In “Bugonia,” Emma Stone stars as a high-powered chief executive taken hostage by a conspiracy theorist, played by Jesse Plemons, who thinks she is an alien sent to destroy the planet. The film has a pivotal scene involving spaghetti and meatballs, so we asked the actors to make the dish from scratch.
Watch the full video below (or on YouTube) to see them make a classic take on the recipe from a friend of the “Bugonia” press team, and read ahead for excerpts from the interview and the outtakes, which have been edited and condensed.
Credit…Victoria Chen
Did you actually eat the dish on set?
EMMA STONE I ate a little bit of it on set. Although I did think later on “Why was I eating this?” because you could have done anything to that food. So why would Michelle have eaten that? Michelle is my character.
JESSE PLEMONS Considering what we had just been through right before that, maybe you were just a little hungry. Or were scared not to eat it. I made it look so nice.
STONE You did, it was beautiful.
Do either of you like to cook?
STONE I do like to cook. I don’t do it often enough. I love to bake.
PLEMONS I cook a great soft-boiled egg for breakfast. But that’s kind of it.
Have you ever cooked for each other?
PLEMONS No, but you’ve turned me onto Hippeas though.
STONE Oh yes Hippeas are excellent. That’s not really cooking, though.
PLEMONS We share snacks.
STONE We snack.
Emma, what’s your go-to baking recipe?
STONE I have a chocolate chip cookie recipe that I found, that I make the most lately, because I have a kid who loves chocolate chip cookies. I’m sure most people have heard of this one that you drop on the door of the oven.
Jesse, besides your soft-boiled egg, is there anything else you like to make?
PLEMONS Soft scrambled.
STONE Hard-boiled eggs? All eggs.
PLEMONS That’s pretty much it. And then my kids’ lunches. You know, you have to get creative.
STONE What do you do for the lunches?
PLEMONS It took me … I’m curious, if Lou [Emma’s daughter] has any food phobias.
[Emma nods yes]
PLEMONS Yeah? Because when our oldest was going into kindergarten, my wife made this whole beautiful array of sandwiches to see what was his favorite pack in the school lunch. And he has some fear of sandwiches where it almost caused a breakdown. Finally we just gave up and then, maybe six months ago, we tried again. Just a dry ham and cheese sandwich [shrugs] he’ll eat.
Can we talk about how Yorgos [Lanthimos, director of “Bugonia”] suggested adding mustard to the meatballs you’re making?
PLEMONS He knew that we were doing this and was like: [Jesse impersonating Yorgos’s Greek accent] “You should add mustard. It’s the Greek way. They’ll be impressed.” I don’t know if anyone was impressed when I said mustard.
Have either of you worked in the food industry?
[both laughing]
STONE Uh, yeah!
PLEMONS Does it look like it?
STONE Yup!
PLEMONS What if we said yes?
Emma, do you have any family signature dishes?
STONE We make some amazing rolls. My great-grandmother was Swedish, and my grandfather always made — we call them granny’s rolls — they’re like a beautiful kind of crescent roll with an almond vanilla glaze that we make each Christmas and Thanksgiving. That’s a tradition. And there was a tradition for a good amount of time that my grandma would make, which is ham loaf. Have you ever had ham loaf? It’s like meatloaf made of ham. We always had it at Christmas, and I don’t really need to eat ham loaf again.
If you were a food dish, what would you be? Can you answer for each other?
PLEMONS OK, I’m trying to think of something that is sort of elegant, refined, yet not too stuffy. Not too serious but tastes great. Oh, you know one of those Japanese omelets?
STONE Oh yeah.
PLEMONS God those are good. It’s like, simple but lotta technique going on.
STONE I was going to say for you.
PLEMONS Just a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
STONE Peanut butter and jelly sandwich! No, I was going to say a steak. Like a gorgeous steak, because you can cook it so many ways. It can be very rare, raw, vulnerable, but then it can be tough. Anyway you slice it, it’s always delicious.
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