”I’m into grilled cheese. Grilled cheese makes me feel beautiful!” – Emma Stone
Let’s face it, we all love Emma Stone, don’t we? With her beautiful hair, her huge doe eyes, husky voice, the girl-next-door demeanour, and brilliant acting performances, she pretty much has all of us head-over-heels for her. An Academy Award winner for Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, Emma Stone is undoubtedly one of the finest and most talented actors of our generation.
Right from the early beginnings in films like Zombieland and Easy A, to her Gwen Stacy days of The Amazing Spider-Man, and finally to her artistic crescendo in Birdman and La La Land: Emma Stone has never ceased to fascinate fans with her vivid portrayals of the diverse characters she plays on the screen.
Now the proud recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award, she was the world’s highest-paid actress in 2017. Stone has appeared in Forbes Celebrity 100 in 2013 and 2017, she was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
To delve deeper into the world of Emma Stone, we are exploring five of the best offerings currently streaming on Netflix.
Five best Emma Stone films on Netflix:
5. The Amazing Spider-Man (Mark Webb – 2012)
In this reboot of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man series, Emma Stone played Gwen Stacy, the love interest of Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker. As the smart and charismatic intern at Oscorp, she was arguably the best thing about the film; simply irresistible and stunning.
For the role, Stone kept her natural blonde hair colour, rather than maintaining her usual dyed red hair. Her acting chops and the sizzling chemistry with Andrew Garfield called for particular praise from the critics. Later, she explained that her character was not dependent on the film’s protagonist. “She saves him more than he saves her. She’s incredibly helpful to Spider-Man… He’s the muscle, she’s the brains.”
4. Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer – 2009)
Co-starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, and Abigail Breslin, Zombieland had the four of them playing survivors of a zombie apocalypse. Stone portrayed the con artist Wichita, Little Rock’s older sister and Columbus’s love interest who’s overly protective of her little sister.
Wickedly funny and outrageously entertaining, Zombieland ruled the box-office for continuous weeks while drawing critical appreciation for its unique approach to zombie-films. For Emma Stone, this film signalled her eye-catching talent, setting up the path for her inevitable success to come in the coming years.
3. Crazy, Stupid, Love (Glenn Ficarra, John Requa – 2011)
Crazy, Stupid, Love follows a recently divorced man (Steve Carell) who seeks to rediscover his manhood and is taught how to pick up women at bars. In a supporting role, the film features Emma Stone as a law school graduate and the love interest of Ryan Gosling’s character.
Despite the presence of comparatively more experienced stars in Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, and Steve Carell; Emma Stone quietly managed to hold her own and shined brightly tying the whole film together. Crazy, Stupid, Love also saw her pairing up with Ryan Gosling for the first time, with the two of them going on to work together again in Gangster Squad and La La Land.
2. Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu – 2014)
Iñárritu’s 2014 magnum opus Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is an astonishingly stunning work of existentialism and for ‘the search for meaning’ in the modern age articulated through the deteriorating mindscape of a washed-up movie star consumed by his artistic ego and who is inevitably heading towards an absurd end.
Co-starring Michael Keaton and Edward Norton, the film features her in an excellent performance as Sam Thomson, the recovering-addict daughter of actor Riggan Thomson (Keaton), who becomes his assistant. Iñárritu created the character based on his experience with his daughter. Birdman was critically acclaimed, and was the most successful film at the 87th Academy Awards; it was nominated for nine awards, winning four, including Best Picture.
1. La La Land (Damien Chazelle – 2016)
An exuberant and delightfully gorgeous film starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as an aspiring actress and jazz musician, La La Land showcases the very real struggle and life problems that crop up as they pursue their respective dreams, all juxtaposed with the dreamy Los Angeles in the background.
Stone starred as Mia Dolan, an aspiring actress living in Los Angeles. She borrowed several real-life experiences for her character, and in preparation, watched The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Undoubtedly her best performance till date, Stone won the Academy, BAFTA, Golden Globe, SAG Award, and Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her role in La La Land.
