The only character Emma Stone didn’t want to let go of: “I was devastated”
What a career Emma Stone has already had in just under two decades of being in the industry. The summer of 2007 feels like just yesterday when she caught everyone’s eye, appearing as Jules in the teen-comedy Superbad. Since then, she’s continued to appear in many comic roles, which have propelled her into dramas, thereby showcasing her versatility as an actress to audiences.
Stone now has the label of a two-time Academy Award-winning actress on her resume, before she’s even turned 40. Some don’t even get to do that in their entire life. Her first golden statue came from her role in 2016’s La La Land, playing opposite Ryan Gosling. If you thought her dance numbers and her side of a wrong place, wrong time love story in the film were the pinnacle, you clearly have not seen 2023’s Poor Things.
Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos are a director-actor match made in heaven. The pair’s chemistry and eagerness to push boundaries and have a ton of fun doing it are clear as day in the film. Hence why she took her second Oscar for the role of Bella Baxter, a woman “Frankensteined” to life by Dr Godwin Baxter, played expertly by Willem Dafoe. Poor Things follows Stone’s performance as Bella across multiple continents as she evolves from a young woman with no basic comprehension of speech to a self-actualised one, aware of the merits of equality and liberation. Additionally, it’s a role that she believes is her favourite one in her career.
Lanthimos offers an absurdist perspective on female liberation, and the point is conveyed effectively through Stone’s notably vulnerable performance, as is the critical consensus as well. In an interview with Woman’s Day, she discussed her work with the director, as shortly after the release of Poor Things came another project in which the two collaborated, 2024’s Kinds of Kindness. Stone was asked whether it is hard to say goodbye to characters and if she would ever revisit some of her past performances.
The answer was simple: “Bella [from Poor Things],” Stone said, stating, “I don’t think I should revisit her, but that is the only character that I was devastated to let go of”. Devastated is a powerful word to describe the process of letting go of a character you invested so much time in as an actress, making it clear that she put all of herself into bringing the role to life.
And truly, how could she forget about a character like Bella? To date, it’s her most iconic performance, and she has a long list to choose from. Poor Things takes place in a world that we haven’t seen onscreen since the German expressionism era of silent films, and Stone’s performance blended her style of physical comedy with the ability to give what seems like an obscure role a lot of depth to make it relatable.
The Oscar winner may have found the director she needs to elevate her career to the kind of memorable roles she is looking to take on, and surely we’ll see her in more collaborations with Lanthimos. For now, she’ll soon be seen in art-house horror filmmaker Ari Aster’s upcoming film, Eddington, for what will definitely be yet another stunning performance.
