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Emma Stone
Emma Stone

In Honor of ‘Cruella,’ A Look at Emma Stone’s Career… So Far!

April Federico

Emma Stone may not be on any social media platforms, but that doesn’t stop us from knowing what’s going on in her career and personal life. We recently learned she gave birth to a baby girl as well as married comedy writer and director Dave McCary in a super-secret ceremony. Even though Emma keeps her private life pretty hush-hush, she has revealed her new daughter’s name: Louise Jean McCary. Keep reading to find out why we think the name is absolutely PERFECT.

Who is Emma Stone?

Get to know the actress through these fun facts:

  1. Her real name is Emily Jean Stone, but since that name was already taken by the Screen Actors Guild, she changed it to just Emma Stone
  2. She almost chose Riley to be her stage name! Riley Stone? Nah, I so prefer Emma Stone.
  3. Her middle name is Jean after her grandmother Jean Louise McCary. (Now, you see where her baby’s name comes from and why it’s so special!)
  4. She’s actually a wizard at HTML and used to design websites for free!
  5. She is from Scottsdale, Arizona.
  6. I was TODAY YEARS OLD when I found out that she was the voice of Ivana Tipton, London Tipton’s (Brenda Song) dog in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody!
  7. When she was 12, she auditioned for All That.
  8. Her natural hair color is blonde.
  9. She has a brother named Spencer.
  10. She presented a PowerPoint to her parents to convince them to let her move to Hollywood to be an actress. 

Now that we’ve listed some fun, personal facts, let’s walk through a few of Emma Stone’s most popular movies.

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Emma Stone Movies: The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Emma Stone plays Gwen Stacy, the love interest of Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker, in this action movie based on the comics. She went up for the part against stars like Lily Collins, Mia Wasikowska, Emma Roberts, Imogen Poots but was ultimately cast because of her noticeable chemistry with Andrew. This chemistry spun into an off-screen romance that lasted from 2011 to 2015.

Having never previously read any of the Spider-Man comic books, Emma had to do her homework and thoroughly research the character of Gwen Stacy. For the role, instead of maintaining her famous red locks, she kept her natural blonde hair to match Gwen’s description.

Recently, there have been rumors about Emma Stone coming back to the film franchise to reprise her role as in the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home. She spoke with MTV News and said, “I have heard those rumors. I don’t know if I’m supposed to say anything, but I’m not.”

Watch The Amazing Spider-Man on Hulu. 

Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling Movies

Over the years, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling have appeared in three films together. The first  was Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011). In the romantic comedy, Emma plays Hannah, a law school graduate who is wooed by Ryan’s character, Jacob, a smooth talking lothario. Together, these two recreate the iconic Dirty Dancing moment with Ryan’s “photoshopped” abs and it’s one of the best movie scenes from the last 15 years!
In 2013, the co-stars reunited for Gangster Squad, a film set in 1949 about the Los Angeles Police Department. Three years later, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling signed up for the romantic musical La La Land (2016). Emma plays Mia, an aspiring actress. and Ryan is Seb, a down on his luck piano player. The two sing, dance, and fall in love in the “City of Stars.” La La Land is a smash hit and gets nominated for tons of Academy Awards. Including ones for the two stars. But more on that later!

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It’s undeniable that Emma and Ryan have amazing onscreen chemistry. They are the perfect Hollywood movie duo!

This sounds like a good idea to me! The two pairs are equally great!

Keep in mind this was back in 2018, but we’re still patiently waiting to see a fourth Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone movie!

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Buy or rent La La Land on Amazon.

Watch Crazy, Stupid, Love. on Netflix. 

Buy or rent Gangster Squad on Amazon.

Emma Stone Movies: Zombieland (2009)

In this movie about killing the walking dead, Emma Stone stars alongside Abigail Breslin, Jesse Eisenberg, and Woody Harrelson. She plays the character Wichita, a survivor of the zombie apocalypse. Emma reprised the role in 2019 for the sequel, Zombieland: Double Tap. Reuniting with the cast after 10 years gave her a lot of the feels. Emma told Variety:

“It’s so much fun to be with all of these people again, […] It’s such a joy and such a blast. It just felt like old times again, but everybody’s had all these great life experiences and there was so much more to share. It was really special.” 

Buy or rent Zombieland on Amazon. 

Watch Zombieland: Double Tap on Hulu. 

Emma Stone Movies: Easy A (2011)

Emma Stone scored her first leading role in this teen comedy loosely based on the literary classic A Scarlet Letter. In the film, she plays Olive Pendergast, a wise cracking high schooler who lets a rumor run rampant to help enhance her social status. Emma’s co-stars include fellow young talents such as Aly Michalka, Penn Badgley, Cam Gigandet, Amanda Bynes, and Dan Byrd. At 22 years old, she was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role. Easy A is an incredibly fun and rewatchable movie that fans — 10 years later — cannot get enough of.

Additionally, Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson play Olive’s eccentric yet nurturing parents. The two must’ve been a good pair of make-believe parents because Emma Stone told Insider:

“Patty and Stanley just came in and blew all that out of the water. They were so unbelievable. I was so grateful to them, selfishly, because they made it all make sense […] My parents are miraculously similar to those parents which is the luckiest thing in the world. They may not be as liberal but their parenting style is very similar.”

Fun fact: according to Insider, Easy A received criticism from international audiences in regards to American high school culture. Turns out, losing your virginity is not a big deal in France and cliques don’t exist in India. Good to know!

Buy or rent Easy A on Amazon. 

Emma Stone Movies: Superbad (2007)

Emma Stone’s big screen debut came with the raunchy comedy Superbad. After playing the part of Jules, a graduating senior throwing a house party, she was immediately placed among an elite list of actors and actresses.

