Back in 2016, news emerged that Emma Stone would play the iconic, fur-loving Cruella de Vil in Cruella, Disney’s live-action origin story for the villian. While no one ever doubted Stone’s acting skills, some did wonder how the funny, bright-eyed star of movies like Easy A and La La Land would gel with a character this, well, cruel. Now, Disney is offering an answer with its first look at Stone in costume, showing off the edgy, steam-punk direction of her character.
The official Walt Disney Studios social media account tweeted a picture of Stone on set on Saturday, showing off de Vil’s signature black-and-white hair—plus an updated wardrobe that includes a more modern leather jacket. “Here’s your first look at Emma Stone as Cruella de Vil in Disney’s Cruella,” Disney wrote, adding, “The film, also starring Emma Thompson, Paul Walter Hauser, and Joel Fry, comes to theaters May 28, 2021.”
The new movie will serve as a precursor to the 101 Dalmatians story and is supposed to follow de Vil’s early days in punky 1970s London, before she became an obsessive dog-napper. The original children’s book—written in 1956 by English novelist and playwright Dodie Smith—depicts de Vil as a mean heiress and former classmate of the dogs’ kind human owner, Mrs. Dearly. De Vil is supposed to have been a “menacing” student who got kicked out of school for drinking ink (hmm), so we’ll have to see how Stone brings that kind of unhinged energy to the screen.
Stone is taking the reins from powerhouse Glenn Close, who portrayed de Vil in Disney’s 1996 live-action version of the film. (There’s also the unforgettable animated cartoon, which came out in 1961.) It sounds like she has a ton of room to get creative during the production, which is being directed by I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie—we’ll be counting down to the premiere in the meantime.
Emma Stone’s next movie role is going to take you right back to your childhood — and that’s a good thing! According to The Hollywood Reporter, Emma has been cast as legendary Disney villainess Cruella de Vil in a new movie helmed by I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie.
The movie will play with timelines a bit: Disney’s animated 101 Dalmatians was set in the ‘50s or ‘60s, but this Cruella-centric film will flash forward to the ‘80s, and it is being referred to as an “origin story” about Cruella herself. THR describes the movie as “set in the early 1980s with a punk vibe.”
That means we probably won’t be seeing any of Roger, Anita, Pongo, Perdita, or their many, many puppies — this new movie is going to be all Cruella, all the time. The decade change means it’s possible that Cruella would be hunting for Dalmatian puppies in the present day, but we’re not sure if the movie will go there. All we know at the moment is that it’s set in the ‘80s and we’ll get a glimpse of young Cruella.
If anyone can breathe fresh life into the iconic Cruella and rock that outlandishly glam wardrobe, it’s Emma. She’ll be filling some pretty big shoes, too; remember the Glenn Close version of Cruella in the live-action 101 Dalmatians, back in 1996, which was just as fabulous as the animated version? We’ll probably get to see Cruella’s beginnings as a fashion designer, though we hope she opts to use faux fur for this installment.
Maybe we’ll get to see the exact moment when she dyes her hair half-white and half-black! It’s also the first time we’ll get to see the Oscar-winning Emma take on anything Disney, and we can’t wait. She brings magic to every role she plays, and we’re pretty sure that her interpretation of Cruella is going to be nothing short of marvelous.
If you’re eyeing a period costume for Halloween this year, heed Emma Stone‘s advice from the set of her latest film: Skip the historically accurate corset, no matter how historically accurate it may be.
Stone appeared on The Graham Norton Show show to promote her new film, The Favourite, in which she plays a member of Queen Anne’s court in 18th-century England. Getting into character apparently required that Stone wear a corset during filming, which had some unintended consequences. According to the actor, the corset caused her internal organs to move in her body—and it was very unpleasant.
“After about a month, my organs shifted because they have to,” Stone said in the interview. Her costumes, she said, pushed her organs far away from her ribs, and changed the shape of her body. “It was only temporary, but it was gross.” You can hear her describe the transformation in a clip from her interview, below.
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Shaping her body to 18th-century standards was a miserable experience for Stone. “It’s historically accurate, but I couldn’t fucking breathe!” she said of her costume. She developed a maneuver for making the corset feel somewhat wearable: She’d sniff menthol to calm down and think of “open spaces” while wearing it.
Stone joked about the effects of wearing a corset day in and day out—making it her first “corset role”—for filming. “It gives a new meaning to ‘my heart’s in my throat,'” she laughed. It also made her thankful for changes in women’s fashion since the 1700s—specifically, doing away with devices that shape women’s bodies to unrealistic standards.
“Women existed in that for such a long time and it does give you a lot of sympathy for that time period, what you were going through,” she said.
Stone says her organs have, thankfully, “gone back” to their usual positioning since wrapping the film and taking off her corset for good. Even with coping tactics, Stone doesn’t recommend wearing a corset—ever.
“If you don’t have to, don’t do it,” she said. Noted.
Emma Stone has always been very open about her anxiety. Way back in 2011, when she was first becoming known for her work in Superbad and Easy A and long before she became an Academy Award winner, she told Glamour about her mental health journey. “I had massive anxiety as a child,” she said at the time. “I was in therapy. From 8 to 10, I was borderline agora-phobic. I could not leave my mom’s side. I don’t really have panic attacks anymore, but I had really bad anxiety.”
