Monday, March 20, 2017

'La La Land' Star Emma Stone on the Evolution of Her Acting

I feel very excited as of late for what's to come, whether it works or not." I can't say enough how much I adore Damien Chazelle's musical La La Land. It's an exhilarating cinematic experience, full of so much joy and happiness, along with superb dancing and exuberant singing and beautiful sets and gorgeous sunsets. Aside from Ryan Gosling, the other co-star of La La Land is Emma Stone. Her first big break out role was playing Jules in Superbad back in 2007, and over the nearly 10 years since she's earned an Academy Award nomination (for Birdman) and worked with some of the best filmmakers around. I was lucky to spend 15 minutes chatting with Emma about her career and her work on La La Land and it was an absolute delight.




I met Emma at the Telluride Film Festival only days after La La Land had premiered there (and at the Venice Film Festival). I fell head over heels for La La Land at Telluride, writing in my glowing review that "I want everyone else to witness this grand accomplishment and feel as inspired and as amazed by it as I am." Stone is wonderful in the film, and I am glad I had a few minutes to talk with her about it. She responded: "No… I'm the opposite." Nevertheless, she was as charming as ever and did her best to answer my questions. Let's begin…

Are you where you want to be in your career now? Are you where you felt like you would be?
Emma Stone: Yes. I guess, yes. Yeah, I feel really excited and reinvigorated – I guess is the word for it. I got to do "Cabaret" and that's set on stage in New York and that reset my brain in the craziest way. It was so amazing. And then I did La La and then I did this movie, The Battle of the Sexes, the tennis movie I was telling you about. And it's been just an amazing past year and a half on those three projects. And it's been really, really – it's gotten me so excited about everything. Not that I wasn't before, but I feel reinvigorated.
Do you have more of a chance to do what you want nowadays?
Emma: I think I'm clearer on what that is nowadays. So I don't know if it's a more of a chance or just more of – I think things are easier when you're clearer on the kind of experience you want to have and not as… Maybe at certain points I felt like, of course, I should attempt something because of a variety of factors. And now I feel a little more aware of a sense of what I might be able to bring to the table, rather than the outside coming in. Maybe that's maturity. 
I think it is maturity…
Emma: Not that I haven't felt that way before. On Easy A, I was so dead set on doing that. I mean, after that I was like a crazy person.
Right, that film seems like a major turning point for you.
Emma: Yeah, and it was very that yeah… With La La Land, Damien did come and talk to me about it and we had such a long dialogue about this movie. That went on for a while and he was very patient and I was asking him every question in the world because I was wondering… I don't know, I just had a lot of questions and he made it make sense. And that was a very lucky thing that came my way.
Do you now have any say in the filmmakers you work with? Or are you more aware of who you're going to work with? Do you prefer certain ones? Alejandro Iñárritu [director of Birdman], is an example of someone that people want to work with because there's a certain experience working with certain filmmakers.
Emma: Absolutely. Over the past couple years, there's been a variety of filmmakers that I worked with and learned a lot in the process of just how different everybody can be. I've been working – this is very strange to say, but my first movie was 10 years ago.  So in having worked for that amount of time I've seen different kinds of experiences and known what to, you know, look out for and not look out for but to be honest with you, that hasn't really necessarily changed the experience of making the film itself.
Really?
Emma: At the end of the day, yeah, because things can happen on set that were never originally planned. That are unexpected and confusing, or unexpected and amazing, or… You never really know. As much as you can talk to people about their experiences of working with someone or even if you've worked with a person before, it can… It's just, it's a crazy thing. But I guess that is that way for probably every job, right?
Yeah, I think so. What you're saying is that there's the potential for discovery through what happens on set and… if something goes wrong or something is different than what you expect, it could still turn out great in the end?
Emma: Yeah. Or it could not…
Yes, that's true too.
Emma: You know? So you can… Going in with your heart open and your eyes clear, I think that's been a good [focus]…
That's the best way to proceed.
Emma: Yeah. I think — staying clear eyed.

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