With those big blue eyes that enchanted the world in hits such as La La Land, Birdman, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Golden Globe winner Emma Stone is now ready to show that she can also play mean, and do it well.
Playing the title role in Cruella as the younger version of the fur-crazy vamp from Disney’s classic cartoon 101 Dalmatians, this time around she is about to go head-to-head with the more sophisticated designer Baroness von Hellman (Emma Thompson). Presenting herself in extravagant gowns and over-the-top black and white wig, Stone plays villainess Estella/Cruella de Vil with gusto, bringing heartbreak and laughter in equal measure for this grown-up version of a children’s classic.
“It’s definitely dark. Maybe not a really intense kind of R-rated film but definitely darker than I’ve seen a Disney movie for a good long time,” said lead star Stone in a press conference ahead of the release of Cruella, last May. “Villains, in the end, are always fun to portray, since they have a license to do everything out of the playbook.”
For this role, Emma, now at 31, received her sixth Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress in a Motion Picture-Comedy – the same category for which she won a Golden Globe in 2017 for her role of Mia, the aspiring actor in love with musician Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) in Damien Chazelle‘s La La Land.  She got other nods: Birdman (2015), The Favourite (2019), Battle of the Sexes (2018) and Easy A, her well received breakthrough role from 2011. 
Emma Stone was born on November 6, 1988, in Scottsdale, Arizona. While still a child, she began acting as a member of the Valley Youth Theater in Phoenix, where she made her stage debut in a production of The Wind in the Willows. She appeared in many more productions through her early teens until, at the age of fifteen, she decided that she wanted to make acting her career.
At age 15, Emma convinced her parents to move to Los Angeles so that she could pursue her career in film. She soon landed roles in TV in series such as In  Search of the Partridge Family (2004) and Drive (2007). Her film debut was as Jules in Superbad (2007) and, after a string of successful performances, landed the leading role in Easy A (2010). She was now a certifiable star.
The actress lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Dave McCary, a comedian who is also a writer and director. Recently, Stone became a mother of baby daughter Louise Jean. She’s now filming the romance/sci-fi Poor Things, with Margaret Qualley and Willem Dafoe about a young woman brought back to life by an eccentric scientist. This seems like a tailor-made role for Stone’s immense energy.
“I loved the character of Cruella,” Stone continued. “I don’t mean I love the things that drove her. Because she’s, obviously, a very sick woman. Yet, I found the character very interesting. I never had the chance to play a character as stylish and dangerously obsessed as her. I had a blast.”
Cruella reveals the story of how a nonconforming young woman is pushed to the dark side due to extraneous circumstances. “It’s a very Nature vs. Nurture story,” explained Stone. “I think it’s really a movie about how your weaknesses do, sort of, become your strengths.”