Just eight months after filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and star Emma Stone unveiled Poor Things at Venice, the duo are back on the festival circuit with Kinds of Kindness.

The frequent collaborators faced the press at Cannes, where they tried to define the alchemy between their relationship, which netted Stone an Oscar for Poor Things and also includes The Favourite.

Stone brushed off the suggestion that she was Lanthimos’ muse, responding, ““He’s my muse.”

My Oscar Book:

“I feel like I can do anything with him, because we’ve worked together so many times,” said Stone. “I trust him beyond the trust I’ve had with any director, and I’ve been lucky to work with great directors.”

“How do you think I contribute to feminism?” She responded with a smile and to laughs from the crowd. Stone went on to say she’s not necessarily the type of actor who picks parts because of the message of the movie, but rather because she finds the worlds and characters interesting. She concluded: “I’m a feminist and I like working with Yorgos Lanthamos. I guess that’s activism.”

Lanthimos shot Kinds of Kindness while Poor Things was still in post-production and was awaiting visual effects work. “It was ready, so we thought, instead of sitting around waiting for the delivery of the VFX, let’s go,” said the filmmaker of jumping on the project.

The cast includes Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie and Hunter Schafer.

The film tells three interconnecting stories.

One centers on a man (Plemons) whose wealthy boss (Dafoe) outlines every facet of his life, from what he eats and drinks and what he wears.

Another centers on a police man (Plemons), whose marine biologist wife (Stone) goes missing, but when she is rescued and returned home, he becomes convinced the woman who came back is not his wife.

The third story centers on a woman (Stone) who has abandoned her husband (Alwyn) to join a sex cult, run by characters played by Dafoe and Chau.

As for her previous work with Lanthamos, Stone said that the only character in her career she’s had trouble letting go of was Poor Things protagonist Bella. Said Stone: “I don’t think I should revisit her, probably. It doesn’t make any sense. That was the character I was devastated to let go of.”

Searchlight releases Kinds of Kindness in June 21.