No matter where the young actress’ career goes, it’s close to certain that Emma Stone will never be able to erase her label as the girl who received a drunken head butt from Jonah Hill in Superbad.
Despite the slapstick humor stigma that precedes Stone, it is clear that she doesn’t have to rely on head butts or sexual gags to solidify her place in Hollywood.
At only 19, Stone has quietly become a frontrunner in the barrage of funny youngsters who have infiltrated Hollywood. With two new movies this year-The House Bunny (Columbia Pictures, April 13) and The Rocker (21 Laps Entertainment, Aug. 1)-the Arizona native has big things ahead of her.
In The House Bunny, staring alongside Scary Movie legend Anna Faris, Stone plays Natalie, president of the quickly disintegrating sorority Zeta Alpha Zeta, who is taken under the wing of an ex-Playboy Bunny (Faris). The role marks a turning point in Stone’s career, a move into the forefront of current comedic cinema.
“Natalie is a little bit of a . I wouldn’t say ‘nerd,’ but a smart girl that focuses on her studies and nothing else,” Stone said. “When Anna’s character enters the picture, Natalie realizes there’s more to life than just work.”
Having never attended college, Stone had to get into the mind of her character by talking with and taking the advice of her mother, who was the vice president of Delta Gamma Sorority at the University of Miami of Ohio, Stone said.
Despite her lack of knowledge about the character, Stone liked the challenge of portraying a character who was different from herself.
“I think it’s important to take untraditional female roles, and I will continue to search for them,” Stone said.
Despite her young age, Stone is no stranger to acting. Making her acting debut at only 11 years old in a performance of “The Wind in the Willows,” Stone has been in television for years, including stints on FOX’s “Malcolm in the Middle” and the short-lived drama “Drive.”
Success in her previous ventures has made Stone confident that The House Bunny will be enjoyable not only for the college crowd, but for other demographics as well.
“It’s your traditional coming-of-age, learning-about-yourself story, which I think is something everybody has gone through or is going to go through,” Stone said. “It’s a pretty relatable and touchstone story. It’s funny and has a good heart.”
Stone said her favorite aspect of The House Bunny is that the film is never judgmental in its portrayal of female characters, a rare thing these days.
“We all have our problems and are sometimes social outcasts,” Stone said. “You learn [from the film] not to judge the other side of the coin, and it’s really cool to see both characters learn about themselves.”
For The Rocker, Stone stars as Amelia, alongside Rainn Wilson (TV’s “The Office”). Stone said comedy is her first love and is something with which she wants to continue to stay involved.
“My mom showed me [‘Saturday Night Live’] when I was about 7, and my dad introduced me to comedies like Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” Stone said. “I pretty much knew movies like that by heart when I was 8. I think laughing is one of the greatest gifts there is.”
