Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone have starred together in three films to date.
Two-time Oscar winner Emma Stone and actor Ryan Gosling have starred together in three films to date and have been lauded for their on-screen chemistry. While they began with the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love, the pairing worked wonders in the musical romance La La Land, which won Stone her first Oscar for Best Actress.
The two also had many memorable scenes in the Steve Carrell starrer Crazy, Stupid, Love, where they played a budding couple. According to co-director Glenn Ficarra, the makers went with Emma Stone because she was the only one who was not intimidated by Gosling’s presence during the audition.
Emma Stone Was Chosen For Crazy, Stupid, Love Because Of One Reason
Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in La La Land
Actress Emma Stone has become one of the most prolific actresses working in the industry today. She won the Best Actress Oscar this year for her performance in Poor Things and she also won the Golden Globe for Motion Picture – Musical Or Comedy. This was the second Oscar win for the Easy A star, with her first being for the musical romance La La Land.
While her chemistry with co-star Ryan Gosling in La La Land has been often spoken about in cinematic discourses, she has had a wonderful working relationship with the actor before. The duo has shared screen space in two other films, including the gangster drama Gangster Squad and the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love.
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Emma Stone had just come off of the success of Easy A when she was cast as Hannah Weaver in Crazy, Stupid, Love. According to co-director Glenn Ficarra, Stone nailed her auditions with one simple quality of her. He mentioned to EW that they auditioned multiple actresses who read with Ryan Gosling but she was the only one who was fearless,
“We had narrowed down to a few incredibly talented candidates for Emma’s part. They all read with Ryan, [who] was off-screen, and I think in most cases they were a little taken by Ryan’s presence, so nervous at the sight of Ryan. When Emma came in, she sat down, she was ready to go; Ryan walked in, immediately flubbed his first line, and she just laid into him, like, ‘Oh, you’re killing this buddy.’”
A still from Crazy, Stupid, Love
Ryan Gosling had become a heartthrob at the time because of his appearance in the romance The Notebook, which was his breakthrough role. Ficarre mentioned that he saw Stone being nonchalant and unfazed by his presence, leading her to get the part of the nerdy and enthusiastic Hannah Weaver. Ficarra continued,
AD“She was the only one not to be intimidated by him, and in that moment John [Requa] and I knew, All right this is it, she’s right for the part.’ She continued that, and they just got along really well. They have a very similar sense of humor… they riff off each other really well.”
The film ended up being the beginning of a new power couple on-screen as they have long been considered to be the Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy of this generation.
Ryan Gosling And Emma Stone Improvised A Pivotal Scene In The FilmA still from Crazy, Stupid, Love
Glen Ficarra mentioned that one of the things that he and his co-director John Requa noticed while auditioning Emma Stone for Crazy, Stupid, Love was that she and Ryan Gosling had a very similar sense of humor and played off of each other while filming. This quality turned out to be a boon for the filmmakers when they decided to improvise their romantic talk scene in the movie.
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Ficarra said in an interview with EW,
“That was all improv. They did a couple of scripted lines interspersed. The crew, I think, thought John and I were crazy because we said we were going to throw the script away. We were going to stick them in a bed together and keep shooting. We shot for a really long time. We let them go, we let them talk about whatever they wanted, we poured a couple of drinks, and they just riffed. They really amuse each other in real life.”
Ficarra mentioned that Ryan Gosling was a bit conscious at one point and asked whether the process was working but the filmmakers were sure about the duo’s chemistry so much that they kept it going. It ended up being one of the most memorable scenes in the movie.
“At one point, I think it was Ryan came up to me, he was like, ‘Is this okay, what we’re doing? I’m not sure.” I was like, ‘No, no, it’s going to be great. Don’t worry.’”
Gosling also reportedly improvised the Dirty Dancing sequence in the film, and the hilarious sequence was unscripted.
