Emma Stone’s 'Bugonia': How an All-Bald Screening Became the Gimmick This Film Needed

Why People Went Bald for Bugonia

Bugonia is a darkly satirical thriller that follows a corporate CEO named Michelle Fuller (Stone), who is abducted by Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons), an unhinged beekeeper and conspiracy theorist. The reason? Teddy and his cousin are members of an online “resistance” group with the mission of saving the planet from invading aliens. He believes Michelle is one of those extraterrestrial forces. She believes he is just an enraged and mentally unwell victim of society. The film is structured largely as a two-hander between these diametrically opposed characters, and the audience’s sympathies shift from one to the other from scene to scene.

In one instantly iconic moment, which serves as a focal point of the film’s trailer, Michelle wakes up chained to a bed with her head fully shaven, an act committed by Teddy in order to prevent Michelle from “contacting her ship.” For the film, Stone did, in fact, have her head shaved on camera, the kind of commitment to a role that will inevitably be a talking point in her upcoming Oscar campaign.

It had been rumored that Emma Stone went bald for this film since production on the project concluded last year. Soon thereafter, Stone was spotted wearing a beanie that seemingly concealed her new haircut. Fans then suspected that she wore a wig to the New York Film Festival screening of A Real Pain, a film she had produced. While the circumstances at the time were unclear as to why she shaved for the film, this speculation certainly demonstrated early interest in what this new project could possibly be about. It makes sense that a year later, when Bugonia would finally be released, “Bald Emma Stone” would become a central component of the film’s marketing campaign.

What Hollywood Can Learn From This

Although the October 20th screening of Bugonia was not entirely bald-only—perhaps Focus Features should have hired more than one barber to accommodate everyone—the idea’s impact should serve as a learning lesson to Hollywood executives wary of greenlighting projects without built-in fanbases. It turns out that not everything needs to be based on comic books or video games to attract a decent audience.

Yes, there are clever ways of making niche prestige movies accessible and fun for a broad range of people. There are even ways to make ephemeral “must-see” events out of them. Earlier this year, the new Stephen King adaptation, The Long Walk, generated online attention for screenings where audiences were required to walk on treadmills throughout the entire duration of the film. If an audience member stopped walking at any moment, they would then be escorted out of the theater. This gimmick mirrored the experiences of the characters on screen and made for a more immersive and exclusive theatrical experience. 

If the marketing campaigns for Bugonia and The Long Walk indicate anything, it’s that the key to spreading the word about projects with less traditionally mainstream appeal is creativity. In the case of The Long Walk, that creativity came in the form of treadmills. For Bugonia, it came in the form of shaved heads.

Of course, not every artist wants their work to be reduced to a gimmick in order to sell a film, but would you rather no one see the film at all? Bugonia is about much more than Emma Stone going bald. It’s a dark cautionary tale that speaks to our increasingly divided cultural climate, informed by social exclusion, algorithms, and wealth disparity. That’s not an easy pitch for a contemporary audience that would much rather stay home to scroll through TikTok and watch AI-generated slop on the internet for hours on end. Bald Emma Stone? Now that’s something.

Remember when Mary Poppins said, “A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down?” Bugonia is a bitter, topical work of art that isn’t exactly easily digestible for audiences. That’s why it takes a strong, fun gimmick to be that spoonful of sugar. At the end of the day, if this kind of marketing strategy is the only thing that will convince people to see something critically engaging and genuinely great these days, then sign me up—except not for the bald screening!

_{via @DiscussingFilm}