Emma Stone

Emily Jean Stone (born November 6, 1988), known professionally as Emma Stone, is an American actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award. In 2017, she was the world's highest-paid actress and named by ''Time'' magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Born and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona, Stone began acting as a child in a theater production of ''The Wind in the Willows'' in 2000. As a teenager, she relocated to Los Angeles and made her television debut in '' In Search of the New Partridge Family'' (2004), a reality show that produced only an unsold pilot. After small television roles, she appeared in a series of well-received teen comedy films, such as '' Superbad'' (2007), ''Zombieland'' (2009), and ''Easy A'' (2010). The last of these was Stone's first leading role, earning her a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. Following this breakthrough, she had supporting roles in the romantic comedy ''Crazy, Stupid, Love'' (2011) and the period drama ''The Help'' (2011), and gained wider recognition as Gwen Stacy in the 2012 superhero film ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' and its 2014 sequel.

In 2014, Stone played a recovering drug addict in the black comedy '' Birdman'', which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and made her Broadway debut as Sally Bowles in a revival of the musical ''Cabaret''. For playing an aspiring actress in the romantic musical ''La La Land'' (2016), she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She received a third Academy Award nomination for portraying Abigail Masham in the historical comedy-drama ''The Favourite'' (2018). After a leading role in the Netflix dark comedy miniseries ''Maniac'' (2018), she reduced her workload, starring in the sequel '' Zombieland: Double Tap'' (2019) and the crime comedy '' Cruella'' (2021). Stone is married to comedian and writer Dave McCary, with whom she has a daughter.

Early life and education

Emily Jean Stone was born on November 6, 1988, in Scottsdale, Arizona, to Jeffrey Charles Stone, the founder and CEO of a general-contracting company, and Krista Jean Stone ( née Yeager), a homemaker. She lived on the grounds of the Camelback Inn resort from ages twelve to fifteen. She has a younger brother, Spencer. Her paternal grandfather, Conrad Ostberg Sten, was from a Swedish family that anglicized their surname to "Stone" when they immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island. She also has German, English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry.

As an infant, Stone had baby colic and cried frequently; she consequently developed nodules and calluses on her vocal cords while she was a child. She has described herself as having been "loud" and "bossy" while growing up. Stone was educated at Sequoya Elementary School and attended Cocopah Middle School for the sixth grade. Although she did not like school, she has stated that her controlling nature meant that "I made sure I got all As". Stone suffered panic attacks and anxiety as a child, which she says caused a decline in her social skills. She underwent therapy but claims it was her participation in local theater plays that helped cure the attacks; she recalled:

Stone wanted to act since age four; she wanted a career in sketch comedy initially, but shifted her focus toward musical theater, and took vocal lessons for several years. Her acting debut, at age eleven, came in a stage production of ''The Wind in the Willows'', playing the part of Otter. Stone was homeschooled for two years, during which time she appeared in sixteen productions at Phoenix's Valley Youth Theatreincluding ''The Princess and the Pea'', ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', and '' Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat''and performed with the theater's improvisational comedy troupe. Around this time, she traveled to Los Angeles and auditioned unsuccessfully for a role on Nickelodeon's ''All That''. Her parents later sent her for private acting lessons with a local acting coach, who had worked at the William Morris Agency in the 1970s.

Stone attended Xavier College Preparatoryan all-girl Catholic high schoolas a freshman, but dropped out after one semester to become an actress. She prepared a PowerPoint presentation for her parents titled "Project Hollywood" (featuring Madonna's 2003 song " Hollywood") to convince them to let her move to California to pursue an acting career. In January 2004, she moved with her mother to an apartment in Los Angeles. She recalled, "I went up for every single show on the Disney Channel and auditioned to play the daughter on every single sitcom", adding, "I ended up getting none." Between auditions for roles, she enrolled in online high-school classes, and worked part-time at a dog-treat bakery.

Career

Early roles (2004–2008)

Stone made her television debut as Laurie Partridge on the VH1 talent competition reality show ''In Search of the New Partridge Family'' (2004). The resulting show, retitled ''The New Partridge Family'' (2004), remained an unsold pilot. She followed this with a guest appearance in Louis C.K.'s HBO series ''Lucky Louie''. She auditioned to star as Claire Bennet in the NBC science fiction drama ''Heroes'' (2007) but was unsuccessful and later called this her "rock bottom" experience. In April 2007, she played Violet Trimble in the Fox action drama ''Drive'', but the show was canceled after seven episodes.

