You know her as Emma Stone, who graced us with her presence most recently by winning the Oscar for her Poor Things performance. But fans of the award-winning actress like myself know that the star’s real name is actually Emily Stone. Funnily enough, a reporter at Cannes ended up calling Stone by her real name, and she had such a sweet reaction to that.
There are a number of huge stars who don’t use their real names. It could be that they either want a cool name, or there’s just someone else in the union with that same name already. At the Cannes press conference of Emma Stone’s Poor Things follow-up Kinds of Kindness, a reporter accidentally referred to the Easy A actress as “Emily,” only for another reporter to correct him with “Emma.” But there are no hard feelings to be had here, as the talented actress had a sweet reaction to the mistake which you can see in this Instagram video below:
Technically, the reporter didn’t make a mistake, as one of the many reasons to love Emma Stone is her real name actually is Emily. In fact, she said she’d love it if people called her by her real name. This is especially true if these are people who have gotten to know The Amazing Spider-Man actress and have worked closely with her. I can't say I blame her, as I'm sure celebrities don't want people calling them by a stage name 24/7 compared to their genuine given name.
The reason why Emma Stone changed her name in the first place was because there was another SAG actress with the name Emily Stone. By keeping her birth name, it would violate the union’s rule that no two actors can have the same working name. When it came to thinking of a new name at the age of 16, the Golden Globe winner loved the idea of having any name she wanted. During a guest spot on Malcolm in the Middle, she originally leaned toward “Riley” until she had no idea who was talking to her when people would try to get her attention. After that, Stone decided to stick with what we know her by and what her mom calls her - Emma.
Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos’ third movie together, Kinds of Kindness is, an anthology film covering three storylines with the actors playing different characters in each story. One plot will follow a man trying to take back control of his life, another will follow a policeman’s missing wife coming back as a seemingly “new person,” and a third will follow a woman who is seeking out a “spiritual leader” in her life.
Emma Stone reunites with her Poor Things co-star Willem Dafoe, as well as co-stars with Jesse Plemons, Margaret Qualley, Mamoudou Athie and more. As anthology works like Black Mirror seem to hit the right notes with fans, this will be a great opportunity to see the versatile acting chops of the cast as well as Lanthimos continuing to stretch out his creativity.
Based on Emma Stone’s seemingly complimented expression when a reporter called her by her real name “Emily,” I think now we know how she likes to be called. I’m sure calling an actress by her real name is much more personal compared to always being referred to by their professional name. It also must be music to their ears if they've been hearing their given name less often because of their career.
Make sure to watch the 2024 movie release of Kinds of Kindness coming to theaters on June 21st.
