On Sunday night, Emma Stone won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical for her work in the dazzling movie-musical La La Land. Rolling Stone contributing editor Jonah Weiner spent several days with Stone for the cover story of our latest issue. Here are some of things he learned from the experience.
La La Land allowed her to flex muscles literal and figurative that she hadnt before.
This is someone whos at the end of her rope, doubting herself, trying to ply a trade that requires you to expose yourself emotionally, and be rejected, daily, says director (and fellow Golden Globe winner) Damian Chazelle, of Stones character Mia an aspiring actor hoping for her big break. I didnt want Emma to shy away from that kind of rawness and vulnerability, and one of the greatest pleasures making this movie was watching her go somewhere deeper and darker than were used to. Musicals are a genre where you have to be willing to literally flip or tumble or stumble you cant really go into it with too much of a protective shield. Whats scary about the genre is whats exhilarating, which is that it forces you to wear your heart on your sleeve. For her part, Stone says, I had a lot of thoughts, daily, about building the character. Damien would write and rewrite, then Id read it and call him at six in the morning, like, I gotta come in, we gotta change this. Then wed improvise and hed write that down.
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She had only 10 takes to nail one of the movies trickiest dance numbers.
One of La La Lands showstoppers is a duet, staged in Griffith Park and captured entirely in a single shot, as Stone and Ryan Gosling fall for each other. We had two days to shoot it, Stone recalls. Wed rehearsed it for like four months, but it had to happen at magic hour, so we only had five takes each day before wed lose the light. So the pressure was on. Ryan and I would finish a take, run back to the bottom of this hill, then do it again. If one of us fell, that take was completely ruined and we only had nine left. It was like when youre entering your iPhone password it will lock you out forever if you get it wrong 10 times.
She suffered from crippling anxiety as a kid but improv comedy helped her work through it.
In her preadolescence, Stone was prone to debilitating panic attacks: My brain naturally zooming 30 steps ahead to the worst-case scenario, as she puts it. When I was about seven, I was convinced the house was burning down. I could sense it. Not a hallucination, just a tightening in my chest, feeling I couldnt breathe, like the world was going to end. There were some flare-ups like that, but my anxiety was constant. I would ask my mom a hundred times how the day was gonna lay out. What time was she gonna drop me off? Where was she gonna be? What would happen at lunch? Feeling nauseous. At a certain point, I couldnt go to friends houses anymore I could barely get out the door to school. Gravely concerned, her parents arranged for Stone to see a therapist. It helped so much, she says. Also helpful? Performing. I started acting at this youth theater, doing improv and sketch comedy, she says. You have to be present in improv, and thats the antithesis of anxiety.
Her onetime co-star Jonah Hill is a big fan and says shes as down-to-earth off camera as she seems onscreen.
Stones first movie role came opposite Jonah Hill in Superbad. Hill, whos gone on to make movies with Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, calls Stone one of the best actors, straight up, Ive ever worked with. Shes a beast. On Superbad, he recalls, What her part required was someone who was completely beautiful and charming but didnt look down on anybody else, and thats Emma shes one of the best hangs in the world, and she never makes anyone feel less than.
One of her craziest-ever acting experiences was trying to keep up with Joaquin Phoenix in a Woody Allen movie.
Starring with Phoenix in Allens Irrational Man, Stone says, I felt like if I wasnt the most present Ive ever been, it would be a miserable failure Joaquin changes directions constantly. He makes a different choice every time for the scene, and you dont know which way hes gonna go. You have to be so on, following him.
Shes buddies with Jennifer Lawrence, and they like to watch early-1990s comedies starring Bette Midler.
Stones circle of friends includes fellow actors Martha MacIsaac who played Stones pal and Michael Ceras crush in Superbad Sugar Lyn Beard and Jennifer Lawrence. We go on trips together, we hang out at each others houses, watch shit, Stone says. I was over at Jens place last month we watched Hocus Pocus.
She was a pin-wearing Hillary Clinton supporter, and Donald Trumps win has her vexed.
Its so hard to process what happens next, or what to do, Stone says. Its terrifying, the not-knowing. But I cant stop thinking about vulnerable people being ignored and tossed aside marginalized more than theyve already been for hundreds of years and how the planet will die without our help. It comes in waves.
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