Yorgos Lanthimos fans in Los Angeles eager to see his latest movie for free are in luck: A movie theater is offering free tickets to Monday's special screening to anyone who's already bald or willing to shave their head in the foyer first.
The move pays homage to Emma Stone's character in the film, a powerful pharmaceutical CEO who is abducted by conspiracy theorists (played by Jesse Plemons and Aidan Derbis) who believe she is an alien and shave off her hair.
“Are you bald, or would you rather shave your head?” read the event post. “On Monday, October 20, head to [the Culver Theater] Free early screening of Bugonia – the new @focusfeatures fever dream from Yorgos Lanthimos. “
Anyone with hair but eager for free tickets and a free haircut should arrive after 6pm, when barbers will be on hand to “shave it all off.”
The cinema added: “This is real. Yes, part of it will be filmed.” Hopefuls need to RSVP as places are limited and they must be over 18. “Bugonia” is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America.
Following 2018's The Favorite, 2023's Poor Thing, and 2024's The Kindness, Lanthimos and Stone's latest collaboration has garnered enthusiastic attention at film festival screenings. In the interview, the actor promoted the radical hair choice, telling Vogue, “There's no better feeling in the world than being newly bald.” “First shower after shaving your head? Oh my god, it was amazing.”
Stone went on to draw a distinction between her own decision to cut off her hair for the film and the experience of her mother, Krista, who lost her hair while undergoing treatment for breast cancer in 2008. “She actually did something brave,” Stone said. “I just shaved my head.”
Jada Pinkett-Smith's bald head was the subject of a joke from Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars, when he compared her look to Demi Moore's GI Jane in the military drama. It's unclear whether Rock realized Pinkett-Smith had alopecia, but the joke led to her husband, Will Smith, walking on stage, slapping Rock and saying, “Don't ever mention my wife's name again.”
This resulted in Smith – who later that night won the Academy Award for Best Actor – being banned from Academy events for ten years.
Bugonia will be available in limited quantities in the United States starting on October 24th, with general availability starting on October 31st. The film will be released in Australia on October 30 and in the UK on October 31.