Emma Stone opens up about how she prefers to be called by her real name. With various versatile performances, Stone has emerged as one of the best performers of her generation, winning Academy Awards for her portrayal of an aspiring actress in 2016’s La La Land and a woman with an infant’s brain in 2023’s Poor Things. Also in 2023, Stone teamed up with comedian Nathan Fielder for a genre-bending series, The Curse, and has been courting Emmy buzz for her performance as a co-host of an HGTV show.
During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter alongside Fielder, Stone opened up about how she prefers to be called by her name, Emily. It was Fielder who first mentioned that her real name is Emily, and she only goes by Emma professionally. Though Stone isn’t too strict about what people call her, she says she would like to be called Emily. Read the full exchange involving Fielder and Stone below:
Fielder: Before we continue, I’d like to say something. Her name’s Emily, but she goes by Emma professionally. So when there’s people that don’t know her, I end up saying Emma. But I’m going to just say Emily from here on.
Stone: You can say Emma. You can say anything… When I get to know them, people that I work with [call me Emily]. It’s just because my name was taken [by another actress in SAG]. Then I freaked out a couple of years ago. For some reason, I was like, “I can’t do it anymore. Just call me Emily.” Nathan calls me Em, which is easier.
Fielder: That’s a way of bridging it.
Stone: I would like to be Emily.
The Story Behind Emma Stone’s Name
Her Real Name Was Taken In SAG
The actress was born Emily Jean Stone in Arizona in 1988 and began acting as a child in theater productions. As a teenager, she moved to Los Angeles and started getting some on-screen roles, including an unsold pilot of In Search of the New Partridge Family, in which she was credited as “Emily Stone.” When it came time for her to register for the Screen Actors Guild, she realized that her real name, Emily Stone, was already taken, so she chose “Riley” instead, though she only used the name for about six months.
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Oscar winner Emma Stone has starred in a wide range of movies varying in quality, from teen comedies like Easy A to period pieces like The Favourite.
She starred in one episode of the NBC show Medium in which she was credited as “Riley Stone.” However, after doing a guest spot on Malcolm in the Middle, she realized she wasn’t responding to the name Riley, and ultimately decided she couldn’t sue it. Therefore, she chose the similarly sounding name, Emma, in honor of Emma Bunton, more famously known as Baby Spice from the Spice Girls. She also considered using Emily J. Stone, similar to how Michael J. Fox added an initial to his name.
Stone choosing the name Emma was a decision made out of necessity and not preference. However, after an illustrious career that spans multiple decades and includes two Academy Awards, the actress is widely known to the world under her stage name, Emma Stone, even though those closest to her call her “Emily.” While she would also like fans to address her as Emily, it might be difficult to shed her stage name from the past 20 years.
Source: THR
