Yorgos Lanthimos, the unsettler in chief: an audience with the director of Poor Things and Bugonia

Screenwriter Jesse Armstrong described Yorgos Lanthimos best. In the current cinematic landscape, the Greek filmmaker holds the position of “surpriser, unsettler in chief”.

Despite the clinical, psychologically testing nature of his films, Lanthimos attended this year’s BFI London Film Festival in a rather jovial spirit. In conversation with Armstrong, the director spoke with the same bone-dry sense of humour that prevails in his work.

Addressing an atypically empty row of seats towards the front (which filled out soon enough), Lanthimos joked that “none of my friends came.” That kind of wit not only propels the appeal of his films but also kept his audience at BFI Southbank leaning in as he talked through his work to date.

Lanthimos’s screen career began in advertising. Regardless of his love for film, he commented that “growing up in Greece in the 80s and 90s, making films for a living was a joke”. Shooting commercials in Greece is a far cry from the likes of The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) or Poor Things (2023), but the experience provided the director with the skills to pull off that kind of work. Ever the independent spirit, he often clashed with clients: “We became very confident technically… but they wanted it to be about the product. I said, ‘That’s not interesting, nobody cares.’”

It wasn’t long until Lanthimos could truly express himself. With an insight into filmmaking firmly in place, he transitioned into the realm of cinema. But that did not come without its difficulties. The filmmaker moved to London, which initially wasn’t as promising as he had envisioned: “I spent all the money I made from commercials living here. And then, thankfully, The Lobster (2015) happened. I could survive just by making films.”

In the early days, Lanthimos tended to prefer complete authority. But as the scale of his films and their respective reaches grew, he learned to relinquish control. When discussing cooperation with his crew, the filmmaker spoke on their value: “I was able to trust them with it and be pleasantly surprised. And most of the time, it is richer. So why avoid that? I welcome the change and what happens and what people bring.”

The director often referred back to scriptwriting throughout the conversation: “From the script, you can imagine certain things.” It’s an aspect of the filmmaking process that Lanthimos has always been meticulous with, recalling “working on a script for so long is beneficial as it provides a lot of information for the other people involved.”

The “other people” in question include a long list of returning collaborators: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe are just a few who have worked with Lanthimos more than once. The filmmaker let the audience in on his playful secret technique when directing his stars: “I only mimic the bad takes.” Lanthimos revealed that, much to the annoyance of Stone, “I can do that. I can make fun of them… and then we try something different.”

Editing was another crucial aspect that the director touched on. Lanthimos gave credit to Yorgos Mavropsaridis, the mastermind editor behind all of his films to date: “I’m very lucky to have found an editor who has edited all my films. We developed this relationship that was very trusting.”

Mavropsaridis’s legendary work ethic may be the secret ingredient to Lanthimos’s aesthetic success, although the latter joked that, aside from an hourly walk each day, “he’s a workaholic… he’s not well.”

But it was Bugonia (2025), Lanthimos’s latest film, that he spent most of the conversation analysing. He regarded the film as a gift, seeing it as a rare occasion to be presented with a script rather than writing one himself: “I got a complete script. For the first time, I got a script that I was interested in making, that I had not been developing for years.”

After sharing the script with Stone and Plemons, it wasn’t long before the cogs started to spin. But casting Aidan Delbis as Don proved to be more of a challenge: “He’s not a professional actor… we did street casting.” Lanthimos also revealed that “early on, I had this inclination… it felt that it was right that he would be neurodivergent. Aidan is autistic. He brought in a very different sensibility.” The director had nothing but praise for Delbis, referring to him as “another gift. Totally unpredictable… I’d love it if I was more like him.”

The conversation ended in a much similar vein to how it began: humorously. Before taking audience questions, Armstrong posed a final probe about the director’s preferences in catering. In his characteristic verve, Lanthimos argued for “just some quality food. It is really shitty most of the time! Whatever it is, I just want it to be good!”

Yorgos Lanthimos was speaking at the 69th BFI London Film Festival, where Bugonia is a gala screening.