Emma Stone gets even n
The actress has her eye on the prize
LaLaLand star Emma Stone grins from ear to ear as she recalls the night she received her Best Actress Academy Award from her childhood crush, Leonardo DiCaprio. It may be seven months ago, but she recalls that incredible moment as though it were yesterday.
“I was a huge Titanic fan growing up and I had a framed picture signed by Leonardo DiCaprio in my room,” admits Emma, talking with Woman’sDay to promote her new film BattleoftheSexes.
“To walk up on stage to Leo and have him hand me an Oscar was one of the craziest moments of my life! I felt like a little kid in my bedroom who suddenly y g got
the chance to hang out with the guy in the poster on my wall and that was insane!”
Emma’s breakthrough role came in 2012’s TheAmazing
Spider-Man, which also saw her dating her English co-star Andrew Garfield. The secretive couple were together for three years, but neither ever commented on the romance.
Now, despite rumours of a reunion with Andrew, we hear Emma’s actually seeing
SaturdayNightLive writer Zack Bornstein. “They’re a sweet, slightly goofy couple,” reports a friend. “They’ve probably only been on seven or eight dates, so it’s early days, but there’s a real spark and Emma feels comfortable.”
Either way, the actress plays down the pressure she feels trying to keep her love life under the radar. “There are days that are a struggle with my loss of anonymity and I think that’s probably the hardest element of this job,” Emma shrugs. “But I love this job more than anything,an so there’s only so much complaining you can do about something like that.”
Her new film Battleof
is the story of the famous s 1973 tennis match between women’s world champion Billie Jean King, played by Emma, and ex-men’s champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs, played by Steve Carell.
Emma looks sheepish when asked how familiar she was with Billie Jean and the match, which is one of the most-watched televised sports events of all time.
Courtstrouble
“I didn’t know much about it because I wasn’t even alive during the match!” she says. “But that means most of my generation is also unaware, and it’s an opportunity for them to learn about these people and this match that was a hugely historical sporting event.
“I was honoured to play this woman who did so much to fight for equality. She helped create a path of equality and equal prize money for women.”
This opens the door for a question rarely asked in celebrity interviews: Was she paid the same salary as Steve on this film?
“I don’t always dig into what everybody’s contracts are and it’s tricky because it can be affected by budgets or other circumstances,” Emma says cautiously. “But yes, as far as it goes for Steve and I on this film, we were paid equally. The conversation is an incredibly important one to have. Pay equality matters, so it was nice on this film to have it.”
The Arizona native moved to Hollywood as a teenager to pursue her acting dreams. But unlike her character Billie Jean, Emma confesses she never had a competitive drive when it came to sports.
“I wasn’t an athlete growing up and one of the funny things about learning tennis for the film was that my coach had to tell me at one time I should count the points because I’d forget about the score and didn’t care if I was winning or losing,” she recalls with a giggle.
“Growing up, I really liked to spell, so I’d be very angry if I lost a spelling bee. I guess it means somewhere inside me there is some kind of competitive spirit!”
The actress, who also appeared in TheHelp, Easy
A and MidnightinParis, says she considers herself a winner when it comes to the support she gets from her parents and close friends, old and new.
“Jennifer Lawrence has become a great friend because she’s someone I can talk to about things that other people might not understand,” says Emma. “But I’m pretty good at knowing who are the people who would be friends with me no matter what kind of job I had.
“My real name is Emily, but that name was taken when I registered with the Screen Actors Guild, so I became Emma. If someone calls me Emily, then they’re one of my real friends.”