Since the release of her first star vehicle Easy A in 2010, Emma Stone has risen in the ranks of Hollywood stardom, appearing in a diverse range of movies including superhero thrillers like The Amazing Spider-Man, Oscar winners like Birdman and acclaimed dramas like The Help. Her effortless charm and knack for cultivating a down-to-earth offscreen persona have made her one of the more likable and appealing movie stars in an era with a dwindling number of those.
Stone has enough clout in Hollywood to choose her projects carefully, and she made a choice that disappointed a lot of fans when she seemingly opted out of the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot from director Paul Feig. The film’s actual cast is full of movie and TV stars like Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Chris Hemsworth, but Stone’s name is nowhere to be found (despite a 2013 rumor that she would appear opposite Jonah Hill and a 2014 report that Sony was courting her along with Jennifer Lawrence and Melissa McCarthy).
Now Stone has spoken about her decision to walk away from the Ghostbusters reboot in an interview with the The Wall Street Journal. Her comments suggest she passed not because she was unsatisfied with the quality of the project, but because she had other things she wanted to pursue.
“The script was really funny... It just didn’t feel like the right time for me. A franchise is a big commitment—it’s a whole thing. I think maybe I need a minute before I dive back into that water.”
Given that these comments are brief and embedded deep within the article, it’s possible Stone is being diplomatic, and that her actual reason for passing on the project was that she didn’t think it was funny enough. But after spending two films playing the fairly passive love interest for the superpowered star of a massive studio franchise (see: the Amazing Spider-Man movies), it’s understandable that Stone might be inclined to work on projects that don't require a long-term time commitment from the get-go.
Stone’s decision is probably for the best. She's now pursuing a wider range of projects that will let her explore different parts of her formidable range as an actor, as evidenced by her recent work with acclaimed filmmakers like Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman); she'll next appear in Woody Allen's Irrational Man, followed by Damien Chazelle’s La La Land (the director’s much-anticipated follow-up to the Oscar-winning Whiplash). If she had to sacrifice a franchise role to take more challenging and potentially fruitful parts, that’s a gamble worth taking.
On the other hand, it would have been fun to see Emma Stone in a film directed by Feig, who’s demonstrated in Bridesmaids, Spy and The Heat that he has a way with bringing the best out of female movie stars. Stone got an endorsement from Bill Murray last October, and the idea of her alongside such people as Melissa McCarthy is admittedly a tempting one. We’ll never know how Emma Stone’s ghostbusting abilities would've stacked up to those of Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, but at least we'll get more opportunities to see what Emma Stone (already an Oscar nominee) is capable of.
Ghostbusters opens in U.S. theaters on July 22nd, 2016.
Source: The Wall Street Journal