Oscar Film: Bugonia

Summary

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"All Of It" with Alison Stewart

Episode: Oscar Film: Bugonia
Date: March 13, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, host Alison Stewart sits down with actor Jesse Plemons and director Yorgos Lanthimos to discuss their film Begonia—a psychological thriller recognized at this year's Oscars. The conversation dives into the movie's blend of conspiracy theory, corporate critique, and alien intrigue, highlighting its unsettling, ambiguous energy. Both Plemons and Lanthimos provide insights into their creative choices, the collaborative process, and what makes this complex film tick.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Setting Up "Begonia"

• Premise: Jesse Plemons stars as Teddy, a conspiracy-obsessed worker who kidnaps his company's CEO, convinced she's an alien. With a looming lunar eclipse, he believes time is running out for humanity.
• Clip Highlight ([01:50]):
  • Teddy details "the signs" of alien identity: "Narrow feet, thin cuticles, slight overbite, semi obtruding earlobes... High hair density. You won't notice unless you know what you're looking for." (Jesse Plemons, 02:01)
  • Comparison: "It's like if you don't cook steaks a lot, you won't know when it's cooked. Medium rare. But if you cook steaks all the time, you just know." (Jesse Plemons, 02:31)

Delving Into Characters

Teddy Beyond the Trope ([03:30])

• Jesse Plemons on Teddy:
  • "It was very hard to argue some of his points. Some of his points I agreed strongly with and then some others not so much. So I think that was the brilliant thing that Will Tracy, our screenwriter, did—he gave both Teddy and Michelle very compelling, very objectively true statements, you know, dialogue." (03:30-04:02)

The Power of Collaboration ([04:17])

• Yorgos Lanthimos on working with frequent collaborators:
  • "Finding someone that you understand, that you can get along and see certain things in a similar way and you build trust... there's no fear in making a fool of yourself because, you know, everybody has your back." (Yorgos Lanthimos, 04:25-05:25)
  • Trust among actors and crew creates a "safe environment...everybody is there for the other and they're all having the same goal."

Teddy's Motivation ([05:36])

• What is Teddy trying to save the world from?
  • "These forces, these...powers figures at the top...a very real world enemy...capitalistic, inhuman humans. But...he feels like Michelle is both that...and also...an alien seeking to destroy the planet." (Jesse Plemons, 05:36-06:31)

Defining Michelle’s Character ([06:53])

• Yorgos Lanthimos on Emma Stone’s CEO:
  • Early scenes treat characters as familiar archetypes, using "her house and her daily routine...the assurance on her gait and her speech...the environment and the way she dresses" to show control. (Yorgos Lanthimos, 06:53-08:25)
  • The film then "challenges those ideas...revealing layers and layers of these characters' personalities."

The Dialogue Dynamic ([08:25])

• Michelle's line: "Let's have a dialogue."
  • "That sounds like...it could be human or it could be alien." (Alison Stewart, 08:25)
• Yorgos Lanthimos:
  • "She's trying to find different ways to approach it as a good, well educated, experienced CEO would..." (08:50)
  • The two characters continuously "measure each other and their reactions...try to achieve the goal they have in mind, which is different, at least seemingly." (Yorgos Lanthimos, 08:50-10:09)

Teddy’s Frustration with Corporate Speak ([10:09])

• Michelle invokes Death of a Salesman; Teddy objects.
  • "I have a similar feeling with this sort of superficial, you know, corporate speak..." (Jesse Plemons, 10:23-10:47)
  • "There's a lot of beating around the bush. A lot of words without any sort of meaning, you know, which was...extremely, increasingly maddening for Teddy, who just wants Michelle to...say it outright and plain. And, you know, he never got that." (Jesse Plemons, 10:58-11:39)
  • Quote highlighted by interviewer: "'Don't say income inequality. Just say a hungry child. Cause that's what you normally mean.'" (Interviewer, paraphrasing Elie Wiesel, 11:41)

Adaptation Choices & Gender

Adapting from "Save the Green Planet" ([11:49])

• Korean original had a male CEO; "Begonia" made the CEO a woman.
• Yorgos Lanthimos:
  • "It was just like a great opportunity to work with Emma [Stone] again."
  • Having a woman as CEO "changed the dynamic to be...more intellectual...maybe like the clash of two men seems to be more, you know, about machismo...it adds another interesting layer...that has to be fought on a more intellectual level, but, you know, less testosterone-filled in a way. In the end, violence...is not avoided." (12:10-14:14)