Stone made her feature film debut in Greg Mottola's comedy '' Superbad'' (2007), co-starring Michael Cera and Jonah Hill. The film tells the story of two high school students who go through a series of comic misadventures after they plan to buy alcohol for a party. To play the role of Hill's romantic interest, she dyed her hair red. A reviewer for ''The Hollywood Reporter'' found her to be "appealing", but felt that her role was poorly written. Stone has described the experience of acting in her first film as "amazing ... utvery different than other experiences I've had since then". The film was a commercial success, and earned her the Young Hollywood Award for Exciting New Face.

The following year, Stone starred in the comedy '' The Rocker'' (2008) playing Amelia Stone, the "straight face" bass guitarist in a band; she learned to play the bass for the role. The actress, who describes herself as "a big smiler and laugher", admitted that she found it difficult playing a character whose personality traits were so different from her own. The film, and her performance, received negative reviews from critics and was a commercial failure. Her next release, the romantic comedy ''The House Bunny'', performed better at the box office, becoming a moderate commercial success. The film saw her play the president of a sorority, and perform a cover version of the Waitresses' 1982 song " I Know What Boys Like". Reviews for the film were generally negative, but Stone was praised for her supporting role, with ''TV Guide''s Ken Fox stating she "is well on her way to becoming a star".

Breakthrough (2009–2011)

Stone appeared in three films released in 2009. The first of these was opposite Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Michael Douglas in Mark Waters' ''Ghosts of Girlfriends Past''. Loosely based on Charles Dickens' 1843 novella '' A Christmas Carol'', the romantic comedy has her playing a ghost who haunts her former boyfriend. Critical reaction to the film was negative, though it was a modest commercial success. Her most financially profitable venture that year was Ruben Fleischer's $102.3 million-grossing horror comedy film ''Zombieland'', in which she features alongside Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin. In the film, she appeared as a con artist and survivor of a zombie apocalypse, in a role which Chris Hewitt of ''Empire'' magazine thought was "somewhat underwritten." In a more positive review, Tim Robey of ''The Daily Telegraph'' found "the hugely promising Stone" to be "a tough cookie who projects the aura of being wiser than her years". Stone's third release in 2009 was Kieran and Michelle Mulroney's '' Paper Man'', a comedy-drama which disappointed critics.

Stone voiced an Australian Shepherd in ''Marmaduke'' (2010), a comedy from director Tom Dey, which is based on Brad Anderson's long-running comic strip of the same name. Her breakthrough came the same year with a starring role in ''Easy A'', a teen comedy directed by Will Gluck. Partially based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 historical romance novel ''The Scarlet Letter'', the film tells the story of Olive Penderghast (Stone), a high school student who becomes embroiled in a comic sex scandal after a false rumor circulates that she is sexually promiscuous. Stone read the script before the project was optioned for production, and pursued it with her manager while production details were being finalized. She found the script "so different and unique from anything I'd read before", saying that it was "funny and sweet". When Stone discovered that the film had begun production, she met with Gluck, expressing her enthusiasm for the project. A few months later, the audition process started and she met again with Gluck, becoming one of the first actresses to audition. The film received positive critical reviews, and Stone's performance was considered its prime asset. Anna Smith of '' Time Out'' wrote, "Stone gives a terrific performance, her knowing drawl implying intellect and indifference with underlying warmth." The film was a commercial success, grossing $75 million against its $8 million budget. Stone was nominated for a BAFTA Rising Star Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, and won the MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance.

In October 2010, Stone hosted an episode of NBC's late-night sketch comedy ''Saturday Night Live''; her appearances included a sketch playing off her resemblance to Lindsay Lohan. Stone described it as "the greatest week of my life". She hosted it again in 2011, appeared in an episode in 2014, and in its 40th anniversary special in 2015. A brief appearance in the sex comedy '' Friends with Benefits'' (2011) reunited her with Gluck. She followed this with a supporting role in Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's romantic comedy ''Crazy, Stupid, Love'' (2011) alongside Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Julianne Moore. The film featured her as a law school graduate, and the love interest of Gosling's character. Despite finding "some inevitable collapses into convention" in the film, Drew McWeeny of HitFix wrote that Stone "ties the whole film together". At the 2012 Teen Choice Awards, she won the Choice Movie Actress – Comedy award for her performance in the film. ''Crazy, Stupid, Love'' was a box office success, grossing $142.9 million worldwide against a production budget of $50 million.

