If you wanted a sneak peek at Bugonia, Emma Stone’s latest team-up with Yorgos Lanthimos, all you had to do was lose your hair. Literally.
On Monday night in Los Angeles, fans lined up outside the Culver Theater to attend an early screening of the surreal sci-fi satire. But there was a twist: you had to show up bald or agree to have your head shaved on the spot — a tribute to Stone’s bald character in the film. It was weird, kind of bold, and totally on-brand for a Lanthimos rollout.
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Matthew Lopez, a Disneyland employee and die-hard fan, showed up with a full head of hair he’d been growing out for a year and a half. He walked into the theater freshly buzzed.
“I’ve been waiting for this movie since it’s been announced, since I saw the trailer six months ago,” he told the New York Post. “And when I saw that there was an exclusive screening and I get a free haircut with it, I said, might as well.”
He wasn’t without doubters. “A lot of my co-workers are asking me, why am I doing that? Because they love how my hair was before,” he said. “But I just told them, I’ve done this before. It’s a free movie that I’ve been waiting for.”
After the cut? “It’s freeing,” he said. “I haven’t felt air on my head in a while.”
Others had more practical motivations. Actress Rita Frenzel, a regular head-shaver, said she was due for a buzz anyway. “I want to see the screening, and also I want to get my head shaved. Because it’s getting long, I need a haircut,” she said. “I just thought it seemed like a cool experience. It’s something new, it’s not something I see happening every day.”
And then there was David Vargas, already bald and invited by a friend who saw a loophole.
“He knew that I was already bald, and he said, ‘Hey, you’re bald, let’s go to a free screening.’ And I said, Yes, because I love movies,” Vargas said. “I like Emma Stone, but I don’t know anything about this movie, and I usually like to keep it that way. I enjoy not knowing about a movie and seeing what it presents itself as.”
Vargas said he hoped the event sent a message: “They shouldn’t be afraid of being bald.”
Barber KP Kalama was stationed outside with clippers in hand and said he broke his personal haircut record during the event.
“I thought it was pretty cool, I’d never done an event before, I said why not.”
Bugonia — a wild, English-language remake of the 2003 South Korean cult hit Save the Green Planet! — stars Stone alongside Jesse Plemons, Stavros Halkios, Aidan Delbis, and Alicia Silverstone. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival and opens in theaters this Friday.
Based on reporting by Genevieve Wong and Zoe Hussain for the New York Post.
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