Why Aliens Compel Us ([14:14])

• Jesse Plemons:
  • "I thought so often about their perspective of us and what they must think of us and how silly and strange we must seem to them. The games we play to pass time and all of that." (14:23-15:03)

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Memorable Quotes

• “You won’t notice unless you know what you’re looking for.”
  (Jesse Plemons, describing Teddy’s fixation, 02:08)

• “When you work together again, you can go further...there's no fear in making a fool of yourself because, you know, everybody has your back.”
  (Yorgos Lanthimos, on returning collaborators, 04:22-05:25)

• “He feels like Michelle is both that on the real world side of things, but also believes that she is an alien that is seeking to destroy the planet.”
  (Jesse Plemons, on Teddy’s worldview, 06:12)

• “It's important to start, you know, that way and then, you know, progress into a more profound exploration of these characters and their situation.”
  (Yorgos Lanthimos, on subverting character archetypes, 08:11)

• “There's a lot of beating around the bush. A lot of words without any sort of meaning, you know, which was...extremely, increasingly maddening for Teddy.”
  (Jesse Plemons, on corporate jargon, 10:59-11:39)

• “Maybe like the clash of two men seems to be more, you know, about machismo...it adds another interesting layer...to be fought on...a more intellectual level, but, you know, less testosterone-filled in a way…”
  (Yorgos Lanthimos, on re-gendering the CEO character, 13:15-14:14)

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Notable Moments & Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamp | Highlights | |-------------------------------|-----------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Teddy explains “alien” signs | 01:50 | Plemons delivers a darkly comedic monologue about physical alien markers | | Teddy’s motivations | 05:36 | Plemons details Teddy’s blend of real-world cynicism and conspiratorial belief | | Gender swap in adaptation | 12:03 | Lanthimos reflects on making the CEO a woman—and its intellectual impact | | Corporate speak frustration | 10:23 | Plemons connects with Teddy’s irritation about disingenuous dialogue | | Aliens and human strangeness | 14:23 | Plemons muses on the perspective aliens might have on human behavior |

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Tone and Style

• The conversation is thoughtful and digressive, marked by Plemons’ darkly amused introspection and Lanthimos’ understated, cerebral style.
• Both display self-awareness about “Begonia” as both a satire and a psychological thriller, offering both playful and profound takes on alienation—whether cosmic or capitalist.

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For Further Listening

Visit the "All Of It" podcast feed for more Oscar nominee interviews and creative conversations.

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Transcript

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[Alison Stewart]

This is all of it. I' Alison Stewart all hour we've been talking about some of the films being recognized at the Oscars this weekend. The ceremonies are Sunday evening, 7pm Eastern time, and you can watch on ABC or Hulu. Now we'll get into a conversation about one of the year's most unsettling pieces of cinema. The movie Begonia stars Jesse Plemons as Teddy, who works at a packing facility and has fallen down every Internet conspiracy rabbit hole imaginable. He now believes the CEO of his company is an actual alien, so he kidnaps her with a purpose. Why is Teddy so sure she's an alien? Let's listen to a clip from Begonia where the CEO is passed out on a cot in his basement and Teddy is explaining to his cousin how he knows.

[Jesse Plemons]

Incredible.

[Yorgos Lanthimos]

What is.

[Jesse Plemons]

Just the detail. The best I've seen.

[Yorgos Lanthimos]

How can you tell she's an alien?

[Jesse Plemons]

Well, the signs are obvious. They did a hell of a job on it. But the towels are there. Narrow feet, then cuticles, slight overbite, semi obtruding earlobes. See? High hair density. You won't notice unless you know what you're looking for.

[Yorgos Lanthimos]

Yes, I can see it.

[Jesse Plemons]

It's like if you don't cook steaks a lot, you won't know when it's cooked. Medium rare. But if you cook steaks all the time, you just know. You don't even have to cut into it. You just know.

[Alison Stewart]

In the film, Teddy is trying to get his captive to confess before the lunar eclipse in four days, when he believes she'll be able to make contact with her mothership and convince them to save humanity. And since this is a Yorgos Lanthimos movie You know, that woman has something up her sleeve. At this year's Oscars, Begonia is nominated for best Picture, Best Actress for Emma Stone, Best Adapted Screenplay and best Original Score. When Yorgos Lanthimos and Jesse Plemons joined me on the show to talk about the film, I started by asking Jesse what he saw in the script that made him feel like his character was more than a conspiracy theorist trope.

