Quote · The Louis Theroux Podcast
S7 EP8: Yorgos Lanthimos discusses working with Emma Stone, suffering for his art, and directing a Bourne movie
Where this was said
The State of the World: Refugees, Gaza, and a Possible Political Film
At 1:03:12 · chapter starts 1:02:40
The final section opens onto Lanthimos's political anxieties. He names the refugee situation on Greek islands — still ongoing, the camps now rebranded as 'hospitality centres' — Gaza, and the global rise of right-wing populism as his top concerns. [1] — Yorgos Lanthimos "Lanthimos has always explored political themes obliquely — through family dynamics, power structures, and social rules. But with the refuge…" 1:02:40 Louis notes that Lanthimos's films have always been political in an oblique, structural way — exploring power, control, and social conformity — but Lanthimos himself says he is now seriously questioning whether he needs to address these things more directly, and has not ruled out making a documentary. Louis then records a brief solo outro monologue reflecting on the interview: he admits he was occasionally out of his depth (Lanthimos called him 'illiterate' for confusing Daddy Longlegs with Longlegs), discusses the positive and negative reception of his own recent Netflix film Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere, and plugs Lanthimos's 2026 photography exhibition at the Onassis Foundation in Athens. Credits follow.
Lanthimos has always explored political themes obliquely — through family dynamics, power structures, and social rules. But with the refugee crisis ongoing in Greece, right-wing populism rising, and Gaza on his mind, he admits he is now seriously considering making something more directly political, and hasn't ruled out a documentary.
