Emma Stone stars in The Help as Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan, an aspiring writer who decides to tell the story of the maids who never get a voice in the households they impact. In 1960s Mississippi, this is a bold idea that threatens a lot of the pro-segregation establishment.
Stone discussed the film with me at the film's Los Angeles press junket. She graciously offered me any snack or drink I might desire, though I wanted to get right to interviewing. Her dramatic turn in The Help, the romantic comedy Crazy Stupid Love released on July 29th, and the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man gave us plenty to discuss.
Emma Stone The Help Interview
You’re a modern girl. How hard is it to get into another era?
Emma Stone: "I mean, I felt pretty lucky that Skeeter was a relatively modern girl. More than anything, that dialect was the difficult part for me."
Is that why you became an actor, to explore different times and places?
Emma Stone: "Not different times and places necessarily, but to explore different people and get to live as different people and access parts of myself through other characters. To tell stories. Growing up, movies affect me so deeply and so greatly, as I’m sure they did you. You write about them. That’s what I’d want to be doing if I wasn’t an actress, writing about movies, because I love, love, love going to see movies. I feel so fulfilled when I’m in a movie theater watching something or learning something. So multiple reasons, I guess, why I became an actor."
What is your sense of the ‘60s and Mississippi and the Civil Rights era?
Emma Stone: "I didn’t have a very extensive knowledge of this time period whatsoever. I was realizing in the midst of one of those roundtables, I remember sitting and learning about European history or learning about the ancient Romans. I don’t remember us talking that much about this period of civil rights, even though it just happened and it affects our culture as Americans so much today. I remember the story of Rosa Parks and I remember learning about Martin Luther King, but that was about it. That was about all I knew. Thanks to this movie and thanks to getting to be part of this experience, it really brought up so much that I didn’t know and that I got to learn and that I’m so grateful now that I learned and has informed my present so much more. It was pretty limited before this."
Even when I was in school, I took it for granted that this already happened, segregation ended, and it was even more recent history when I was in middle school.
Emma Stone: "And you wouldn’t even think of it that schools wouldn’t be integrated or that it would be even a thought. It’s kind of like, I won’t speak about political things, but it’s kind of like gay marriage now. I hope to God that our children don’t ever see anything, like why would that ever be an issue?"
And how do people not look back and see that there were people against women’s suffrage and desegregation, but it happened and we’re okay now?
Emma Stone: "Yeah. Isn’t that funny? Women can vote, all of these things. How was it ever not the case? It’s shocking and fascinating. I can only hope that one day everyone gets what they deserve which is equal rights among all human beings. You should be born into equality. You shouldn’t have to earn it."
Can’t we speed through the process?
Emma Stone: "I really wish we could. I really wish we could."
We know how Hollywood is. Did you have to sell yourself as a dramatic actor?
Emma Stone: "I always see so much of comedy as heartbreaking. I think the thing about comedy is it kind of has to be played for truth in order to genuinely be funny. So comedy’s very dramatic to me, in my mind, at least the way I approach it. I think Tate [Taylor, writer/director] could see that because he loves comedy clearly and loves humor, but I think could also understand that side of it. To me, in every comedy there’s so many heartbreaking elements and in every drama, there’s so many funny elements - just like life. Not every day is purely sad. Not every day is purely happy. We have a balance for all those emotions as human beings. Thankfully, Tate was trusting and understanding. Just because he hadn’t seen me do something along those lines before didn’t mean that he didn’t want to cast me, which I’m so, so grateful for. I do understand if you haven’t seen someone do something."
How different can The Amazing Spider-Man actually be? We know it’s in 3-D and it’s Gwen Stacy this time, but how different can it really be?
Emma Stone: "I don’t know, you’ll have to see. With that movie, it’s hard because I don’t want to build up expectation or diminish expectation so I kind of want to let that movie speak for itself. Next summer I’m sure I’ll have to come up with some better answers but right now everyone will see little bits of it at Comic-Con. It’ll be interesting to see everyone react."
Is Gwen a juicy part for you?
Emma Stone: "I really liked playing Gwen, yeah. It was interesting and great. Most of my scenes are with Peter [played by Andrew Garfield], which is fantastic. We’ll see how it turns out."
You’ve done some action-oriented movies, but is it a whole other scale to be on a comic book movie set?
Emma Stone: "I mean, it’s big. It’s physically big. We were on big soundstages at Sony. There’s big blue screens and it’s a big crew. There’s big rigs so it’s big, but other than that, when it comes to the acting, when it comes to doing the scenes, it feels like it would on a movie of any size. It’s about the truth of the characters and simplifying."
Will there be an upside down kiss?
Emma Stone: [Laughing] "You’ll have to wait and see."
You’ve gotten that question before?
Emma Stone: "Yeah, I have. There’s a lot of upside down kiss questions."
You decided to pass on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Would that have just been too many franchises?
Emma Stone: "I don’t know. That script is so funny. That script is hilarious so I’m excited to see that movie. That’s all."
Did Crazy, Stupid, Love undo that Hollywood cliché where a “player” wins over the “by the books” girl?
Emma Stone: "I’m never like, 'I love this movie.' I love Crazy, Stupid, Love. It’s a completely original romantic comedy, which is so rare, and I love romantic comedies. It covers love in so many different perspectives. It covers so many different love stories. It’s the story of a woman who cheated on her husband and you’re rooting for them to get back together. It’s crazy. It’s different than anything I’ve ever seen. It’s so well thought out and it’s such a lovely movie. It’s really great. It’s different. It turns a lot on its ear."
Talking about loving movies and talking about movies, when you get to a Vanity Fair photo shoot, what part of the work is that?
Emma Stone: "That’s the part of the work that I never really examined or thought about, I guess, because it didn’t ever seem like that would be a reality in my life. So that’s still kind of like an odd, surreal experience whenever that happens. I mean, it’s very flattering and it’s incredibly kind of those magazines to include me, but it’s really bizarre and something that I kind of leave behind once the photo shoot portion is over."
Can you enjoy it as an extension of the movie promotion?
Emma Stone: [Laughing] "It’s embarrassing to be in a bikini, pretty much across the board."
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The Help opens in theaters on August 10, 2011.