Chances are you’ll have encountered the work of playwright-turned-screenwriter Tony McNamara without realising it. Scripting both Yorgos Lanthimos’ Queen Anne-era Oscar-winner The Favourite, and Cruella, Disney’s reboot of 101 Dalmatians, the Australian is also responsible for creating and showrunning TV’s sexy, scurrilous costume romp The Great, starring Nicholas Hoult and Elle Fanning. Now he’s back with the Greek-born Lanthimos for the critically acclaimed period fantasy Poor Things, an adaptation of Scottish writer Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel.

The story sees Lanthimos and McNamara reunite with their star from The Favourite, Emma Stone. She plays Bella, a suicide victim found in Victorian London and then re-animated by scientist Dr Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). From there, she learns to walk, talk and claim agency as she discovers her body sexually. So what is this: a coming-of-age tale? A devilishly funny feminist tract?  ‘I think we always call it a gothic comedy fantasy in our heads, with this sort of Frankenstein premise kicking it off,’ says McNamara. ‘That’s how we saw it.’

A story that amusingly paints men in a very dim light, what about Gray’s intriguing title: what does it mean? ‘I’ve always interpreted it as “Fucking poor humans!”’ says McNamara. ‘What are we? All the people in the movie . . . I’m like, “You poor things”. Just grappling with your own inadequacies and insecurities, and trying to get things from each other. All that. For me, it’s about the whole human comedy of people trying to control each other. People think they love someone, but the manifestation of their love is control. Human comedy, really.’

Already winner of the coveted Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, to say Poor Things is out there is an understatement; from Robbie Ryan’s loopy fisheye-lens shots to musician Jerskin Fendrix’s scratchy score. McNamara recalls returning from Budapest where the film was shot, and telling his wife, actress Belinda Bromilow, of the experience. ‘I said, “Well, everyone’s taken a swing. That’s for sure.” Every department. We’re all in. Whatever you can do creatively, there’s no limit. Everyone’s pushing as far as we think any of us are capable of.’ 

McNamara was unable to meet Gray, who died in 2019, but he did encounter his son at the recent New York Film Festival screening. The movie was given his blessing: ‘he seemed to approve!’ Although one of the changes McNamara made to the book was to ‘controversially’ move its Glasgow segment to London, he is well aware of the Scottish pride in Gray. ‘My local barista is very excited!’ he laughs. ‘What’s good about it is more people will read his work . . . he’s quite a special writer.’

The same might be said for McNamara, who was born in Kilmore, a small town an hour from Melbourne, and studied screenwriting at the Australian Film, Television And Radio School. Whether it’s Olivia Colman’s spiky dialogue in The Favourite (which saw him Oscar-nominated, alongside co-writer Deborah Davis) or the bawdy utterings of Stone’s character here (referring to sex as ‘furious jumping’), McNamara’s knack for hilariously off-kilter lines is spot on. 

‘I think that’s why I like genre or history pieces that can be subverted,’ McNamara says. ‘Language and dialogue is the thing I enjoy. My joy is writing dialogue. I think as a writer, you get free. You get free because it’s a fantasy. You get free because it’s a gothic imagination and the piece is so wild that you’re like, “Well, we’re not living in the real world!”’ What advice can he give to budding writers? ‘Hone your craft. Just write,’ he says. ‘And hope that a Greek genius calls you up.’

Poor Things is in cinemas from Friday 12 January.