[Jesse Plemons]

Well, for one, you know, it was very hard to argue some of his points. Some of his points I agreed strongly with and then some others not so much. So I think that was the brilliant thing that Will Tracy, our screenwriter, did was he, he gave both Teddy and Michelle very compelling, very objectively true statements, you know, dialogue.

[Interviewer]

Yorgos, this is your fourth film with Emma, your second with Jesse. You've worked with composer Jerks and Fendrick. He scored your last two films. Why do you like to bring people back into your projects? What do you like about working with these collaborators?

[Yorgos Lanthimos]

Well, I think, I think it's a special thing, you know, finding someone that

[Jesse Plemons]

you

[Yorgos Lanthimos]

understand that you can get along and see certain things in a similar way and you build trust. And then on top of that, then when you work together again, you can go further and explore different directions because, you know, there's, as I said, trust there and there's no fear in, you know, making a fool of yourself because, you know, everybody has your back. And when that includes both the crew and the actors, that becomes even a more safe environment because also the actors feel more comfortable with the crew that they know. And everybody, you know, is there for the other and they're all having the same goal. So I think that's, you know, very important to be in tune while, you know, making something so complicated. That is a film.

[Interviewer]

He kidnaps the CEO early in the film, Jesse. So I'm not giving anything away.

[Alison Stewart]

What does Teddy believe he's saving the world from?

[Jesse Plemons]

Well, it's sort of multifaceted, but these forces, these, these powers figures at the top, which, you know, it's, it's, it's a little, it's a little confusing. In Teddy's case, you know, he, on the one hand, there's a very real world enemy to him which are these, you know, capitalistic, inhuman humans. But in this particular case, he feels like Michelle is both that on the real world side of things, but also believes that she is an alien that is seeking to destroy the planet and the world.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, Emma's playing this hard charging CEO, Yorgos, and we don't know a lot about her backstory in the beginning, but she has certain behavior to tell us, like, that she's in control. What characteristics or mannerisms did you and Emma choose to tell us, the audience, to show us that she's in control?

[Yorgos Lanthimos]

Well, I think that there's, you know, the introduction of the film kind of tries to establish those, you know, characters and we. We treat them initially almost as archetypes. Like it's. They're very recognizable, both Teddy and Dawn in their world and then Michelle in her world. So just from her house and her daily routine, how she wakes up and what she. What are the first things she does and to seeing her at work and the way she speaks and the assurance on her gait and her speech and, you know, just the environment in itself and the way she dresses. And I think, you know, just reinforce the initial idea that you have about her and Teddy and Dawn very similarly. But I think the point of the film and the way it's structured is to afterwards kind of challenge those ideas that you have about these people and start revealing layers and layers of these characters personalities and traits and beliefs and actions. So it's important to start, you know, that way and then, you know, progress into a more profound exploration of these characters and their situation.

[Interviewer]

It's so interesting when she's captured. She keeps. Michelle keeps saying phrases like, let's have a dialogue to Teddy. First of all, that sounds like almost it could be human or it could be alien. It can go either way. That, that way she talks to him. How is she talking to him, Yorgos? Is it patronizing? Is it maternal when you're. When she's saying, let's have a dialogue,

[Yorgos Lanthimos]

I think she's trying to find different ways to approach it as, you know, a good, well educated experience CEO would like. She's trying to see, like, she's trying one way, you know, in the beginning she's sees, you know, very assertive and. And try to. Tries to intimidate them. Then she realizes that, you know, Teddy might be not so stupid as he thought initially and is, you know, well researched and, you know, educated and, you know, has gone through a lot and it's just not some crazy person or yeah, crazy, but with a lot of tools. So she. She tries a different way and, you know, that keeps happening and as this evolves and. And Teddy kind of does the same. Like they're always trying to measure each other and their reactions and see. Try to achieve the goal that they have in mind, which is different, at least seemingly is a different goal that they Have. So they try to find different ways to achieve that.

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Jesse, when Michelle asked to have a dialogue with Teddy, he said, this isn't Death of a Salesman. Why was that important for us to know that he knows who Arthur Miller is? And how would you describe the depth of Teddy's character?

