Yorgos Lanthimos jokes he needs an AI avatar to avoid press features

After all, Yorgos Lanthimos might agree with AI.

The Oscar-nominated filmmaker, film director Favorite things, poor people And Kinds of Kindnessjokingly told attendees at the BFI London Film Festival on Saturday that he was willing to send in a computer-generated avatar of himself if it would help him free from promotional duties.

Lanthimos spoke with Succession creator Jesse Armstrong the day after the British premiere of his latest thriller, Bugoniastarring Emma Stone as a powerful CEO kidnapped by two conspiracy-obsessed men, played by Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis, who are convinced she is an alien on the verge of destroying Earth.

“I have mixed feelings about… figuring out what the best way to do it is, because [producers] spend a lot of money and they have to get it back,” Lanthimos began when asked if he cares about the commercial success of his feature films. “It’s not my passion to be photographed and tell people things. It’s almost the same amount of time as making a film: you spend four to six months filming, six months editing, and then you have about six months to promote the film.

He went on to talk about the repetitive nature of making a movie: “Isn’t there another way? You sit down with your people and they say: [You need to do] this interview, this interview. Can’t you just take a few out? Should I do everything and say the same thing a thousand times? In the middle of the day, I won’t remember what I said. I look at people wondering, “Did I tell you that?” “It’s a big part, I understand… But especially now with technology, you capture something and everyone has it! Why do I have to do it a million times?”

As audience members burst into laughter, the director joked, “I mean, the AI… I’ll create an avatar and send it. That seems really opposed to my beliefs. [about AI]! »

Armstrong jokingly responded, “First you want a dictatorship and now you want an AI version of yourself to talk about your movies.” The award-winning British writer was referring to earlier in the session when Lanthimos told Armstrong that he believed the world needed a benevolent dictator to combat the far-right that dominates today’s global political landscape. “The way things are going, [we have] those who do bad things, but [we need] a dictator who does good things for the people.

Lanthimos clarified: “Because it seems like whatever you call it, maybe the left, they haven’t found a way to do it. You need someone who will take responsibility and say, ‘We’re going to do the right things.'”

Throughout the session, the men discussed myriad topics, including how Lanthimos made films in the wake of the 2008 financial crash – which hit Lanthimos’ native Greece particularly hard – and the creative freedom he found when he moved to the UK to make English-language films.

Stone, in particular, is already garnering more and more accolades for Bugonia just two years after his Oscar win for Poor things.

The BFI London Film Festival 2025 runs from October 8 to 19.