Emma Stone names the greatest comedy actors of all time: “People I grew up loving”

Despite becoming known for her expansion into the world of Greek Weird Wave cinema, Emma Stone established her roots within the realm of comedic acting, starring in cult classic films such as Superbad and Easy A as a teenager and gradually building on her work to become one of the biggest powerhouses in the film industry today.

From the romantic old Hollywood charm of La La Land to the bizarre absurdism of Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness, Stone has been on a journey of constant evolution from the beginning, showing that no task is too intimidating to conquer and dazzling everyone with her limitless talents and depth.  

However, while she has been focusing her talents on absurdist cinema in recent years, perhaps are a result of the creative freedom it offers her and through becoming the official muse of Yorgos Lanthimos, Stone still loves comedy and the comfort of the genre that sparked her career, describing the comedic actors who most inspired her.

Like many performers, Stone was struck by inspiration from a young age, leading her to pursue a career on the stage and imitate the careers of those she most admired. Despite the fact that her career has spiralled into a new direction, collaborating with strange auteurs such as Lanthimos, Nathan Fielder and Ari Aster and overseeing new projects as a producer, there is still an element of humour that runs through these films, albeit just a darker and more twisted kind.

Films like Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness are very much defined by their nihilistic outlook, challenging audiences through portraying dark events in a blasé and light-hearted way, almost forcing us to laugh at something we know isn’t funny, whether it be someone slicing off their own thumb or casually hitting someone with a car.

Stone’s early roots in the comedic genre are prominent in all of her new projects, perhaps acting as more of a reflection on the times we live in now by turning tragedies into spectacles, mocking the nature of watching and the current phenomenon on social media in which we create entertainment out of complex and objectively wrong situations.

But when looking at her current work, you can very much see hints of qualities from the performers that inspired her to delve into the business, with Stone saying, “Gilda, Bill Murray, Steve Martin, Gene Wilder—those were the people I grew up loving. John Candy might be my acting hero. He’s the perfect example of what we were talking about with Fran Kubelik—of someone who can find the humour in the dramatic moments. He just has that broken mirror within him all the time. You can feel it. I’d love to be that kind of an actor. Gene Wilder is that way, too. Gilda was that way. Steve Martin . . . The funniest ones are”.

All of these comedians were symbolic of a specific era in the entertainment business, despite the fact that their work still resonates with people today. Perhaps this quality of timelessness is something that Stone also carries into her work, aiming not to capture one moment in time but create stories that reflect persistent human struggles and moral dilemmas, and doing so through the art of subversive comedy.