It turns out that the whole movie was improv-centric! Emma told Bustle:

“...it was Seth [Rogen] and Evan [Goldberg]’s story. When we made Superbad, Seth and Evan were in their early twenties, but they had started writing the script when they were 13. I also hadn’t really seen any of Judd’s other movies at the time, besides The 40-Year-Old Virgin [2005], so I didn’t really know how Judd’s films worked, with people riffing and going off the cuff … I thought that every movie was going to be like that. I was like, ‘Oh, this is fun. You can just make it up as you go.’ But every movie is not like that.”

Emma is an amazingly versatile actress. One minute she’s being laugh out loud funny in a comedy and the next she’s serious and pensive in a drama! The girl has all the ranges.

Watch Superbad on Netflix. 

Emma Stone Movies: Aloha (2015)

Cameron Crowe cast Emma Stone as Allison Ng in this rom-com that takes place in Hawaii. Unsurprisingly, the movie received tons of backlash. In fact, the director took to a blog post to apologize if the movie had “misguided casting.”
But it wasn’t just Cameron Crowe who was under fire for the role of Allison Ng. Emma Stone herself told an Australian news site:

“I’ve become the butt of many jokes […] I’ve learned on a macro level about the insane history of whitewashing in Hollywood and how prevalent the problem truly is. It ignited a conversation that’s very important. […] There’s a lot of conversation about how we want to see people represented on screen and what we need to change as a business to reflect culture in a clearer way and not in an idealised way. There are some flaws in the system.”

It seems Hollywood learned an important lesson as well. The movie was a colossal flop. It cost $37M to make but only earned $23M.

Watch Aloha now on Amazon.

Emma Stone Movies: The Help (2011)

The Help boasts an all-star cast, including Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, Allison Janney, Octavia Spencer, and, of course, Emma Stone. Emma plays the character, Skeeter, an Ole Miss graduate and journalist on a quest to write a book from the perspective of the Black maids she’s befriended in Jim Crow-era Mississippi.
In this role, Emma Stone perfectly captures the social awkwardness of a college graduate all while maintaining her authenticity as the actress that she is. The movie is also a good example of Emma’s skillfulness as a leading lady. Many scenes in the film involve her showing off her comedy chops. Yet there are also moments where Emma needs to unleash her emotional and intense side.

Buy or rent The Help on Amazon. 

Emma Stone Movies: Birdman (2014)

Emma Stone plays recovering drug addict Sam in this 2014 Oscar-winning film. Her big scene in the film is a monologue where she confronts Michael Keaton’s character (who plays her dad, a movie star has-been) about how he’s trying too hard to be relevant when he doesn’t even have social media.

The monologue is pretty epic and even helped score Emma her very first Academy Award nomination. Brava!

Emma joked (somewhat) that she was exhausted while filming Birdman. This makes sense since the movie is basically one continuous shot and it takes a lot of work to pull off such a ginormous feat. Everything has to be perfectly timed and rehearsed. One mistake and you have to start the whole thing over. Some of the scenes would require 25 takes! Now, that’s a whole lot of takes! Emma Stone told Deadline:

“‘Birdman’ was like theater because you had done these scenes so many times and they were so blocked for camera moves. Everything had to be technically perfect, but then you had to be able to completely let go and play the truth of the scene, versus a choreographed dance. It was like everyone was walking on a tightrope. With our script Alejandro gave us the Man on Wire photo where the guy is between the Twin Towers. If anyone hit your rope, everyone fell. At first it was daunting because you think, “What the hell is everyone attempting to do here?” And then by the end of production it was, “Why aren’t more movies made this way?”

Emma was beyond wiped after shooting Birdman. But did she wrap production and immediately go on a long, much needed vacation? Nope! Instead, Emma Stone headed to Broadway where she went on to star as Sally Bowles in Cabaret. 

Buy or rent Birdman on Amazon. 

Emma Stone Movies: Cruella (2021)

I recently saw Cruella in a movie theater near me, and I strongly believe this is the pinnacle of Emma Stone’s career. In fact, fans are saying the same thing:

Agreed.

This single tweet is better than my own analysis of the film!

Again, my thoughts exactly. While the soundtrack and the fashion totally complement each other, it’s Emma Stone who’s the star of the show!

The first actor to play the live action Cruella de Vil was Glenn Close in the 1996 movie 101 Dalmatians. It’s safe to say that Emma Stone and Glenn Close play the character very differently. They each have their own unique take on the notorious Disney movie villain and bring something distinct to their individual versions. So who’s my pick for Best Overall Cruella? It’s a tough one but I think I have to go with Emma Stone. Glenn is obviously a legend but I think Emma truly makes the character her own. She creates an incredibly original Cruella for the 21st Century.

You can watch Cruella on Disney+ and in movie theaters – buy movie tickets and view movie showtimes here.

Emma Stone Oscar WIN

In 2017, Leonardo DiCaprio (who FINALLY won an Oscar in 2016 for The Revenant) presented Best Actress to none other than Emma Stone for her performance in La La Land. She thanked her family, the women who came before her, and of course Ryan Gosling for being her partner in the world of acting. (Okay, we really really really need them to be in their fourth movie together ASAP!)

Also, how can we forget the look in Andrew Garfield’s eyes when Emma was giving her already tearful speech?

We want someone who will look at us like that on a daily basis!

They hugged, too! No hostility; just pure support and we’re here for it.

We are sooo excited for Emma Stone and her new role as mom. We also can’t wait for all the amazing future movies she undoubtedly will star in. We can only hope that Emma will once again be nominated for an Oscar for her work in Cruella. There’s no doubt that she deserves it for such a killer performance!

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April Federico
April Federico

Movies in theaters