Yorgos Lanthimos Jokes He Needs an AI Avatar to Get Out of Promoting His Films: “Do I Have to Say the Same Thing a Thousand Times?”

Yorgos Lanthimos might be on board with AI, after all.

The Oscar-nominated filmmaker, director of movies The Favourite, Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness, jokingly told BFI London Film Festival attendees on Saturday that he’s willing to send out a computer-generated avatar of himself if it helps him get out of promotional duties.

Lanthimos spoke with Succession creator Jesse Armstrong the day after the U.K. premiere of his latest thriller, Bugonia, starring Emma Stone as a powerful CEO who is kidnapped by two conspiracy-obsessed men, played by Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis, convinced she is an alien about to destroy Earth.

“I have mixed feelings about… figuring out what the best way to do it is, because [producers] spend a lot of money and they do have to make it back,” Lanthimos began when asked if he cares about the commercial success of his features. “It’s not my passion to go around being photographed and tell people stuff. It’s almost the same amount of time as making a film —you spend four to six months filming, six months editing and then you have, like, six months going around promoting the film.”

He continued about the repetitive nature of a film’s press run: “Isn’t there another way? You sit down with your people and they say, [You need to do] this interview, this interview. Can’t you just take out some of them? Do I have to do all of them and say the same thing a thousand times? By the middle of the day, I won’t remember the things I’ve said. I’m looking at people like, ‘Did I tell you this?’” It’s a big part of it, I understand… But especially now with technology, you capture something and everyone has it! Why do I have to do it a million times?”

As audience members erupted with laughter, the director joked, “I mean, AI… I’ll make an avatar and send it out. That sounds really opposite to my beliefs [about AI]!”

Armstrong quipped back: “First you want a dictatorship and now you want an AI version of yourself to talk about your films.” The award-winning Brit writer was referring to earlier in the session when Lanthimos told Armstrong he believes the world needs a benevolent dictator to combat the far-right dominating the world’s current political landscape. “The way things are going, [we have] ones that are doing the bad things, but [we need] a dictator who does good things for the people.”

Lanthimos clarified: “Because it seems like, whatever you call it, maybe the left, they haven’t found a way to do this. You need someone who will take responsibility and go: ‘We’re going to do the good things.’”

Across the session, the men covered a myriad of topics including how Lanthimos made films in the wake of the 2008 financial crash —which hit Lanthimos’ native Greece particularly hard —and finding creative freedom in moving to the U.K. to make English-language films.

Stone, in particular, is already garnering more awards buzz for Bugonia only two years after her Oscar win for Poor Things.

The BFI London Film Festival 2025 runs Oct. 8-19.