[Jesse Plemons]

Well, first off, I mean, I. Again, there were certain. Certain lines that resonated with me. You know, I. I have a similar feeling with. With this sort of superficial, you know, corporate speak.

[Interviewer]

Let's unpack that. Right. And all those kind of things.

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah.

[Jesse Plemons]

I mean, let me talk about my feelings. No, I don't know. I just find it disingenuous. And I guess that that's the, The.

[Yorgos Lanthimos]

The. The.

[Jesse Plemons]

The main part of it is, I think, you know, there's a.

[Yorgos Lanthimos]

There's a.

[Jesse Plemons]

There's a fear I. I probably haven't myself. Of getting to the heart of the matter. And so he's. There's a lot of beating around the bush. A lot of words without any sort of meaning, you know, which was. Was extremely, increasingly maddening for. For Teddy, who just wants Michelle to. To say it. To say it outright and plain. And, you know, he never. He never got that. What was the second part of that?

[Interviewer]

No, that was a good answer.

[Jesse Plemons]

Okay, that was a good answer.

[Interviewer]

It reminds me, I think it was Elo Wiesel said, don't say income inequality. Just say a hungry child. Cause that's what you normally mean.

[Jesse Plemons]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

You know, this is based on a Korean movie, Save the Green Planet Yorgos. Now, the CEO in that is a man who's captured. Yes.

[Yorgos Lanthimos]

Yeah, that's true.

[Interviewer]

So what does making the Captive a woman versus a man do to the story?

[Yorgos Lanthimos]

Well, to be honest, I wasn't that involved because it was an early decision that Will Tracy made with Ari Aster and Laris Newton that they developed the screenplay together based on that film. I've heard Will talk about it a little bit, but he also can't be very specific how that happened and remember why that happened to me. It was just like a great opportunity to work with Emma again. So as soon as I read it and I was very excited, it was like, oh, that's a great part for her. And here we go. You know, it's one thing you can very easily say is, like, it's not, you know, it's not very common to. To see, you know, women in those kind of. I mean, in film and depending on the culture in reality as well, I guess it becomes a little bit more frequent in Western culture. So.

[Jesse Plemons]

Yeah.

[Yorgos Lanthimos]

I honestly don't have anything really important to say around it. It was just like a decision that was made and kind of changed the dynamic to be maybe more intellectual in a way and more cerebral. Maybe. I'm just now thinking out loud, you know, maybe like the clash of two men seems to be more, you know, about machismo. Maybe. I don't know. Like, I think it adds another interesting layer, the fact that, you know, there's that aspect of it that has to be fought on a, on a more intellectual level, but, you know, less testosterone

[Interviewer]

filled in a way.

[Jesse Plemons]

Yeah.

[Yorgos Lanthimos]

In the end, violence, I guess, is not avoided.

[Interviewer]

What makes aliens interesting to you, Jesse, as you were thinking about this role, because you do have to believe that she's an alien.

[Jesse Plemons]

Yeah, well, many things. But in my sort of private musings, as I was obsessing over the script and the part and the themes and all, I thought so often about their perspective of us and what they must think of us and how silly and strange we must seem to them. The games we play to pass time and all of that. I. Yeah, but many, many things.

[Alison Stewart]

That was my conversation with director Yorgos Lanthimos and actor Jesse Plemons about their film Begonia. It's nominated at this year's Academy Awards for best Picture, best Adapted Screenplay, best Original Score, and Best Actress for Emma Stone. The award ceremonies are this Sunday at 7pm Eastern. You can tune in on ABC or stream it with hulu or on YouTube. If you want to hear more of our conversation with Oscar nominees ahead of the awards, head to our website or our podcast feed. You'll find conversations with actors, directors, writers, cinematographers, set designers, costume designers and more highly creative professionals at the cutting edge of movie magic. And follow us on Instagram for some fun coverage before and during the awards. No spoilers, but we've got an all of It Oscars bingo card and you were invited to play along. So follow us LNYC for today. There's more all of it on the way. Coming up, my conversation with Angela Flournoy about her novel the Wilderness. It was a get lit with all all of it book club selection. And we'll also hear some live music ahead of St Patrick's Day from a local band that covers the Irish punk stylings of the Pogues. That's coming up after the news.

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