who was also Oscar-nominated for black comedy The Lobster (2015) and psychological drama Dogtooth (2009).

Stone felt the same.

“I was in love with her and the way she is interested in everything that happens to her. The good, the bad, she holds it all with equal weight.

“And there is nobody like her because she’s inventing herself from scratch,” says the 35-year-old star, who won a Best Actress Oscar for the musical romance La La Land (2016).

Stone declares that this is the most fun she has had in a role, the part requiring a good deal of physical comedy as she and Lanthimos came up with ways to illustrate Bella’s evolution in the way she walks, dresses and speaks.

And with co-star Mark Ruffalo – who plays Duncan, the lawyer Bella runs off with on a whirlwind trip to see the world – they improvised some aspects of their characters.

“The way that Mark was playing Duncan was amazing. He really adds a whole beautiful layer to him,” Stone says of the 56-year-old American actor, best known for playing Hulk in the Marvel superhero movies.

“Duncan on the page was so pathetic and toxic, but Mark is the antithesis of that as a person as his innate empathy and lovability come through, whether he wants it to or not,” she adds.

Ruffalo has played a broad range of roles, including in comedy-drama The Kids Are All Right (2010) and biographical dramas Spotlight (2015) and Foxcatcher (2014), all of which earned him Oscar nominations.

But his character in this strange, over-the-top film felt like a departure.

“It was freeing. You build a career and you get pigeonholed a bit by just doing things that you would normally do, and then people begin to see you as just that,” Ruffalo says.

“Emma and Yorgos, thankfully, saw me doing this, and believed I could do it even when I didn’t totally believe I could. That’s rare.”

He and Stone also filmed a strange and memorable dance sequence for their characters.

“It was so much fun. We shot 60 takes of it and from all different angles,” recalls Stone, who also co-produced Poor Things.

And the scene encapsulates how free from convention her character is, the actress believes.

“When she’s just in her body and not thinking about how to access the world, whether that’s with dance or sex or food, she gets to be different than she is in the other realms.”

Poor Things has a limited run at The Projector from Jan 20 to 30.