Did Emma Stone really shave her head for the upcoming Bugonia film? Details explored

Bugonia, the upcoming film from Yorgos Lanthimos, is the project in which Emma Stone makes a dramatic choice. The question that spread online after the first trailer was released asked if Stone had really shaved her head for Bugonia. The answer is yes. She shaved her head on camera for the role of Michelle Fuller, a pharmaceutical CEO. It was a real transformation rather than a digital effect.

The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival on August 28, 2025, and will arrive in U.S. theaters on October 24 before a wider release on October 31.

Emma Stone appears bald in one of the film’s key sequences, and that look quickly became the most talked-about feature of the project. After the trailer release earlier in August 2025, fans questioned whether the transformation was genuine or not. Many speculated online, comparing stills and clips from the teaser. The discussion reached news outlets and entertainment magazines. Stone confirmed in interviews that the buzz was justified.

She truly shaved her head during filming. This detail became clear after her Vogue cover interview published on August 11, 2025. It connected the moment to her personal life, noting her mother’s experience with breast cancer. With the release approaching, the story behind the shaved head remains central to the film’s publicity.

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Emma Stone’s experience of shaving her head

Emma Stone in Bugonia after shaving her head, embodying her intense character with a bold new look. (Image via YouTube/Focus Features)

The release of the official Bugonia trailer on August 28, 2025, made fans question whether Stone’s bald look was authentic or created through effects. The trailer sparked the debate, but Stone later confirmed she shaved her head during one of the film’s key scenes.

She spoke about it in a Vogue interview published August 11, 2025. She described the feel of the first shower. She cried before the shave. She linked the moment to her mother’s hair loss during breast cancer treatment. She also quoted her friend Jennifer Lawrence, who first resisted the idea. But Stone said the moment was:

“No better feeling in the world."

Jesse Plemons remembered the moment on set, saying:

“It was like, ‘Here we go—Emily has shaved her head. We better make this good!’”

Stone recalled the first shower afterward as “amazing.” Before the cut, she admitted she burst into tears in her trailer, connecting the moment to her mother Krista’s cancer treatment years earlier.

“She actually did something brave. I’m just shaving my head,” Stone said.

Her mother later joked she was jealous and wanted to shave her head again. Stone also revealed she got to shave Lanthimos's head first in solidarity before she shaved her own. During filming, she wore hats and wigs in public and appeared at the Golden Globes in January 2025 with a short pixie cut. Reflecting on it, she said:

“I was bummed I wasn’t going out with it. Just straight-up bald. I think that would have been fun.”

Jennifer Lawrence, Stone’s longtime close friend, also weighed in by email, saying:

“I really didn’t want her to shave her head. I had already lived through the Billie Jean King haircut... Honestly, she looked beautiful. She pulled it off.”

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Stone’s previous roles and transformations

Emma Stone in Poor Things, another high-risk and transformative role that showcased her fearless commitment to bold characters. (Image via YouTube/Searchlight Pictures)

Emma Stone has previously taken on roles that required noticeable physical changes. In The Favourite (2018), she played Abigail Masham, marking her first collaboration with Lanthimos. Later, she portrayed Bella Baxter in Poor Things (2023), a role that earned her an Academy Award and involved unique mannerisms and a physical transformation guided by the director’s style.

In 2024, she worked again with Lanthimos in Kinds of Kindness, a film structured as a triptych that pushed her to play multiple characters with contrasting traits.

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Bugonia: Trailer and story

Emma Stone before her dramatic transformation in Bugonia, seen with her natural hair before shaving her head for the role. (Image via YouTube/Focus Features)

Bugonia's trailer, released on August 28, 2025, highlighted Stone’s transformation alongside tense sequences underscored by Chappell Roan’s Good Luck, Babe! The film is an English-language reimagining of the 2003 South Korean cult classic Save the Green Planet! written by Will Tracy, known for The Menu (2022).

The trailer opens with Stone as high-powered CEO Michelle Fuller. She appears on magazine covers, walks through her office in designer heels, and delivers a corporate speech that falters midway. The focus then shifts to factory worker Teddy, played by Jesse Plemons.

Dissatisfied with his life, Teddy grows convinced Michelle is an alien planning Earth’s destruction. With the help of another conspiracy theorist, he abducts her, declaring it the “Headquarters of Human Resistance,” and shaves her head to prevent communication with her supposed mothership.

Set to the darker tones of Chappell Roan’s track, glimpses in Bugonia's trailer suggest a mix of violence, surreal comedy, and themes of environmental collapse. Teddy accuses Michelle of harming the planet, and there are striking images involving bees. The supporting cast includes Jesse Plemons, Alicia Silverstone, Aidan Delbis, and Stavros Halkias.

The first poster showed Stone bald and smeared with honey and blood, which sparked strong reactions. At the Venice Film Festival, the movie received a six-minute standing ovation.

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Bugonia will be released in U.S. theaters on October 24, 2025, followed by a wider release on October 31, 2025. Fans interested in seeing Stone’s transformation and the film’s unusual story can look out for its theatrical debut.