"RE-RELEASE: Emma Stone"

What It Covers

Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett interview Emma Stone on SmartLess, covering her career path from building GeoCities websites at 14 to winning an Oscar for La La Land, alongside discussions of her new projects The Curse and Poor Things, personal health struggles, and her lifelong Spice Girls obsession.

Key Questions Answered

• •Career reinvention through appearance: Emma Stone dyed her hair from blonde to brown at 15 to escape typecasting as a cheerleader-adjacent character, then dyed it red for Superbad after a casting director suggested differentiation from a brown-haired co-star. Deliberate physical changes to break out of narrow casting categories can open unexpected career doors.
• •Bone density and physical resilience: Stone broke seven bones before age 30, including her shoulder in two places after slipping on hardwood floors in heeled boots. Her endocrinologist prescribed high-dose vitamin D, calcium supplementation, and regular weight-bearing exercises — specifically heavy lifting — as the primary interventions for improving low bone density.
• •Stage work versus screen work demands: Stone performed in Cabaret for three and a half months and describes live theater as categorically more physically taxing than film work. Eight shows per week, including two-show Wednesdays and Saturdays, requires monk-like lifestyle discipline around voice preservation, sleep, and social activity that film schedules do not demand.
• •Social media abstinence as a lifestyle choice: Stone owns no computer and uses only an iPhone 15 for email and calendar management. She frames the absence of social media as preserving the ability to tolerate boredom — a skill she actively teaches her child — arguing that unoccupied moments are opportunities for self-recalibration rather than problems requiring digital solutions.
• •Producer involvement as creative protection: Stone joined Poor Things as a producer after director Yorgos Lanthimos pitched the adaptation immediately following The Favourite wrap in 2017. Securing a producer credit gave her direct influence over assembling the creative team over several years, rather than arriving as talent after key decisions were already locked.