Emma Stone has said that her role model as an actress is Diane Keaton, which makes total sense: Now that you’re thinking about it, it’s hard not to connect them, right? Like Keaton, Stone is instantly likable, dazzlingly funny — you can even make an argument that she’s a comedian first and a movie star second — and relatable while never losing that star wattage.
In the span of a decade, she has gone from a first-time movie actress (in Superbad) to one of the most popular performers in the world, not to mention an Oscar winner. And as with Keaton toward the start of her career, it’s not difficult to imagine Stone getting even better from here, expanding her scope as an actor without sacrificing any of her inherent affability. She’s one of us while being the best of us — which is an excellent definition of a movie star.
In this week’s Battle of the Sexes, her first film since winning her Oscar, Stone plays Billie Jean King — maybe the biggest stretch yet in a career that’s just starting to suggest how much range she really has. We’ve seen her play straight comedy parts, wacky supporting roles and femme fatales. But it is obvious that ten years in, she is just getting started. It’s going to be extremely fun updating this list in the coming years. Look where Keaton went after her first decade in film. Who’s to say Stone can’t go just as far … or even farther?
Here are Stone’s 19 movie roles, ranked from worst to best.
*Of note: We omitted bit parts — even though we love her in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping — and voice roles (we always forget about The Croods). Even without them, this is quite a bit to pack into ten years.
SEE ALSO: 20 modern classic movies everyone needs to watch in their lifetime
19. "The Rocker" (2008)
It’s insane that there was a time in the last decade of human existence when Bradley Cooper, Josh Gad, Christine Applegate, Jane Lynch, Jason Sudeikis, Will Arnett, Fred Armisen, Aziz Ansari, Demetri Martin, Keir Gilchrist, and Emma Stone all played supporting characters in a movie that starred Rainn Wilson — but, hey, 2008 was quite a year. Stone gets a thankless, off-brand role as a moping member of a teenage rock band that drafts a former drummer from a Metallica-esque group (Wilson) to fill in so they can play their school prom. This thing is junky — and it’s not Wilson’s fault he has to do so much heavy lifting, in his underwear no less. Stone escapes with her dignity intact, barely, from the wreckage.
18. "Magic in the Moonlight" (2014)
Stone spent two years trying out the role of Woody Allen’s modern muse, not unlike Scarlett Johansson the decade before, but her stint didn’t come with any Match Point–style breakthrough: The two movies she made with Allen were among the director’s most formulaic work. She struggles particularly here as a “mystic” who performs illusions and inspires a cynical fellow magician (Colin Firth), briefly, to suspend his disbelief. Certain actors benefit from Allen’s hands-off approach, but Stone might not be one of them. She looks lost and flailing most of the time, forced to carry way too much of the narrative and the film’s attempts at charm. Stone isn’t necessarily to blame — Magic in the Moonlight is a minor trifle, even for late-career Allen — but this just isn’t a great fit.
17. "Gangster Squad" (2013)
If you don’t remember Gangster Squad, it’s the other nostalgic, old-school-Hollywood-themed movie in which Stone plays an aspiring actress who moves to Los Angeles to become famous and falls in love with Ryan Gosling. Of her three collaborations with Gosling, this one is easily the worst. A limp attempt at recapturing the snarl and sex appeal of a bygone era’s gangster pictures, the film mostly feels like an excuse for big names to play dress up in fedoras. Stone isn’t terrible as Grace, the girlfriend of an infamous crime boss (Sean Penn) who starts to have feelings for the cop (Gosling) who’s helping to bring him down. But despite the timeless nature of her appeal in most roles — you get the sense that she could have been a star in any era — she doesn’t quite convince as a noir-ish love interest.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider