Directors Give Emma Stone’s Ideas To Male Co-Stars

Emma Stone, star of Superbad, Zombieland, Easy A, and the Amazing Spider-Man films is one the bright lights in Hollywood. She’s #26 on IMDb’s STARmeter (meaning she’s well within the A-list circle of hot actors). But even now, she still finds that directors still have a hard time being taken seriously with her ideas, and even moreso when she comes up with a clever improvised line.

In a far-ranging recent Rolling Stone interview, Stone touched on her experiences over the course of her career, including those who have been supportive mentors. Unfortunately her recitation also includes too many cases where the gender-segregation of Hollywood has prevented her from being showcased in the same way as her male co-stars. Leading actors in most films are known to work with directors and writers on fine tuning scenes and lines, but when she would bring up suggestions she said:

There are times in the past, making a movie, when I’ve been told that I’m hindering the process by bringing up an opinion or an idea.

With her background in theater, Stone has often spoken about her ability to improv both on stage and in scenes when the muse would strike. She found however, when she would come up with something solid – directors would rather it from from the male lead rather than from her:

I hesitate to make it about being a woman, but there have been times when I’ve improvised, they’ve laughed at my joke and then given it to my male co-star. Given my joke away.

Other times, she tries to give feedback, only to have it dismissed out of hand:

It’s been me saying, ‘I really don’t think this line is gonna work,’ and being told, ‘Just say it, just say it, if it doesn’t work we’ll cut it out’ – and they didn’t cut it out, and it really didn’t work!’

She’s not as experienced as some other stars, but with more than 45 credited roles over more than a decade perhaps it’s about time to start giving her the time of day.