As one of the most beloved actresses of our time, Emma Stone has it all – fame, fortune and critical acclaim. But, surprisingly enough, none of that is going to her head. That’s just one out of the 10,000 reasons why we adore this small town girl from Scottsdale, Arizona.
As one of the most beloved actresses of our time, Emma Stone has it all – fame, fortune and critical acclaim. But, surprisingly enough, none of that is going to her head. That’s just one out of the 10,000 reasons why we adore this small town girl from Scottsdale, Arizona.
Hey Jules, your partner didn’t come today?” asks a 2007, pre-The Wolf of Wall Street Jonah Hill.
“It’s kind of a personal question,” replies Emma Stone in her signature husky voice.
“What?”
“Nothing – it’s just my attempt at humour, I was just…” says Emma, sweeping her red hair out of her eyes and trailing off with a giggle.
“Oh, like cumming? Like cumming, cumming?” Jonah realises, as did the audience. Hook, line, sinker and BAM – we’re in love. The actress’ spot-on comedic timing in Superbad soon paved the way for more Funny Lady-type roles in comedies like Zombieland, Easy A, and Crazy, Stupid, Love, cementing her status as one of the most recognisable faces in film. But, like many others before her, it didn’t come easy.
In fact, Emma once lost out to Hayden Panettiere for the role of cheerleader Claire Bennet on the hit television series, Heroes. She recounted the experience in an interview with Vanity Fair, saying that while waiting for her turn to audition, she overheard the casting directors telling Hayden that they were certain she’s the one they wanted for the role. Ouch.
“I went home and just had this meltdown,” Emma revealed, calling that moment her “rock bottom”.
And here’s something else that not many people are aware of: the 27-yearold has a history of anxiety and used to suffer from panic attacks. Talking to The Wall Street Journal, Emma said it first happened when she was at a friend’s house, and the attacks continued to affect her for the next three years. She sought the help of a therapist, but things only improved after trying her hand at acting.
“There’s something about the immediacy of acting. You can’t afford to think about a million other things,” observed the actress. “Acting forces me to sort of be like a Zen master: what is happening right in this moment?”
Why so serious
What’s happening right in this moment for the comedy darling, is that her career is taking a serious turn. Perhaps as an attempt to break out of the funnyand- attractive-girl-with-a-dirty-mind archetype, Emma began to take on roles that require more than just a punchline.
It started with The Help in 2011, where she played Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a journalist penning a book that exposes the racism suffered by house maids during the Civil Rights era. She then starred as a clairvoyant and Colin Firth’s love interest in the Woody Allen-directed Magic in the Moonlight. Her performance was well-received, but critics only properly sat up and noticed when she took on the role of recovering drug addict Sam Thomson in Birdman, which saw her delivering an intense, minute-long monologue that became the talk of the town.
“There’s this insane thing that happens where you get to a point where you can start not just doing things because you’re lucky to have gotten the job, but you actually start making choices… I’’ve been interested in things that are really scary and ambitious lately. Obviously, Birdman was like that,” Emma told The Wall Street Journal. The choice turned out to be the right one, since the film landed the actress her fi rst Oscar nomination.
Following the success of Birdman, Emma worked with Woody Allen once again in Irrational Man, prompting talk of her being the director’s new muse. In between movies, she also found the time in November 2014 to do a stint on Broadway as Sally Bowles in Cabaret, which also received rave reviews.
There have been many more hits than misses in Emma’s nine-year film career, which makes it all the more surprising that she still gets nervous every time she takes on a role. “Only in the past six months to a year have I felt like I can really try these different things. I think I was really scared of that for a long time. And if something was really challenging, I thought that I was just going to fall on my face and embarrass myself. I’m just less scared of that now, of failing,” she divulged to Interview last year.
Miss congeniality
What makes Emma Stone so endearing – both on-screen and off – is her genuineness. Yes, she’s that girl you see on the red carpet, but when she trades her gowns for jeans and t-shirts, she can easily be the friendly girl-next-door.
“I don’t feel different from anyone,” the movie star confessed to Interview. “I know what it is to be a fan, but I don’t think I’ve ever really considered the idea of having fans. I think I’m always sort of ducking that, thinking it’s more about the work than me, in particular, that’s speaking to people.”
Unfortunately, this doesn’t change the fact that she’s a celebrity. And with great power, comes great responsibility – or in this case, hordes of paparazzi. Unlike some of her peers, Emma has yet to hit back. Instead, she chooses to deflect their attention with grace – like holding up handwritten signs with the web addresses of charity organisations.
At this point, would you even be surprised if we told you that this affable lady is on friendly terms with a paparazzo? She once stopped a photographer who was following her around New York to ask what he was doing, and learned that he needed three pictures because a tabloid was running a story on her. Till this day, the paparazzo still stops to have a chat with her before going on about his business.
“And because he’s the way he is, there are times where you’re just like, ‘Well, this is gonna help him, so I’ll give him what he needs’,” she said in Interview."
Shaking it off
Emma still remains relatable despite her fame, but that’s not to say she doesn’t have her fair share of A-lister problems: from the public scrutiny, to her love life, to her weight fluctuations – it’s admirable how she seems to be so unbothered by it all.
When Emma deals with the media, she always swiftly averts questions about her personal life. Take, for example, when The Wall Street Journal asked about that time when she was spotted dropping off a bag bearing Andrew Garfield’s name at their stylist’s office, fuelling rumours that they’d broken up.
“I understand the interest in it completely,” came the response. “But it’s so special to me that it never feels good to talk about, so I just continually don’t talk about it.”
And what about mean comments? If there’s anything we learnt from the “Celebrities read mean tweets” series from Jimmy Kimmel Live!, it’s that people can be brutal when shrouded in anonymity. And for these famous people, such comments can come in on a daily basis. So how do they deal with this?
“Sometimes, it’s really easy to shrug it off and other times, things have pinched more,” Emma admitted to Seventeen. “I think most of us are like that, right? I’m actively working hard on learning to appreciate yourself no matter what. If what someone else says can easily derail you, it means your sense of self isn’t that firmly established in the first place. It’s an inside job. You’re beautiful and worthy and totally unique.”
She continued: “People insult each other based on their own insecurities – even though it may feel personal, it really never is. Really. Seriously.” Can we get that on a motivational poster, please?
“If something was really challenging, I thought that I was just going to fall on my face and embarrass myself. I’m just less scared of that now, of failing.”
