Emma Stone grateful for ‘hit that baby’ line in BAFTA speech

Emma Stone is really gaining momentum heading into the Oscars, winning Best Actress for poor things at the BAFTA film awards. Stone thanked its director Yorgos Lanthimos, his mother and screenwriter Tony McNamara for one line in particular.

“Tony, thanks for saying, ‘I gotta go punch that baby.’ “She changed my life,” the actress said as she accepted her award, the second BAFTA for Best Actress of her career, after winning in 2017 for The The Earth.

In poor things, which he also produced, Stone plays Bella Baxter, a recently dead Victorian woman, Frankenstein resurrected by mad scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) with the brain of an unborn fetus. Bella finally breaks free from Baxter and embarks on a sex-filled journey of enlightenment.

In one particular scene, Bella spits out food while dining at a fancy restaurant, only to become irritated by the sound of a child crying. “Why have it in your mouth if it’s disgusting?” she asks. “I gotta hit that baby!”

Based on the 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray, poor things It collected awards for Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Visual Effects. Next month, poor things is nominated for 11 Academy Awards, tied with Flower Moon Killers for the second most nominated film of the year, behind oppenheimer with 13.

Stone’s biggest competition in the Best Actress category, which she won in 2017 (La La Land), is Lily Gladstone in Assassins, the first native actress nominated in that category. Stone and Gladstone have shared most of the awards, but Gladstone, curiously, was snubbed by the BAFTAs while Flower Moon Killers lost all nine of its BAFTA nominations.

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