The actress, who was born Emily Stone, attended the 2024 Cannes Film Festival on May 18
It’s not often that Emma Stone gets called by her real name.
During a press conference at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, May 18, the actress, 35, beamed when a reporter referred to her by her birth name of Emily.
Stone smiled brightly as the journalist made the name reference while asking her a question at the conference for her upcoming film Kinds of Kindness.
She then turned to the film’s director, Yorgos Lanthimos, excitedly telling him, “That’s my name!”
Stone revealed in an interview with Hollywood Reporter in April that she initially changed her real name professionally to Emma years ago because another actress was already going by Emily Stone.
When asked if anyone in her life ever refers to her by her birth name, Stone explained, “When I get to know them, people that I work with do.”
“It’s just because my name was taken [by another actress in SAG]. Then I freaked out a couple of years ago,” she continued. “For some reason, I was like, ‘I can’t do it anymore. Just call me Emily.’ ”
While Stone said she doesn’t mind being called either Emma or Emily, she noted that she prefers going by her real name. “That would be so nice. I would like to be Emily,” she said.
Kinds of Kindness marks Stone’s fifth movie with Lanthimos and her first with the director after her Oscar-winning role in Poor Things (2023).
The actress appears alongside Willem Dafoe, Joe Alwyn, Jesse Plemons, Margaret Qualley, Hunter Schafer and Hong Chau in the triptych fable, which follows a man attempting to control his life, a policeman whose missing wife has returned, and a woman searching for someone with a special ability.
Stone’s attendance at Friday’s conference for the film came after her dazzling red carpet appearance, when she wore a dazzling burgundy Louis Vuitton plunging gown.
The actress said during the conference she now has an “extreme comfort” in working with the film’s director Lantihimos, 50. (They will reteam again with Plemons, 36, for the upcoming Bugonia, which, according to a logline, follows two “conspiracy-obsessed young men” who “kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.”)
“I feel like I can do anything with him, because we’ve worked together so many times. I trust him beyond the trust I’ve ever had with any director,” Stone said. “… We just have something that I can’t explain, and I’m so grateful for it.”
Stone also shared that, as much as Lanthimos has mentioned her being his muse over the years, she also sees him as hers.
“I think he’s my muse. We’ve established that long ago,” she said. “I met him about 10 years ago … We had such a great time working together on The Favourite, and I’m drawn to his stories. I’m drawn to his films. I’m drawn to his way of seeing the world and the characters and the way he goes about all of it.”
“So it’s just been mad. I think we both feel that way. We do. We have similar taste too — who knew,” she added.
