Stars paid their dues,
New movie brings back Hollywood memories. She made dog treats; he crashed on friends’ couches
They own this LOS ANGELES town now.
But when Ryan Gosling, 36, and Emma Stone, 28, moved to Hollywood in their teens, they struggled much like the young artists they portray in their critically hailed new musical La
La Land (in theaters Friday in New York and Los Angeles, expands to additional cities Dec. 16).
When Stone arrived here at 15, “I didn’t have anything to compare it to. It was so different from (Scottsdale) Arizona, where I was from,” she recalls.
In the film, hopeful Mia (Stone) shares a rental with three other aspiring actresses; the pricklier Sebastian (Gosling) lives in a shoddy apartment amid boxes mostly unpacked.
That’s finer fare than Gosling had when the Canadian arrived in Hollywood at 16. He crashed on “a lot of floors,” he says. “The occasional couch.”
Stone lived in a concrete MidCity complex called Park La Brea, “and I worked at Three Dog Bakery making dog treats. I auditioned a lot until I didn’t get any auditions for, like, months. That was my beginning in L.A.”
Director Damien Chazelle ( Whiplash) worked those early, humble days into his script.
“As Emma and Ryan would jokingly put it, we got in therapy mode. We shared our feelings and talked about the ups and downs of moving to L.A.,” says Chazelle, 31, who was raised in Providence. “I wanted to hear what Ryan and Emma’s worst audition experiences were. I wanted to hear about some of those painful rejections that still linger.”
Cue montages of Mia pushing herself through torturous auditions, including a memorable casting call in which she’s curtly interrupted just as she’s worked her way to tears. It’s a story borrowed from Gosling.
If there are scars, the two hide them well. Gosling, now a father of two with Eva Mendes, has just flown in from the Budapest set of the Blade Runner 2049 sequel. Stone recently wrapped production playing Billie Jean King in
Battle of the Sexes. Gosling says he never thought success would find him back then. “But I thought it was worth pursuing as long as I could. It always happened in small increments for me. I would get a job, whatever it was, and it would keep me afloat until the next job.”
Stone says she, too, didn’t have a backup plan in early days. “I probably would have gone to school, which I did not,” she says. “But I don’t know what I would have wanted to do. Maybe write? But I never really fully thought it through, what would happen if (acting didn’t pan out).”
Struggle and crisis in belief is woven into La La Land, which Chazelle (whose musical was solidly rejected for six years) calls a love letter to Los Angeles, a town that has ultimately propelled all three to fame. “I wanted to set a fairy tale in real life or do a musical that engaged with the ups and downs of real life,” says Chazelle.
With awards prediction site GoldDerby.com forecasting major Oscar attention for La La Land, this can’t be the last time Stone and Gosling (who have now worked on three films together) partner up. Right?
“Next weekend,” Stone deadpans. Gosling grins: “If they’ll let us.”