The moment Emma Stone “understood the power of music”
There are very few popular actors that you could award the title of ‘cool’, and that label remain largely unquestioned by the majority. It’s a small set of figures that includes the likes of Colin Farrell, Winona Ryder and Chloë Sevigny, with their oeuvres reflecting the point. Emma Stone is one of the finest in this set, who has consistently switched between mainstream features and indie titles, a transition that fully demonstrates her creative dexterity. Stone first endeared herself to fans in movies such as Superbad and Zombieland in the 2000s before moonlighting as a substantiated star in 2016’s La La Land.
Since that moment, Stone has continued to perfect her craft. In 2021, she delivered what many of her fans hail as one of her definitive performances as the young version of Cruella de Vil, in Cruella, an origin story of the 101 Dalmations antagonist. Set amidst the London punk scene of the 1970s, the performance instilled a new edge into the character that Glenn Close most famously played in 101 Dalmations.
Although many consider Stone primarily as an actor, she is much more than this, and when speaking to The Talks, she was asked to reflect on the moment she first understood “the power of music”. Stone then discussed her love of the form and revealed that she finds singing a much better medium of “expressing feelings” than speaking, a feeling she attributes to the impact of her mother playing Les Misérables when she was young.
Stone said: “My mom would play Les Misérables in our house when I was growing up. She told me the story and then I saw it on stage when I was eight, and it was transformative for me. I loved it. After that, singing became a medium of expressing feelings that was so much bigger than just saying it.”
Stone was then asked whether this was when she started performing in the theatre, to which she reflected: “I did do musicals growing up, but dance is probably my favourite art form. I took dance for ten years — mostly tap classes. I was never a technically proficient dancer, I couldn’t be a ballerina, you know? I couldn’t execute a lot of that stuff, so acting really spoke to me in a different way.”
Adding: “I think I connected with being able to bring to life what I wanted to more with acting. Performing helped me as a kid to channel my energy somewhere else, to put it out instead of turning it inward. Acting is therapy, especially as a kid, it was nice to have an outlet like that when I was really struggling with panic attacks. Being on stage early on made me less afraid to try things that are challenging and scary”.
