Empowered

The Academy Award-winning actress serves up one of her best shots in Battle of the Sexes.

- Claire Starkey

Emma Stone had a brilliant 2017. She kicked off with La La Land, then followed that up by scooping up a little gold statue to decorate her house with at the Oscars (for Best Actress, no less). How do you top that?

Well, if you’re Emma, you throw yourself into work. She already has two movies set for release in 2018 – a period drama about Queen Anne called The Favourite and Cruella, where she plays the titular Cruella de Vil of 101 Dalmatians. It’s the most perfectly cast role since Emma Watson’s Belle. (Obviously not for the meanness, but for the comedic brilliance our imaginary BFF will no doubt bring to the character.)

She’s also set to star in a Netflix series called Maniac alongside Superbad buddy Jonah Hill. The show is about patients in a mental hospital who live inside their own fantasies.

But first, she’s taking a trip back to the ’70s in what Amy Schumer has already deemed her “favourite movie of the year” – Battle of the Sexes.

What got you interested in the story and the role?

“I didn’t know about the [actual] Battle of the Sexes until I heard about it through [the directors] Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, because I didn’t grow up playing sports. So it was not really in my consciousness until then. But then I read the script and I wanted to learn as much as I possibly could about Billie Jean King in that era, because she was going through so much and there was a lot that the public didn’t know about her. I found the story fascinating.”

What did you think of Billie Jean King, her journey and motivation?