Who is Emma Stone?
It’s a question that has an array of different answers. Asked a mere five years ago, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who had a clue. Aside from a few brief appearances in Malcolm in the Middle and the Medium, she was an unknown, studying away at acting school, doing whatever she could to get herself noticed. Asked today, however, and most people would probably reply with something along the lines of “OLIVE PENDERGHAST FROM EASY A”. Okay, maybe not with quite that level of enthusiasm, but you catch my drift.
In a short, but suitably crazy, five years, Stone has reached the A-list. Plucked from relative obscurity to star in Judd Apatow’s 2007 comedy Superbad, she stole the show from right under the more established cast’s feet, giving everyone – and a lot of people watched – a taste of her zany, charming and provocative energy. Much to her, and everyone else’s surprise, it proved to be one of those career-making films, not just for Stone, but for most of her co-stars – Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen, in particular – and producer-extraordinaire Apatow, who has fast become one of the most prolific comedy producers in Hollywood.
From here, she landed a host of other roles: The Rocker, with Rainn Wilson and Christina Applegate; The House Bunny, playing the complete antithesis to the super-talented yet criminally underrated Anna Faris; and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, opposite Jennifer Garner and Matthew McConaughey. However, the role that did the most for her post-Superbad career was Zombieland. Appearing alongside Woody Harrelson and two other rising stars – Jesse Eisenberg and Abigail Breslin – the horror-comedy mash-up proved to be an astounding hit, elevating all three, but particularly Stone, to new heights.
It’s 2011, however, that’s proved to be her most successful year. Not only did she start it off with a bang by bagging a host of awards for Easy A, but she also found herself in three feature films: Friends with Benefits, Crazy, Stupid, Love (wasn’t having Julianne Moore as her mother the most perfect piece of casting, ever?) and The Help, all of which showcased her terrific range and work ethic as an actress.
So, where will 2012 take her? Well, it’s only the beginning of January and she’s already won herself two People’s Choice Awards and a Golden Globe nomination, cementing her status firmly in the A-list. In terms of films, she has the blockbuster The Amazing Spider-Man on the horizon. There’s also the interesting collaborative film project with the working title Movie 43, which will be comprised of short comedy segments. Finally, after her success with The Help, she will return to tackle more dramatic material in The Gangster Squad, reuniting with her Crazy, Stupid, Love co-star Ryan Gosling.
It’s an exciting time for the actress, who looks set to be propelled even further into the mainstream with the onslaught of films she has lined up this year. Not that that’s an issue, however, as she’s the first bold, brave and bolshy yet, somehow, still demure and innocent actress to have graced Tinseltown with her refreshing talent in years. And that, in my opinion, makes her all the more brilliant.
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