Meet the Contenders: Emma Stone "Birdman"
Saturday, October 18, 2014 at 12:31PM Each weekend a profile on a just-opened Oscar contender. Here's abstew on this weekend's new release, BIRDMAN which is marvelous as previously noted.
Emma Stone as Sam Thomson in Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) Best Supporting Actress
Born: Emily Jean Stone was born November 6, 1988 in Scottsdale, Arizona
The Role: Known for his sprawling (and epically depressing) Oscar-nominated films (21 Grams, Babel, Biutiful), writer/director Alejandro González Iñárritu tries his hand at a more comedic film with Birdman. Don't worry, it may have laugh-out-loud humor, but it's still as satirical, dark, and complex as we would expect from the filmmaker. The film centers on a movie star, Riggan Thomson, most famous for playing a costumed superhero (played by Best Actor contender Michael Keaton) that attempts to revive his career by mounting a play on Broadway. Stone plays his resentful daughter, who was recently released from rehab and now works as her father's personal assistant. She also forms an unlikely bond with the play's egotistical leading man (Best Supporting Actor contender Edward Norton).
Previous Brushes with Oscar and more after the jump...
Previous Brushes With Oscar: In 2011, Stone appeared in the Best Picture-nominated The Help, which brought a Best Supporting Actress win for Octavia Spencer and nominations for co-stars Viola Davis and Jessica Chastain. Although not usually the type of movie that gains awards traction, her star-making performance in 2010's Easy A snagged her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy.
What Critics Are Saying:
...and, in the juiciest part of her career to date, Emma Stone, as Keaton’s daughter, who’s just out of rehab and working for her father. One key scene she shares with Norton on the roof of the theater could prove to be a career game-changer for the actress.
-Leonard Maltin Indiewire: Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
Emma Stone is adorable as Riggan’s world-weary, wise-ass daughter who also serves as his assistant. (She and Norton have crackling chemistry in a couple of crucial scenes.)
-Christy Lemire RogerEbert.com
As Riggan moves onstage and off, from rehearsal to dressing room, he finds romance in the wings, instigates a little cloak and dagger, and powers through some heart-to-heart encounters with his rehabbed daughter, Sam (a wonderful Emma Stone in sexy-cynical ragamuffin mode).
-Manohla Dargis The New York Times
Emma Stone, with ripped tights and bleached hair, is brutally funny as Riggan's messed-up daughter, fresh out of rehab.
-Cath Clarke Time Out: London
My Take: Having just been released from rehab, Sam feels that she's gained clarity and she's not afraid to speak her mind to her father. But rehab has not softened her cynicism and she's very quick to throw blame, spitting accusatory words at him like venom. Stone sells Sam's bitterness brilliantly, making her insults and barbs as hilarious as they are biting. But what she sees as truth-telling, calling Riggan out for his vanity project as an attempt for attention and not for the art, as he claims, is really just taking her decades-long resentment out on him without actually looking at herself to see where her issues truly lie. It takes another damaged soul to call her out on her own bullshit and see that her father issues are misplaced. It's exciting to watch as Stone's initial prickliness softens in the rooftop scenes with Norton, bringing out a maturity to her acting that hasn't been explored before. We've always known how well she can handle sarcastic comedy, but who would've guessed she was capable of being so vulnerable and tender as well. Stone's performance unlocks the rich potential of an actress just beginning to come into her own.
Fun Fact: While Birdman centers on the staging of a fictional Broadway play (set almost entirely at the St. James theatre, an actual Broadway house that recently held the Bullets Over Broadway musical based on the film centering on the staging of a fictional Broadway play), Stone will be making her real-life Broadway debut as Sally Bowles in Cabaret starting November 11. She'll be replacing current Sally, three-time Oscar nominee, Michelle Williams. And it's not the first time Stone has sung on stage before. In 2004, she competed on (and won!) a VH1 reality show, casting an updated version of The Partridge Family.
Probability of a Nomination: Likely. Stone, already a popular and well-known actress, knows how to work the circuit. And with her charm and humor, she could easily be this year's Jennifer Lawerence-like awards season celebrity, quick with a quippy sound bite and dressed beautifully in designer clothes. But, more importantly, she's stepping outside her normal comedic comfort zone with her most challenging role to date. Oscar loves to nominate ingénues and with this role and this film (which has the potential to garner multiple Oscar noms), it just seems like the right time for her.
Reader Comments (14)
I've been very cool on Emma Stone so far in her career. I thought Easy A was terrible, she floundered in The Help, and worst of all, she was part of the worst Oscar nominations announcement I've ever watched!
But I'm ready and hoping for this movie to turn it around for me. Hating on a popular actress is exhausting.
She is this years Anna Kendrick but better u know.
I really liked Emma Stone in this movie, but I liked Lindsay Duncan and Amy Ryan more.
In fact, I'd put Emma fifth, as my #1 and 2 in the film are Edward Norton and Michael Keaton.
I wonder how the Cabaret thing will eat into the campaigning they will want her to do. I think she's popular enough, pretty enough, and ultimately good enough to get in without as many Los Angeles luncheons and functions, but...
Evan -- yeah, it's one of those rare films where the men are even more fun than the women. Love both Keaton and Norton in this so much.
Mike in Canada, I completely agree. I just find her exhausting to watch - she seems to radiate this nervous need to ingratiate herself with the audience (for me, the complete opposite of Jennifer Lawrence, who seems so comfortable in who she is). Maybe Birdman will change my opinion.
Riseborough. <3
From the one clip of her in the film that I saw where she's going off on her dad and telling him how irrelevant he is now, I felt she was extremely one-note. She just kinda half-yelled the whole time. But I'm hoping I feel better about her performance whenever I finally see the film and I think I will.
I could actually see her winning... but I definitely am rooting for Patricia Arquette.
Her performance in Easy A is still legendary in my book. Her combination of comedic timing and vulnerability is reminiscent of a young Julia Roberts circa Pretty Woman. A true star.
I thought she did great in the part and was able to make the character tridimensional. All the actors were, though. I felt Naomi was able to bring even more layers in a character that could be a throwaway, but becomes integral to that universe that the movie depicts. My favorite part of Emma's performance was seeing her eyes become so large I felt they were a special effect or maybe the footage from Big Eyes had leaked into Birdman's.
Would joining Stone on the red carpets inspire Garfield to make Oscar-worthy movies again? Please?
Kin - at this point maybe he doesnt' care? someone who cared might well have tried to do something between spider-mans
evan - yeah, keaton and (especially) norton were fantastic! but i think the film's weakest part was the lindsay duncan character. she was one step way from twirling a mustache and laughing maniacally.
mr.goodbar - her eyes were like disney princess huge in that last scene!
nathaniel and kin - well he did do a broadway show (and get a tony nom) while the first one was released and he's filming scorsese's SILENCE with adam driver now. he's getting there again...
I'd love to write for your site. I think an "Oscar Scene" or "Key Scene" section for each Oscar contender would be an awesome addition to sections like these.