OH, WATT A NIGHT!
Naomi & co-star Emma light up B’way
THAT’S A view you can’t get in L.A. Perched on the edge of the roof of Broadway’s historic St. James Theatre while filming her new movie, “Birdman,” Emma Stone enjoyed stargazing between takes at the celebrities arriving across W. 44th Street for the premiere of Tom Hanks’ “Lucky Guy.”
“From our vantage point we saw everyone arriving at the theater andd (co-star Edward d Norton)) was texting Tom Hanks,” Stone, 25, toldld the Daily News. .
“It was a very ry weird film-meets-theater experience that was ki kind d off perfect for the movie.”
In “Birdman,” which opens in New York on Friday, “Batman” veteran Michael Keaton stars as Riggan Thomas, an aging actor who’s trying to escape his past as a movie superhero by sinking all his money in a Broadway play that could give him new respectability.
Between the antics of his pampered co-star (Norton), the boyfriend of his fragile lead actress (Naomi Watts), and his drug-addicted daughter’s (Stone) cynicism, his comeback seems doomed.
It doesn’t help that he keeps hearing the taunting voice in his head from the superhero he once played egging himinto a breakdown.
Watts would’ve worked with director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who helped launch her career with “21 Grams” (2003), on an infomercial if he asked, but the 30-day shoot last year was extra special because it took place in her adopted hometown.
“If it were up to me, all my work would be shooting in New York,” says Watts, 46, who is set to start her fourth straight movie in the Big Apple, where she lives with partner Liev Schreiber and their two young sons.
This is where she’d always dreamed she’d end up while watching episodes of “Fame” that aired in Australia during her childhood.
“I got to ride my bike to set every day,” she said. “You wouldn’t be riding your bike to the set in L.A. unless you wanted to be four hours late.”
Despite the superhero plotline, make no mistake — this is no superhero flick even though Keaton and Norton, the artist formerly known a as Hulk, whipped up a fr frenzy at New York C Comic Con promoting th the film.
The thrill of workin ing on the same s stage where “Oklah homa” and “The K Ke King and I” debute ed wasn’t lost on S Stone, who will m MB make her real Broadway debut i in “Cabaret” n nextmonth.
It wasn’t that long ago that Stone wasa child visiting from Arizona with her family, sitting in a Broadway theater, watching the performance wide-eyed and deciding right then and there she wanted to be an actress.
“I was looking at every dusty nook and cranny of that dressing room,” she said.
The view wasn’t always so glamorous.
After a marathon night shoot, the limos for “Lucky Guy” — which was about The News’ Pulitzer winner Mike McAlary — were replaced by garbage trucks.
“Everything had to recorded over in (post-production),” said Stone, laughing.
“Only in New York can we shoot on a rooftop and you can’t even speak to anyone because it’s so damn loud at 4 o’clock in the morning.”