Culture Crash: Emma Stone & Her Meteoric Rise In Hollywood

WELCOME TO CULTURE CRASH, WHERE WE EXAMINE WHAT’S NEW AND OLD IN ENTERTAINMENT.

At this year’s Oscars, Emma Stone pulled off a bit of an upset to win Best Actress. In doing so, she entered a prestigious club of actors with multiple Oscars wins, joining the likes of Denzel Washington, Jane Fonda, and Tom Hanks with two. Only seven actors or actresses have ever won a third acting Oscar and only Katharine Hepburn has ever earned a fourth. Now, Emma Stone, just 35, has the rest of her life to try and join that even more rarified company.

Stone’s meteoric rise to the vaunted halls of Hollywood history began in an unlikely place, as her first movie role was in 2007’s Superbad. She followed that up with years of comedy acting that, to me, peaked with the 2010 hit Easy A, a delightful teen comedy that completely rests on Stone’s shoulders. Next was Friends with Benefits, then Crazy Stupid Love, and then came Stone’s dramatic breakthrough in The Help. After that, she jumped into the Hollywood franchise machine playing Gwen Stacy in two Spider-Man movies, and in 2014, she earned her first Oscar nomination in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).

When I think of Emma Stone, I think of quick-witted relatability, an everywoman who audiences latch onto as someone they want to be, or be with, or be her best friend. She broke hearts in La La Land, was delightful in the 101 Dalmatians spin-off Cruella, and put on a performance unlike anything I’ve ever seen before in Poor Things. And she’s immediately back to work, having already filmed her next collaboration with director Yorgos Lanthimos in Kinds of Kindness and currently filming on director Ari Aster’s next film, Eddington, along with Joaquin Phoenix, Austin Butler, and Pedro Pascal.

Emma Stone is a Hollywood legend at 35, and now we all get to watch her take us wherever she wants for the rest of her career. How lucky are we?