ROMANCING THE STONE

We go down the rabbit hole with Oscar winner Emma Stone as her new conspiracy-theory flick, Eddington, hits theatres

- KATIE ELLIS

E mma Stone is all about taking "big swings" these days. Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the two-time Oscar winner, 36, admitted that when it comes to roles, "I just want to choose the most high-wire act possible... Even if it's a swing and a miss, that's OK. I just like a big swing while I have the luck to choose." What Emma calls luck, the rest of us call talent. And that's very much in evidence throughout her latest film, Eddington, which received a five-minute standing ovation at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. In the movie - set at the start of the pandemic - Emma plays Louisa Cross, the wife of a small-town New Mexico sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) who is pulled into a world of conspiracy theories.

Thankfully, her real life is far less fraught.

The famously private actress is married to writer and director Dave McCary, with whom she shares a four-year-old daughter, Louise Jean. "She turned our lives technicolour," proud mom Emma has said.

Here, the La La Land star and Louis Vuitton ambassador opens up about timeline cleanses, her on-set traditions and the one thing she's not so good at.

This film takes place in a small fictional town during the pandemic. What aspects were you able to identify with from your own time in lockdown?

The anxiety. The need to know what was happening and for how long it was going to be like that. I think the movie really captures that intense anxiety and confusion we all felt at that time.

This story follows the unrest caused by social media in that moment. What kind of research did you do?