Dismayed at being typecast as "the sarcastic interest of the guy", Stone co-starred with Viola Davis in Tate Taylor's period drama ''The Help'' (2011), a film she found challenging. The film is based on Kathryn Stockett's 2009 novel of the same name and is set in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi. She met with Taylor to express a desire to work on the film. The director said, " tonewas completely awkward and dorky, with her raspy voice, and she sat down and we got a little intoxicated and had a blast, and I just thought, 'God! God! This is Skeeter." She was cast as Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, an aspiring writer learning about the lives of the African-American maids. In preparation for the part, she learned to speak in a Southern accent and educated herself on the Civil Rights Movement through literature and film. With a worldwide gross of $216 million against a $25 million budget, ''The Help'' became Stone's highest-grossing film to that point. The film, and her performance, received positive reviews from critics. Writing for ''Empire'', Anna Smith thought Stone was "well-meaning and hugely likable" despite finding flaws in the character. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, and won Best Ensemble Cast from the Women Film Critics Circle and the Broadcast Film Critics Association.

''The Amazing Spider-Man'', ''Birdman'', and Broadway (2012–2015)

Stone turned down a role in the action comedy ''21 Jump Street'' after signing on to Marc Webb's 2012 film ''The Amazing Spider-Man'', a reboot of Sam Raimi's ''Spider-Man'' series. She portrayed Gwen Stacy, the love interest of the titular superhero (played by Andrew Garfield). Stone returned to her natural blonde hair color for the role, having dyed it red previously. She admitted to having never read the comics, and therefore felt responsible to educate herself about Spider-Man: "My experience was with the Sam Raimi movies ... I always assumed that Mary Jane was his first love", adding that she was only familiar with Stacy's character as portrayed by Bryce Dallas Howard in '' Spider-Man 3''. ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' was a commercial success and was the seventh highest-grossing film of the year with global revenues of $757.9 million. ''Entertainment Weekly''s Lisa Schwarzbaum found Stone to be "irresistible", and Ian Freer of ''Empire'' was particularly impressed with Stone's and Garfield's performances. At the annual People's Choice Awards ceremony, she was nominated for three awards, including Favorite Movie Actress. Later that year, Stone voiced a role in the crime-based video game '' Sleeping Dogs'', which earned her a Spike Video Game Award for Best Performance by a Human Female.

Stone began 2013 with a voice role in the DreamWorks Animation film ''The Croods'', which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. This followed with an appearance in ''Movie 43'', an anthology film which consists of sixteen short stories—she played the title role in the segment entitled "Veronica". She next starred alongside Ryan Gosling and Sean Penn in Ruben Fleischer's '' Gangster Squad'' (2013), a crime thriller set in Los Angeles during the 1940s. A. O. Scott of ''The New York Times'' dismissed the film as "a hectic jumble of fedoras and zoot suits", but praised Stone's pairing with Gosling. She expressed a desire to work with Gosling on more projects. In 2014, Stone reprised the role of Gwen Stacy in ''The Amazing Spider-Man 2''. She believed that her character did not depend on the film's protagonist, asserting: "She saves him more than he saves her. She's incredibly helpful to Spider-Man ... He's the muscle, she's the brains." Her performance was well received by critics; an ''Empire'' reviewer commended her for standing out in the film, writing, "Stone is the Heath Ledger of this series, doing something unexpected with an easily dismissed supporting character." The role won her the Favorite Movie Actress award at the 2015 Kids' Choice Awards. Later that year, Stone took on a role in Woody Allen's romantic comedy ''Magic in the Moonlight'', a modest commercial success. A. O. Scott criticized her role, and pairing with Colin Firth, describing it as "the kind of pedantic nonsense that is meant to signify superior intellect".

The black comedy-drama '' Birdman'', directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, was Stone's final film release of 2014. Co-starring Michael Keaton and Edward Norton, it featured her as Sam Thomson, the recovering-addict daughter of actor Riggan Thomson (Keaton), who becomes his assistant. Iñárritu created the character based on his experience with his daughter. ''Birdman'' was critically acclaimed, and was the most successful film at the 87th Academy Awards; it was nominated for nine awards, winning four, including Best Picture. The Movie Network deemed it one of Stone's best performances to date, and Robbie Collin of ''The Daily Telegraph'' found her to be "superb" and "tremendous" in her role, while also highlighting her monologue in the film which he believed to have been "delivered like a knitting needle to the gut." She received numerous accolades for her performance, including nominations for an Academy, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild, and a Critics' Choice Movie award for Best Supporting Actress.

From November 2014 to February 2015, Stone starred in a revival of the Broadway musical ''Cabaret'' as Sally Bowles, taking over the role from Michelle Williams. Deeming it "the most nerve-racking thing ever", Stone listened to a French radio station to mentally prepare herself for the role. Marilyn Stasio

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