Ever since, she’s continued to speak openly and frankly about mental health. The latest example? On Monday, October 1, she appeared alongside Child Mind Institute Co-Founder & President Harold Koplewicz for a discussion on mental health disorders and the stigmas that surround them. Titled “Great Minds Think Unalike,” the panel worked to shed light on the challenges of living with anxiety—which, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, affects 40 million adults each year (making it the most common mental illness in the U.S.).
On stage, Stone described the moment she had her first panic attack at seven years old. “Before I went into second grade, I had my first panic attack,” she said. “It was really, really terrifying and overwhelming; I was over at a friend’s house and all of a sudden I was absolutely convinced the house was on fire and it was going to burn down. I was just sitting in her bedroom, and obviously the house wasn’t on fire—but there was nothing in me that didn’t think we weren’t going to die.”
PHOTO: Jamie McCarthy/Getty
Suffering from what she and her mother later learned was a panic attack, Stone explains that these feelings of anxiousness continued for the next two years. “I couldn’t go to friends’ houses, I had deep separation anxiety with my mom…I was so paranoid about everything,” she explained. “We truly thought I wasn’t going to be able to move out of the house and move away ever. How would I go to college? How would I do any of this if I couldn’t be at a friend’s house for 5 minutes?”
As she grew older, Stone was able to better manage her anxiety, a skill she attributes to her supportive family and years of “transformative” therapy. It helped her realize that while the disorder was a part of her life, it did not define her. “It’s so normal,” she said. “Everyone experiences a version of anxiety or worry in their lives, and maybe we go through it in a different or more intense way for longer periods of time, but there’s nothing wrong with you.”
In fact, the Maniac actress said anxiety can be viewed in a positive light. “To be a sensitive person that cares a lot, that takes things in in a deep way is actually part of what makes you amazing, and is one of the greatest gifts of life,” she said. “You think a lot, you feel a lot, you feel deeply—it’s the best.”
When asked how she continues to manage her anxiety every day in the midst of her hectic production schedule, Stone explained that she sticks to a routine that works for her. “I go to a therapist, I meditate, and I talk to people very quickly now—instead of isolating I reach out.” Most of all, Stone said pushing herself outside of her comfort zone (as in: today’s panel) proves to be wholly restorative, especially if it means she’s able to help others. “[It’s] healing to just talk about it and own it and realize that this is something that is part of me, but it is not who I am,” she said. “And if that can help anybody…if I can do anything to say ‘Hey, I get it, and I’m there with you, and you can still get out there and achieve dreams and form really great relationships and connections,’ then I hope I’m able to do that.”
It might be fall, but Emma Stone brought a little bit of spring to the New York Film Festival premiere of her new movie The Favourite. And by that, we mean she wore an actual bouquet of roses in her hair.
The gorgeous look is courtesy of Mara Roszak, a partner-slash-owner of the Mare Salon in West Hollywood, California. “How fun is this? Fresh roses in hair!? #EmmaStone for the premiere of @thefavouritemovie,” Roszak posted to Instagram on Friday (September 28), alongside two photos of Stone’s red hair decked out with nearly a dozen bright red and yellow roses. Roszak opted to style Stone’s hair long and wavy so the roses almost look like they form a vine that cascades from the top of her head.
Take a look at it for yourself, below.:
Here’s the style photographed from the front. See the roses poking out?
PHOTO: Getty Images
And another shot from the back of Stone’s head. Beauty and the Beast is shaking.
PHOTO: Getty Images
Finally, a shot from Stone’s profile, so you can see all the gorgeous roses in action.
PHOTO: Getty Images
The dreamily romantic look also showed up at New York Fashion Week’s Rodarte show this year, and Jennifer Lawrence also wore a batch of fresh flowers in her hair at the premiere of her movie Mother! last year. Perhaps Stone drew a little inspiration from her famous best friend—but whatever the case, it’s a stunning look.
Stone stars alongside Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, and Joe Alwyn (yep, Taylor Swift’s boyfriend) in The Favourite, which hits theaters everywhere on November 23.
Greta Gerwig‘s reported next project is on track to be a big one. The writer, director, and actor made history last year when she became only the fifth woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for best director for Lady Bird. Now, she might be onto something just as amazing: Columbia Pictures’ remake of Little Women.
Gerwig first joined Columbia’s adaptation of Little Women in 2016 to do a rewrite of the script’s first draft, but Variety reports Sony was so impressed with Lady Bird, executives are trying to win Gerwig over to make Little Women . The company is reportedly even ramping up pre-production to compel her to take the lead on the film.
Several major actors are said to be in talks to join the cast, including Meryl Streep, Emma Stone, Saoirse Ronan, and Timothée Chalamet. If everything falls into place, this would mark a reunion for Ronan and Chalamet, who both starred in Gerwig’s Lady Bird.
If Gerwig takes on Little Women, it would be her second project as a solo director. (She co-directed a film with Joe Swanberg in 2008.) The novel by Louisa May Alcott, following four sisters in post-Civil War America, has been adapted a number of times, with the 1994 adaptation starring Winona Ryder receiving the most attention.
This is all the information we have so far about this remake, but it looks like it’s coming at a convenient time for all. Streep will most likely wrap work on season two of HBO’s Big Little Lies soon; Stone’s next big role in The Favourite will hit theaters in November; Ronan recently finished production in Mary Queen of Scots; and Chalamet recently began filming his next project, Netflix’s The King.
